DHS Head Purges Homeland Security Advisory Council, Ousting All Trump-Era
Appointees
By Tom Ozimek <https://www.theepochtimes.com/author-tom-ozimek>
March 27, 2021
Department of Homeland Security (DHS <https://www.theepochtimes.com/t-dhs>)
chief Alejandro Mayorkas has fired nearly all members of a homeland
security advisory panel, retaining only its senior leadership, according to
a letter obtained by media outlets and confirmed by Republicans on a House
committee.
In the March 26 letter (pdf
<https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000178-6ed9-dafe-ab7c-ffdd978a0000>) to
members of the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC), Mayorkas
announced that in “the service of an orderly transition to a new model for
the HSAC,” he would be ending the current term of all HSAC members,
effective Friday.
Mayorkas wrote that, in weighing the “new model” for the HSAC, he is
considering how it can “bring the greatest value to the Department and how
the expertise, judgment, and counsel of its members can be harnessed most
effectively to advance the Department’s mission.”
The dismissed members include both Democrats and Republicans, as well as
Trump-era officials like former DHS Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli and
former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Thomas Homan. In
May of 2020, then acting DHS head Chad Wolf appointed seven new members to
the council.
[image: chad wolf] Then Acting Secretary for Homeland Security Chad Wolf
speaks about an initiative to prevent online child sexual exploitation, at
the Justice Department in Washington on March 5, 2020. (Samira Bouaou/The
Epoch Times)
Spared from the purge are three individuals: William Bratton, a former New
York police commissioner who heads the council as its Chair; Karen Tandy, a
retired administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, who serves as
its Vice Chair; and William Webster, former director of the FBI and the
CIA, who will stay on as Chair Emeritus.
Mayorkas said that the council, which is made up of experts and former
intelligence and security officials who advise the DHS head on various
issues, will be formed again “in the next few weeks, once the new model has
been developed.”
The Republican members of the House Homeland Security Committee
wrote critically
<https://twitter.com/HomelandGOP/status/1375526159727931401?s=20> about
Mayorkas’ decision, saying that the “action sends the message that this
Administration has no intention of upholding a bipartisan, unifying
approach to securing our homeland.”
“The advisory council is not intended to be an echo chamber for what the
current DHS Secretary wants to hear,” they wrote.
The GOP’s ranking member on the committee, Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.), said
in a statement that, “it’s an absolute shame that Secretary Mayorkas has
removed these well-respected homeland security leaders who have dedicated
their careers to strengthening our homeland security posture.”
“I would urge the Secretary to take a thoughtful approach as he
reconstitutes the HSAC and be mindful of the message he intends to send,”
Katko added.
[image: Mayorkas] Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas speaks
during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., on March 1,
2021. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
While Mayorkas did not provide any details about his vision for recomposing
the HSAC, Bratton told CNN that Mayorkas wants a council that reflects the
current priorities of the department under the Biden administration, in
areas that include immigration and domestic terrorism.
After taking office, President Joe Biden moved quickly to reverse most of
the immigration policies of former President Donald Trump, proposed a
pathway to citizenship for millions of people in the United States
unlawfully, and promised reforms that would “create a humane asylum system.”
Republicans have blamed Biden’s policies and messaging for the recent surge
in people seeking to enter the United States illegally, while the president
has sought to portray it as a seasonal spike.
“It happens every year,” Biden said Thursday
<https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/03/25/remarks-by-president-biden-in-press-conference/>
in reference to the surge in illegal border crossings. “Does anybody
suggest that there was a 31 percent increase under Trump because he was a
nice guy and he was doing good things at the border? That’s not the reason
they’re coming,” he added, referring to a spike in illegal border crossings
in May 2019, when Trump was in office.
Mayorkas’ purge is similar to a move
<https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_app/pentagon-ousts-trump-appointees-in-sweeping-purge-of-advisory-boards_3683109.html>
by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who on Feb. 1 called for the ouster of
hundreds of members of the Pentagon’s advisory boards. Under that decision,
all members of 31 Pentagon advisory boards were fired, while a total of 40
advisory boards would be subjected to a so-called “zero-based review,” a
process that is to examine the case for the continued existence of the
boards, and could lead to their future dissolution and dismissal of members.
