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You're Hired: Tracking the Trump Administration Transition - August 2, 2017
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This is the August 2, 2017, edition of an email sent from November 2016 to September 2017 that covered Donald Trump's presidential transition, cabinet appointees, and the different policy positions of those individuals who may have had an effect on the new administration. Previous editions of "You're Hired" can be found here.
On Friday, President Donald Trump announced that Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly would replace Reince Priebus as the White House chief of staff. Kelly is the first general to serve as chief of staff since Alexander Haig under the Nixon administration. On Monday, the same day he was sworn in, Kelly made his first high-profile move: dismissing Anthony Scaramucci from his post as communications director.
Today, we look at Kelly’s military career, six-month tenure as secretary of homeland security, and what his new role as chief of staff will entail.
Kelly by the numbers
- Date of birth: May 11, 1950
- Years of military service: 45
- Tours of duty in Iraq: 3
- Senate confirmation vote for homeland security secretary: 88-11
- Tenure as homeland security secretary: 192 days
Meet John Kelly
Kelly is a retired four-star Marine general and former commander of U.S. Southern Command. When Kelly retired in 2016, he was the longest-serving general in U.S. military history.
Early military service
He joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1970 and was discharged two years later as a sergeant. After graduating from college in 1976, he served in the 2nd Marine Division. By 1980, Kelly was made captain and attended the U.S. Army's Infantry Officer Advanced Course at Fort Benning in Georgia. When he graduated, he worked in Washington, D.C., for three years before returning to the 2nd Marine Division and taking command of the rifle and weapons company. Three years later, he was promoted to major and relocated to Basic School, Quantico, Virginia.
Kelly was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1992 and served as a commanding officer of the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton in California. He returned to Washington, D.C., in 1994 to attend the National War College, and was later promoted to colonel and appointed commandant's liaison officer to the U.S. House of Representatives.
In 1999, Kelly was sent to Belgium to serve as special assistant to the supreme allied commander in Europe.
Promotion to general
After a short stint at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, Kelly became a brigadier general and was deployed to Iraq. He returned to the U.S. in 2004 to serve as legislative assistant to the commandant in Washington, D.C., until 2007. He was then promoted to major general and transferred to Camp Pendleton, before being deployed to Iraq in 2008.
Promoted to lieutenant general, Kelly took over the Marine Forces Reserve and Marine Forces North in 2009. In 2011, he served as senior military assistant to the secretary of defense until 2012. In 2012, he joined the Department of Defense's United States Southern Command.
Retirement
He retired from Southern Command in 2016 and took an advisory role with the Homeland Security Advisory Council.
What did Kelly do as the head of the Department of Homeland Security?
Kelly was confirmed as the secretary of homeland security on January 20, 2017, and served in that role for six months.
- Kelly wrote a series of memos in February that expanded the scope of detention and deportation for undocumented immigrants, including a call to hire 5,000 additional Border Patrol agents, an analysis of aid to Mexico, the allocation of available funding to the construction of a border wall, and the prioritization of criminal prosecutions for immigration offenses committed at the border.
- A Department of Homeland Security document dated April 25 and obtained by The Washington Post on two weeks earlier assessed the department’s progress on border security. It reported that the department had “found 33,000 more detention beds to house undocumented immigrants, opened discussions with dozens of local police forces that could be empowered with enforcement authority and identified where construction of Trump’s border wall could begin.”
- On May 18, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a component of the Department of Homeland Security, released statistics on the number of immigration-related arrests that took place within the 100 days following President Trump's January 25 executive order. Between January 22 and April 29, ICE arrested 41,318 individuals on civil immigration charges, a 37.6 percent increase over the same time period in 2016. The January 25 executive order expanded ICE's enforcement priorities to include individuals eligible for removal who have committed any criminal offense or abused public benefits programs. Under the Obama administration, ICE had been directed to prioritize the removal of individuals who had committed serious crimes. The May 18 report stated that 75 percent, or 30,473, of the individuals arrested had been convicted of crimes. Beyond noting that 2,700 of these convictions were for violent crimes, the report did not provide specific details on the nature of the criminal convictions.
- On June 15, Kelly rescinded a policy enacted during the Obama administration that suspended the removal of individuals residing in the country without legal permission who were the parents of U.S. citizens. The policy was known as Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA). The policy was placed on hold by federal courts as part of a lawsuit by the state of Texas and was never implemented. June 15 was the deadline for both parties to decide how to move forward in the case; since the policy was rescinded, the case became moot. A similar policy for individuals residing in the country without legal permission who were brought to the United States as children was left intact. This policy was called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
- On July 11, the Department of Homeland Security issued a rule that delayed implementation of an Obama administration rule related to international entrepreneurs. The rule would have allowed, under certain conditions, entrepreneurs from foreign countries to enter the United States for 30 months to establish a start-up business. To be eligible, entrepreneurs had to either raise at least $250,000 from American investors or receive at least $100,000 in grants from American federal, state, and local government entities. Such entries would have occurred under DHS's parole authority, through which individuals who do not meet visa requirements may be allowed entry at the discretion of the secretary of homeland security. The rule was originally slated to go into effect on July 17, 2017, but the DHS delayed implementation until March 14, 2018.
What will Kelly do in his new role as White House chief of staff?
The White House chief of staff manages the Executive Office of the President, which was established in 1939 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It is both a managerial and advisory position, although specific duties vary by administration. The chief of staff typically has the following responsibilities:
- Control access to the president and manage his calendar;
- Monitor the flow of information to the president on policy issues;
- Oversee White House staff and establish reporting systems; and
- Communicate the president’s agenda to Congress, government agencies, non-governmental political groups, donors, and supporters, as needed.
How did members of Congress react to Kelly’s appointment?
- House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said, “I congratulate Secretary Kelly on his appointment, and look forward to working with him to advance our agenda.”
- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said, “Secretary Kelly is one of the strongest and most natural leaders I've ever known. … I'm a firm believer that past performance is the best indicator of future behavior. With this in mind, the President is in good hands with Secretary Kelly.”
- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in an interview, “I look forward to working with General Kelly. I’ve worked with him as Secretary Kelly at the Department of Homeland Security. So I will be speaking with him today. We look forward to working together.”
- Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) tweeted, “By putting Gen John Kelly in charge, Pres Trump is militarizing the White House & putting our executive branch in the hands of an extremist.”
See also
- You're Hired: Tracking the Trump Administration Transition
- Donald Trump presidential transition team
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