Trump expected to tap acting ICE Director Morgan for border commissioner
President Donald Trump is poised to tap Mark Morgan, his current acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, to take over border security operations, according to a senior administration official and four other people familiar with the move.
The prospective decision comes after John Sanders, the previous acting Customs and Border Protection commissioner, resigned earlier Tuesday amid criticism of his agency’s handling of migrant children and families in federal custody.
Matthew Albence, deputy ICE director, will become acting director, according to the people briefed on the move.
Sanders’ exit, which he confirmed Tuesday in an email to CBP employees, marks the latest high-profile departure at President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security. In April, Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and several other top officials were pushed out as the White House grappled with a rising number of migrants arriving at the southwest border.
“As some of you are aware, yesterday I offered my resignation to Secretary McAleenan, effective Friday, July 5,” Sanders wrote in his staff-wide email.
“In that letter, I quoted a wise man who said to me, ‘each man will judge their success by their own metrics,’” he continued. “Although I will leave it to you to determine whether I was successful, I can unequivocally say that helping support the amazing men and women of CBP has been the most fulfilling and satisfying opportunity of my career.”
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Tuesday afternoon that he did not personally know Sanders and did not ask him to step down, though the president claimed he was aware "there was going to be a change" at CBP.
"I didn't speak to him. I don't think I've ever spoken to him, actually," Trump said. "No, we have some very good people running it. And, you know, I don't know anything about it. I hear he's a very good man. I hear he’s a good person. I don't know him."
Earlier this week, CBP moved 300 children from a border processing center near El Paso after media reports exposed squalid conditions, including a lack of access to food, water and showers. It is unclear if Sanders' departure is related to the growing controversy.
The number of border arrests — a measure used to determine illegal crossings — has risen in recent months. Border Patrol arrested nearly 133,000 migrants in May, a total on par with higher monthly levels in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s.
In June, officials from the U.S. and Mexico — in negotiations led by the State Department — reached an agreement to reduce flows of migrants heading northward. Mexico vowed to deploy 6,000 members of its newly formed National Guard to halt the flow of migrants and the U.S. announced an expansion of its “remain in Mexico” program, which forces non-Mexican asylum seekers to wait in that country pending the resolution of their U.S. asylum cases.
Preliminary border arrest figures obtained by POLITICO suggest June border arrest totals could drop compared with the previous month.
Trump tweeted less than two months ago that he would nominate Morgan to become ICE director, a surprising decision at the time.
Morgan was Border Patrol chief toward the end of the Obama administration, but was pushed out just days after Trump took office in January 2017. He later became a vocal booster for hard-line enforcement policies as a guest on Fox News.
The House is scheduled to vote later Tuesday on a $4.5 billion emergency measure to fund the administration’s response to the border crisis, a contentious piece of legislation that has divided Democrats in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's caucus who are vehemently opposed to Trump's immigration agenda.
Top administration officials in recent days have lamented the conditions of detained child migrants and argued for speedy passage of the spending bill.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on Monday described the facilities operated by Customs and Border Protection as "overwhelmed" on Fox News.
Sanders was appointed CBP chief after Trump named the agency’s former head, Kevin McAleenan, to become his next Homeland Security secretary following Nielsen’s ouster.
Nancy Cook contributed to this report.
