Washington, D.C. — Chad Wolf appears today before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in connection with his recent nomination as U.S. secretary of Homeland Security 10 months after he was illegally appointed as the acting secretary. In advance of the hearing, Tom Jawetz, vice president for Immigration Policy at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement:
Having watched Chad Wolf serve illegally for the past 10 months as acting secretary of Homeland Security, Americans don’t need to wait for the conclusion of today’s hearing to know he is unfit and undeserving of the job. Just last week, he showed flagrant disregard for the separation of powers by ignoring a congressional subpoena to appear before the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee. In August, Wolf was responsible for sending unidentified, camouflaged U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel into Portland, Oregon, where they used excessive force and unlawfully arrested peaceful protestors, including U.S. citizens. In July, Wolf issued a memorandum significantly rolling back the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in open defiance of key portions of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Wolf has overseen a detention system where the virus has spread rapidly—often as a result of his agency’s own recklessness—and has unnecessarily taken the lives of detainees and facility personnel alike. Even before assuming his current role, Wolf was a central figure in the illegal and unconscionable separation of thousands of children from their parents at the border.
In much the same way that U.S. Attorney General William Barr has used his perch atop the U.S. Department of Justice to undermine the rule of law itself, Chad Wolf has shown that he is all too willing to use the expansive power of DHS in dangerous new ways, showing little respect for the authority of Congress or the courts to check his actions. This one isn’t close. Chad Wolf cannot be confirmed.
Related resources:
“5 Immediate Steps To Rein in DHS in the Wake of Portland” by Tom Jawetz, Philip E. Wolgin, and Claudia Flores
“DHS Must Suspend Certain Immigration Enforcement Practices During the Coronavirus Outbreak” by Claudia Flores, Sofia Carratala, and Tom Jawetz
“As a Key Enforcer of the Trump Administration’s Hardline Anti-Immigrant Policies, Customs and Border Protection Faces a Morale Crisis” by the CAP Immigration team
For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Claudia Montecinos at [email protected].