With oversight of Immigrations and Customs and Enforcement and Customs and Border Security, Kelly would play a key role in fulfilling Trump’s campaign promise to crack down on undocumented immigrants.
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NEW YORK- Retired Marine Corp generals continue to be front and center as President-Elect Donald J. Trump makes pick for top government jobs.
Kelly, who joined the Marine Corps in 1970, retired this year.
Kobach has advised Trump on immigration and was a member of his transition team.
In the same testimony, Kelly warned against complacency toward the spread of human smugglers and drug traffickers in South and Central America. “Each of these individuals may have great merit in their own right, but what we’ve learned over the past 15 years is that when we view problems in the world through a military lens, we make big mistakes”. Retired Gen. James Mattis was Trump’s pick for Defense secretary and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn was his national security adviser pick. After graduating from the University of MA in 1976, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant through Officer Candidate’s School. It sends a signal to Washington that this administration plans to be tougher on immigration in the future and enforce the laws on the books. The Washington Post reported last month that he was the leading candidate for the job.
Gen. Kelly will be faced with the immediate challenge of restoring public confidence in the department’s mission and the confidence of demoralized agencies within DHS charged with protecting the security of the American people.
“I have been asked and would consider it an honor”, he said.
While serving in uniform, Kelly openly questioned Obama’s decision to open all military combat roles to women. Many undocumented migrants in the United States have fled gang-related violence in Central America’s Northern Triangle countries (El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras).
“Given the opportunity to do another 9/11, our vicious enemy would do it today, tomorrow and everyday thereafter”, Kelly said in a 2013 Memorial Day address in Texas. “They got brought here at a very young age; they’ve worked here, they’ve gone to school here”. Kelly is a retired four-star general and the former commander of U.S. Southern Command. The outspoken general clashed with the Obama administration’s push to close the facility, and told the Military Times in an interview that “there are no innocent men down there”.
Kelly, a longtime infantryman or “grunt”, expressed worries about opening the infantry to women.
“I think he’s going to have opportunities”, Priebus told WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) earlier this week.
Kelly’s dedication to the military has not come without sacrifices, however. “It is not in our power to end it but simply to fight it until our murderous enemy who hates us with visceral disgust for everything we stand for either gives up or we kill them”. “They’re pretty nondiplomatic with me”, he said of global leaders.
He never mentioned his son by name.
Trump has pledged to combat this issue by building a wall on the US-Mexico border and deporting large numbers of “criminals” residing in the country without proper documentation. And U.S. Customs and Border Protection, also part of DHS, is likely to come under increased pressure in the Trump administration to better secure the Southwest border.
Trump and his homeland security secretary appear to be in sync on cross-border threats. He was a proponent of keeping open the USA military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Kelly said terrorist organizations could exploit the porous southern border to infiltrate the United States. He does support the use of medical marijuana, however: “I’m not a doctor”, he told the Military Times, “but I’m told it has a medical use. He is one of the most effective generals that we’ve had in many, many decades”. You suck it up. The battle-hardened veteran, who served three tours in Iraq, is the highest-ranking officer to lose a child in combat in Iraq or Afghanistan.
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Before that, he commanded American forces numerous times in Iraq, and spent a year as the top Marine in that country.
