DHS Acting Secretary Chad Wolf

U.S. SENATE News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich are calling on U.S. Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Chad Wolf and Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli to step down.

Sen. Udall and Sen. Heinrich called on Wolf and Cuccinelli to step down Friday after the GAO, an independent watchdog agency that reports to Congress, finds their appointments to be legally invalid.

The GAO finds Wolf and Cuccinelli are serving in an “invalid order of succession” under the Vacancies Reform Act.

DHS Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli

“Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli cannot legally serve in their roles at DHS, and they are not above the law. Both must step down immediately,” Udall said. “Every single official action they have undertaken since assuming their positions – including undermining DACA, closing the door to asylum seekers, and rushing ahead with the president’s destructive and ineffective border wall – is now legally dubious and each action must be fully reviewed and investigated. The Trump administration once again shows that they believe the rules don’t apply to them when they can’t get their way in Congress. This lawlessness, all to install two anti-immigrant zealots, cannot stand.”

“President Trump’s anti-immigrant crusade is inhumane and immoral, and it’s been carried out by Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli,” Heinrich said. “Their policies have separated families. They have targeted peaceful demonstrators. And they are against our hard-won American values. Now we know that they are also illegal. Wolf and Cuccinelli need to resign now – and should not even be allowed back in the building.”