REPORT: Acting Trump DHS Secretary to Resign Over WH Chief of Staff’s ‘Massive Pressure’ to Expel 50,000 Refugees

‘They Put Massive Pressure on Her’ to Expel Honduran Refugees

Acting Dept. of Homeland Security Elaine Duke reportedly will resign over a high-pressure call Monday from White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. The Washington Post reports Kelly called to insist Duke expel 57,000 protected Honduran hurricane refugees back to their home country. Duke refused, instead granting them a six-month extension.

“Duke refused to reverse her decision and was angered by what she felt was a politically driven intrusion by Kelly and Tom Bossert, the White House homeland security adviser, who also called her about the matter,” The Washington Post reports.

The Honduran refugees were granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) after Hurricane Mitch devastated Central America in 1998. 

“By extending the residency permits of the Hondurans, Kelly told her that the TPS decision ‘keeps getting kicked down the road’ and that the additional delay ‘prevents our wider strategic goal’ on immigration,” The Post reports, citing a White House official.

Duke held her ground, the official said. “She was angry. To get a call like that from Asia, after she’d already made the decision, was a slap in the face.”

“They put massive pressure on her,” said another former administration official with knowledge of the call. 

Secretary Duke “has informed Kelly she plans to resign, said the officials.” DHS Spokesperson Jonathan Hoffman “said there is ‘zero factual basis’ to the claim that Duke has said she’ll step down.”

Honduras has not fully recovered from Hurricane Mitch, and until 2015 had been designated the “murder capital of the world.” Some reports continue to list it as having the highest per capita murder rate.

Duke has spent three decades working in the federal government, and was nominated as Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security by President Trump. She became Acting Secretary when Gen. Kelly became Trump’s Chief of Staff.

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