In related news, NBC News reported Monday Trump has been pushing to revive his family separation policy at the southern U.S. border for months and that Nielsen’s resistance to the move further drove a wedge between the two. Unnamed officials who spoke to NBC said Nielsen told Trump the Department of Homeland Security could not act against federal court orders barring the policy, and that Trump would be defying his own executive order last year that put an end to it.
Kevin McAleenan, head of Customs and Border Patrol and incoming acting DHS secretary, reportedly was open to reinstating a form of family separation in which families would have to choose between being separated or being taken into long-term detention with their children.
Meanwhile, CNN is reporting Trump told border agents not to let migrants in and to tell judges “we don’t have room.” On Friday, while speaking to reporters, Trump repeated his call to “get rid of” immigration judges, after making the comment earlier in the week while at a meeting with the secretary general of NATO.