Kevin McAleenan, Top U.S. Border Enforcement Officer, Is Named Acting Head of Homeland Security – The New York Times

Mr. McAleenan has a law degree from the University of Chicago and practiced law in California before he worked for the government. He held a variety of positions at the border protection agency before becoming its deputy commissioner in 2014 under the Obama administration. He won the country’s highest civil service honor, the Presidential Rank Award, in 2015.

Mr. McAleenan became the acting commissioner of the agency in January 2017 and was formally sworn in as commissioner in March 2018. He focused on counterterrorism, border security and trade enforcement, oversaw about 60,000 employees and managed a budget of over $13 billion, according to the agency.

As the nation’s top border enforcement officer, Mr. McAleenan also helped implement the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy to prosecute parents caught crossing the border illegally, which led to family separations. That policy was reversed, but the effects remain. In court documents filed on Friday, the government said it may take federal officials two years to identify what could be thousands of immigrant children who were separated from their families at the border.

In an interview in August, Mr. McAleenan said that “a better system would allow us to keep families together for the entirety of the immigration proceeding, which takes an average of 45 days.”

He added that there should be a sanction for crossing the border illegally.

“It’s not a victimless crime,” he said. “Not only are the people at risk, so are our agents who need to apprehend or rescue them. It’s also a diversionary tactic for smugglers who use family groups to tie down our agents while drugs are moved behind them.”