Homeland insecurity: Empty seats at agency dealing with overcrowding at the border
Resignations and a purge by the president have left the top ranks of Homeland Security muddled as it grapples with a crisis at the southern border.
July 6, 2019, 4:27 AM EDT
By Dareh Gregorian
The agency in charge of dealing with overcrowded conditions at migrant facilities near the southern border is severely understaffed at the leadership level.
The president has demanded the Department of Homeland Security contain the surge of immigrants at the border and deport millions who are in the country illegally. But he has failed to staff the highest levels of the agency and its departments, which include Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Homeland Security now has the lowest percentage of Senate-confirmed presidential appointments of any agency in the federal government, according to data from the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan nonprofit that tracks key executive branch nominations.
Only 41 percent of the top jobs at the agency are filled by personnel confirmed by the Senate, the group's data shows. That's down from 56 percent in March. Among the positions with no nominees are the two top jobs at the agency: secretary and deputy secretary.
"It's a real problem," the group's president and CEO Max Stier told NBC News. "You're creating uncertainty for the present and landmines for the future. There's a set of big issues we face as a country and not to have confirmed highly qualified leadership in place means the government is not serving the public."
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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/homeland-insecurity-empty-seats-agency-dealing-overcrowding-border-n1026016?cid=public-rss_20190706
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