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THREAD: Now that the GAO has made clear that @DHS_Wolf and @HomelandKen are serving illegally atop DHS (and @HomelandKen continues to even use the wrong title on his Twitter account), let's take a look at how hollowed out DHS truly is these days:
1) Beyond an illegal Acting Sec and #2, there's no chief of staff and the acting general counsel, Chad Mizelle, is just a few years out of law school (his equally young wife is now the youngest Trump judicial nominee yet, but that's another problem). https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1293618706325606405
2) There are vacancies, effectively, in all four of the next most-senior DHS positions: There's no Senate-confirmed Under Sec of Sci & Tech nor an Under Sec for Intel & Analysis, because he was fired this month after OI&A compiled dossiers on reporters. https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/01/politics/brian-murphy-dhs-official-reassigned-intelligence-journalists/index.html
3) There's an acting Under Secretary of Management, who is the person who oversees the Federal Protective Service, the agency under whose auspices DHS deployed those shock troops to the streets of Portland. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/07/22/portland-constitution-dhs-crackdown-legality/
4) Chad Wolf is *supposed* to be the Under Sec for Strategy, Policy, and Plans, so there's somebody filling in for that role too. There's also no Asst Sec for Counterterrorism and Threat Prevention because why would that be an important position to have filled?
5) Let's check in on the three major border and immigration agencies, shall we? All vacant too! There's no Senate-confirmed leader for @ICEgov, @CBP, or @USCIS, where @HomelandKen has already been previously shown to be illegally installed there. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/01/us/politics/cuccinelli-appointment-citizenship-immigration-services.html
6) At @ICEGov and @CBP, the vacancies have been so long-standing that the officials in charge aren't even legally "acting" anymore and are instead the "Senior Officials Performing the Duties of" the director or commissioner....
7) And ICE's top official, Matt Albence, is leaving shortly after serving for more than a *year* as the temporary top official of the nation's third-largest federal law enforcement agency: https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/30/politics/matt-albence-departing-ice/index.html
8) At @FEMA, in the midst of hurricane and wildfire season (plus the pandemic!), both of the deputy roles are vacant.
9) Worried? You should be! Remember: DHS was literally created to prevent the next 9/11—and its administrative structure has been all but dismantled and run rough-shod over by the Trump administration, who has politicized and hollowed it out. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/04/07/trump-dismantled-the-very-jobs-meant-to-stop-the-covid-19-epidemic-173347
