Press Releases

GARDEN CITY, NY – U.S. Representative Kathleen Rice (NY-04), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee and the Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Border Security, Facilitation & Operations, released a statement calling for the immediate resignation of Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli from their positions at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the wake of today’s Government Accountability Office (GAO) decision finding their appointments were illegal. Rice previously questioned Wolf at a Homeland Security Committee hearing on March 3 concerning the legality of his appointment as Acting Secretary and Cuccinelli’s appointment as Acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director: 

“President Trump ignored the order of succession and circumvented Senate confirmation to install two partisan ideologues - Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli - to top positions in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Today, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) confirmed this was illegal. 

“Wolf and Cuccinelli should resign immediately from their positions. And as directed in the GAO report, the DHS Office of Inspector General must now review the legality of actions taken by these officials since they unlawfully assumed their roles. 

“The mission of DHS is to protect the American homeland -- yet from day one President Trump has used it first and foremost to protect his own political agenda. Rather than naming another lackey to do his bidding, it's time for the President to nominate a career official who is actually qualified to run the Department.”