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DHS-Designate John Kelly Nomination Thread
Topic Started: Jan 10 2017, 06:21 PM (28 Views)
Webster
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Quoting the Guardian....


Background
The retired Marine Corps general is among three former senior US military personnel picked for cabinet-level positions in Donald Trump’s administration, and would be the first homeland security secretary to come from a non-civilian background if, as is likely, he is confirmed.

Kelly served for 45 years in the military, retiring last year as a four-star general and commander of the US southern command, where he held responsibility for all US military activities in South and Central America, including the controversial detention camp at Guantánamo Bay. Before this, the 66-year-old served as a senior assistant to Obama administration defense secretary Leon Panetta and completed numerous postings in the Persian Gulf war and the Iraq war.

Known as a straight-talking, no-nonsense pragmatist, Kelly is set to assume control of a department that oversees US domestic security, disaster management and immigration control, employing more than 240,000 people across 23 federal agencies, with a budget of over $40bn. The department, formed by the Bush administration after the September 11 attacks, will also be responsible for implementing some of Trump’s most controversial policy pledges, including mass deportations, curtailing immigration from some Muslim majority countries, and enhanced security at the southern border.
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Webster
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Key points to watch for
(1) Border security: Kelly is likely to face rigorous questioning about the effectiveness of Trump’s hardline pledge to build a wall across the southern border and force the Mexican government to pay for it. Although Kelly has advocated a more holistic approach to stemming migration flows, including prioritizing economic international development goals, he has also claimed – to much criticism – that terrorist groups could be entering the country illegally through Mexico. Does he agree that the multibillion-dollar construction project is the most effective way to safeguard the border?
(2) Migration and religious freedom: Trump has also pledged to introduce a discriminatory ban on migration from Muslim majority countries and has offered mixed and incoherent pledges on whether to introduce a registry of Muslim citizens in the US. Kelly has branded himself as a proponent of religious freedom, but also argued Trump’s election victory was a sign the American people wanted to “take back sovereignty at our borders, and put a stop to political correctness that for too long has dictated our approach to national security”. Is it possible to balance the two?
(3) Immigration enforcement priorities: Trump has also pledged to deport 2-3 million undocumented migrants that he incorrectly claims are violent criminals. Kelly and the DHS would be responsible for commencing deportation enforcement, but little has been said about how the process will be enacted – so how will it work?
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Webster
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3.56pm: The hearing into John Kelly’s nomination as homeland security secretary commenced with opening remarks from the homeland security and governmental affairs committee chair, Wisconsin Republican senator Ron Johnson, who described Kelly as an “extraordinary individual, a great American who has served faithfully and sacrificed mightily for this nation”. The committee’s ranking member Missouri Democratic senator Claire McCaskill payed a similar tribute to the former general, and added that Kelly’s self-described strongest attribute of speaking truth to power is “music to my ears”.

“You will need it in your next job to speak truth to the commander in chief, who has used some his most extreme and divisive rhetoric about issues under the department of homeland security’s jurisdiction,” McCaskill said.
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Webster
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4.12pm: Kelly was introduced to the committee by a group of senior politicians, notable for their selection from across the partisan divide. All of them paid tribute to Kelly’s ability to “speak truth to power”.

Arizona Republican senator John McCain said: “Those of us who have had the privilege of knowing General Kelly for a while, who have heard him testify before our committees … know that John Kelly says what he believes to be the truth, always, no matter the inconvenience it might cause him.”

Former US defense secretary Robert Gates, who served under both the Bush and Obama administrations, said: “To put it quite simply, I would trust him with my life. Many others, including young marines, quite literally have done so.”

Democratic senator for Delaware Tom Carper described Kelly as: “exceptionally well qualified leader”, and added: “He has the courage to stay out of step when everyone is marching in tune.”
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Webster
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4.16pm: Kelly delivered a brief opening statement, paying tribute to his family and telling the committee he is “humbled to once again be called to serve”. “I have never had a problem speaking truth to power, and I firmly believe that those in power deserve full candor and my honest assessment and recommendations,” Kelly said.
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Webster
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4.32pm: Kelly was asked almost instantly about his views on a erecting a border wall across the US southwest border by McCain, who stated that “building a wall is not a way to prevent the flow of drugs or people across the borders” and argued it required a range of solutions using the “technological advantages we have”.

Kelly agreed with the thrust of McCain’s argument, and stated: “A physical barrier in and of itself will not do the job, it has to be a layered defense. If you were to build a wall from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico, you’d still have to back that wall up with humans patrolling.”

He argued that some of the most effective ways to ensure the integrity of the border were built around regional co-operation by partnering with “great countries”.
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Webster
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4.47pm: McCaskill began her questioning of Kelly by asking him whether he accepts the consensus among the US intelligence communities over Russian interference in the US presidential election. Kelly responded succinctly: “With high confidence.”

McCaskill then asked about Kelly’s understanding of the reasons behind the surge of illegal border crossings from central America. Kelly, demonstrating a more nuanced view of the surge than Trump delivered on the campaign trail, articulated three reasons.

“The first is that it is very unsafe, they are some of the most dangerous countries on the planet, unfortunately,” Kelly said. He also argued others coming to the US are purely economic migrants, and finally said migrants were “very confident” that “if they pay the money, get on the network… they will get into the United States”.
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5.24pm: Montana Republican senator Steve Daines continued the generally celebratory tenor of the hearing thus far by telling Kelly that “my family sleeps better knowing a four-star marine is guarding our homeland security”. Eliciting perhaps the most critical response of the hearing so far, Daines asks Kelly if he will improve DHS staffing levels at the northern border, which he describes as dangerously understaffed.

Kelly argued that the way to bring in new recruits was to improve morale among existing staff. “What I hear mostly is, we’re not appreciated, we’re not allowed to do our job. We’ll take a look at that right away,” he said.
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5.45pm: Kelly faced some more rigorous questioning from Michigan Democratic senator Gary Peters, who told the former general that there is a “great deal of fear” in the Muslim communities he represents following a number of discriminatory policy proposals made by Trump on the campaign trail.

Peters asked Kelly to commit to not using religion as “the basis of [DHS] law enforcement” and asked if he disagreed with Trump’s campaign pledges to increase surveillance in mosques and implement a database of Muslim Americans. Kelly responded: “I don’t think it’s ever appropriate to focus on something like religion as the only factor, so yes sir.” Significantly, Kelly went on to argue that he would not be supportive of a database for non-American citizens present in the US. He argued his time in Iraq had taught him that community outreach was a significant counter-terrorism tool.

“Our success in Iraq, certainly my time in Iraq, was because I outreached with people across the sector of society, all of whom were Muslim, across the Islamic faith. Obviously the clerics, the communities, the way we won, certainly in my part of Iraq was we outreached to people, convinced them we were there for good, not evil,” he said.
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6.14pm: Newly elected California Democratic senator Kamala Harris took perhaps the most pointed round of questions, asking Kelly about his immigration enforcement plans, particularly with regards to Deferred Action for Child Arrival (Daca) recipients, the roughly 700,000 children of undocumented migrants who have benefitted from Barack Obama’s executive order on immigration that entitled them to education and work rights. Harris asked whether Kelly could guarantee that information Daca recipients have provided to immigration authorities through their application process will not be used against them by law enforcement authorities with regards to deportation.

Kelly was non-committal and conceded he didn’t “know right now where the incoming administration is going” with regards to deportations,” adding: “I have not been involved in those discussions.”

After Harris pressed him further he acknowledged that “law abiding individuals … would probably not be at the top of the list” when it comes to deportations, a line in keeping with Trump’s most recent comments on deportations.
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6.37pm: Kentucky Republican senator Rand Paul, also a failed candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, quizzed Kelly about his views on the department’s reported desire to build a national database of license plates, utilising license plate scanning technology.

Paul, an ardent libertarian, is opposed to the proposed scheme, and Kelly appeared to share his concerns when asked whether he preferred mass data collection or “traditional” information gather, Kelly said: “I would go with the traditional route. The scanning of the license plates I mean, there may be a reason, I can’t think of one right now. I’m not for the mass collection of data on people; I’d go the other way.”

After a little under two and half hours the confirmation hearing is adjourned. It remains highly likely that Kelly will sail through the nomination.
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The Guardian: DHS Nominee Shies Away From Trump's Wall & Muslim Registry

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Donald Trump’s nominee for homeland security secretary distanced himself from some of the president-elect’s most controversial election pledges on immigration, potentially including the construction of a wall at the southern border and the implementation of a Muslim registry, during his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday.

Former Marine Corps general John Kelly took cordial questions from senators on the homeland security and governmental affairs committee for a little less than two and a half hours before his likely confirmation, which is expected to pass the Senate with little dissent.

Under questioning from Republican senator John McCain of Arizona, who had earlier introduced the 66-year-old to the hearing, Kelly argued that building a full border wall along the US’s border with Mexico was not a sufficient measure to secure it.

“A physical barrier in and of itself will not do the job,” Kelly told the committee, adding he was in favour of “layered defense” that used technological assets including drones.

During later questioning, Senator Gary Peters, a Democrat from Michigan, told the 45-year veteran there was “a great deal of fear” in the Muslim communities of Michigan following Trump’s incendiary election pledges to vet migration from certain Muslim majority countries, to introduce a so-called Muslim registry and to increase surveillance of mosques throughout the United States.

Kelly told the committee he was not in favour of targeting individuals for law enforcement activity on the basis of religion alone.

“I don’t think it’s ever appropriate to focus on something like religion as the only factor,” Kelly said, adding he was not in favour of creating a registry of people based on their faith.
-Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/10/john-kelly-homeland-security-hearing-trump-wall-muslim-registry
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