FILE - In this Sept. 23, 2020, file photo, acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee during his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Shawn Thew/Pool via AP)WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s acting head of the Department of Homeland Security abruptly resigned Monday, leaving the post ahead of schedule as the nation faces a heightened terrorism threat from extremists seeking to reverse the election. The announcement by acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf was perplexing. Peter Gaynor, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, will serve as acting head of the Department of Homeland Security until the Biden administration takes over. Trump appointed Wolf acting secretary in November 2019, following the resignation of Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary who took over following the resignation of Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

Documents in the report suggest Health and Human Services officials weren't told by the Department of Homeland Security why shelters were receiving more children taken from their parents in late 2017. Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee released the report Thursday with emails obtained from government agencies. The report outlines discussions since the start of the Trump administration of family separation as a law enforcement tactic. Documents in the new report suggest CBP did not communicate with HHS about why shelters were receiving more separated children. The email notes “the increase in referrals” of children unaccompanied by a parent “resulting from separation of children from parents.” White sent McAleenan a chart of all the children HHS had received.

SAN DIEGO – A federal judge on Tuesday halted major fee increases for citizenship and other immigration benefits three days before they were to take effect, saying the last two chiefs of the Homeland Security Department were likely appointed illegally. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White found Kevin McAleenan was improperly catapulted to acting secretary when Kirstjen Nielsen resigned in April 2019. Chad Wolf, who became acting secretary after McAleenan resigned in November 2019, was also promoted out of order from his position as under secretary for strategy, policy and plans. The Homeland Security and Justice departments did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday night. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency responsible for awarding citizenship, green cards and temporary work permits.

WASHINGTON – A whistleblower's complaint and a tight timeline are making it increasingly unlikely that the Senate will confirm Chad Wolf as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security before the election. President Donald Trump formally sent the nomination late Thursday to the Senate after announcing his intention to appoint Wolf in a tweet last month. But the full Senate is unlikely to hold a confirmation vote before the election, said two Republican aides granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations. Trump appointed Wolf acting secretary in November 2019, following the resignation of Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary who took over following the resignation of Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. “Their toxic and unethical actions are wholly incompatible with the non-partisan mission of the Department of Homeland Security,” he said.

Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Chad Wolf testifies during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing to examine Department of Homeland Security personnel deployments to recent protests on Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020, in Washington. (Toni Sandys/The Washington Post via AP, Pool)WASHINGTON President Donald Trump said Tuesday he will nominate acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf to the top spot in the agency. I am pleased to inform the American Public that Acting Secretary Chad Wolf will be nominated to be the Secretary of Homeland Security, Trump tweeted. Wolf was named acting secretary in November 2019 after Trump removed his predecessor, acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan after six months in the post leading an agency that has the third largest budget in the federal government. The nomination comes amid uncertainty over whether Wolf, as well as acting deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli, has been legally entitled to hold the top job at DHS.

But Trump's casual announcement, made Friday in response to a reporter's question outside the White House, temporarily created more uncertainty about who was in charge of the sprawling agency. Weeks of speculation focused on who would be named the next leader, and Kevin McAleenan, the current acting secretary, had agreed to stay on temporarily. The department initially would not confirm Wolf was next in line, saying only that McAleenan was acting secretary. White House spokesman Hogan Gidley later clarified. He'll be leaving after Veterans' Day and after he departs, Chad Wolf will serve as acting secretary in the interim," Gidley told reporters.

Kevin McAleenan, the fourth person to hold the job in the Trump administration, had told colleagues that he would be departing Thursday. "I'm not going to discuss any pre-decisional personnel matters," McAleenan told a House Committee Wednesday when asked about plans for the department. Federal vacancy rules that place restrictions on the position had been thought to bar immigration hardliner Ken Cuccinelli, currently the acting head of U.S. The sprawling 240,000-person Department of Homeland Security oversees a huge portfolio that includes election and cyber security, disaster response, child trafficking investigations, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Secret Service. "And even though Acting Secretary McAleenan is leaving tomorrow, the president has yet to announce who his replacement will be."

CNN imageMENLO PARK, Calif. - US Attorney General William Barr and senior government officials from the UK and Australia are formally asking Facebook to give up on its plan to encrypt user messages across its platforms. The encryption debate, which pits tech companies that want to ensure user communications are private and secure against law enforcement's desire to access such messages, is decades old. "We respect and support the role law enforcement has in keeping people safe," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement provided to CNN. "We strongly oppose government attempts to build backdoors because they would undermine the privacy and security of people everywhere." 'It would fundamentally compromise the security and privacy of encrypted communications on Facebook."

DHS public affairs Assistant Secretary Andrew Meehan decided to resign two weeks ago and his last day will be Sept. 20, according to a DHS official. WASHINGTON (CNN) - A senior official in the Department of Homeland Security will leave the agency next month, marking the latest top DHS official to leave the administration in recent months. DHS public affairs Assistant Secretary Andrew Meehan decided to resign two weeks ago and his last day will be Sept. 20, according to a DHS official. Meehan has been a close confidant of acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan, joining him at DHS headquarters to run the public affairs office. Meehan, who also oversaw public affairs at Customs and Border Protection, is the latest public affairs official expected to leave the department.

(CNN) - The Trump administration on Wednesday announced a proposal to detain undocumented families together indefinitely, replacing the agreement that set a 20-day limit for holding children, with President Donald Trump saying it would discourage migrants from coming to the US. Trump said Wednesday that he's concerned about the number of undocumented children attempting to travel into the United States, arguing the new rule would keep families together. Lawsuits and Democratic oppositionThe regulation is certain to face legal challenges and must also be examined by the judge who oversees the Flores settlement. "This is yet another cruel attack on children, who the Trump administration has targeted again and again with its anti-immigrant policies," said Madhuri Grewal, policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. Democratic lawmakers blasted the proposal, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying, "the cruelty of the Trump administration knows no bounds."

(CNN) - President Donald Trump's acting Homeland Security secretary expressed regret Sunday about the timing of immigration raids in Mississippi this week given the emotional state of the nation in the wake of two mass shootings. McAleenan explained in the interview the immigration enforcement actions -- which occurred in the days after a gunman in El Paso, Texas, targeted Latinos and immigrants, and another shooter opened fire in Dayton, Ohio -- were long-planned. "In terms of the ICE operations, these are enforcement operations that are part of their daily cycle," he said. The raids, he said, are "believed to be the largest single-state immigration enforcement operation in our nation's history." McAleenan wouldn't say on Sunday whether Trump himself was aware of the raids before they began, instead saying, "the President doesn't run law enforcement operations."

Despite the rise in domestic cases, there is no federal charge for "domestic terrorism." The US doesn't have a domestic terrorism law and no government agency designates domestic groups as being terrorist organizations. "FBI classifies it as domestic terrorism, but "white terrorism" is more precise. But only Congress can change the laws surrounding domestic terrorism, and Wiegmann alluded to the difficulty of any such action. The departments charged with the various aspects of domestic terrorism have had to contend with the rise of domestic threats and have faced questioning on their response to it.

Immigrant asylum seekers wait at a bus station after being released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), on Nov. 1, 2018, in McAllen, Texas. A federal court had ordered family separations to end at that time, except in cases where a parent is unfit or presents a danger to the child. But the ACLU filing maintains that US Customs and Border Protection agents continue to do so despite the court order, separating children based on minor offenses like traffic violations. Earlier this year, a federal judge ruled that potentially thousands more parents and children the US government split up at the southern border would now be included in a lawsuit over family separations. Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said at a recent House hearing that fewer than 1,000 migrant children have been separated from their parents at the southern border this fiscal year, out of 450,000 families who have crossed.

CNN VideoMcALLEN, Texas (CNN) - Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says conditions at a Texas border detention facility are inhumane.Schumer and a group of other Democratic senators, including Oregon senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, toured the facility in McAllen on Friday. "It's been a very, very difficult day to see these people, particularly the children, treated in such inhumane conditions. (It) just tears at your heart strings and really makes you feel awful, Schumer said. They let us see whatever we wanted to see but we were told that they tried to make things look better. But even with that, it's awful the conditions that these people are placed in."

The group, which was originally uncovered by ProPublica, featured jokes about migrant deaths and derogatory posts and images of Latina members of Congress. "Those posts are unacceptable," McAleenan said. Ocasio-Cortez -- who was personally attacked in a sexually graphic post in the group -- asked McAleenan about what he knew about the group prior to the media reports and whether any agents involved were still on the force. Posts in the group featured comments about the death of a teen Guatemalan migrant in Weslaco, Texas, such as "oh well" and "if he dies he dies." This is an agency that rescues 4,000 people a year, that's absolutely committed to the well-being of everyone that they interact with," McAleenan responded.

The Secret Service's annual Mass Attacks in Public Spaces report, released Tuesday, says almost all of the alleged criminals in 27 mass attacks last year had experienced a major stressor in their lives. The report was published by the Secret Service's National Threat Assessment Center. The 27 attacks studied involved those in which three or more people were killed or injured last year. McAleenan said the Secret Service has a "unique capability" in helping prevent mass attacks because the agency has the most experience in protecting public spaces. Alathari said the study's findings can help encourage the public to report concerning behavior or threats.

(CNN) - Pediatricians shared disturbing images drawn by migrant children who were recently separated from their parents while in US Customs and Border Protection custody. The staff at the center asked the children to depict their time in CBP custody. McAleenan, who is now acting secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, requested the meetings after two children died in CBP custody. A pediatrician caring for migrant children at an El Paso hospital said CBP's screening for children in its custody is "absolutely and unequivocally inadequate." He said other doctors would disagree with the AAP pediatricians about the health conditions for migrant children.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(CNN) - The FBI has seen a significant rise in the number of white supremacist domestic terrorism cases in recent months, a senior FBI counterterrorism official said Thursday. The domestic terror cases generally include suspects involved in violence related to anti-government views, racial or religious bias, environmental extremism and abortion-related views. The FBI wouldn't provide specific numbers to quantify the increase of in the number of white supremacist domestic terrorism cases. Unlike international terrorism investigations, domestic terrorism cases pose thornier issues for the FBI because of First Amendment protections. The US doesn't have a domestic terrorism law and no government agency designates domestic groups as being terrorist organizations.