This sponsored column is by Law Office of James Montana PLLC. All questions about it should be directed to James Montana, Esq., Janice Chen, Esq., and Victoria Khaydar, Esq., practicing attorneys at The Law Office of James Montana PLLC, an immigration-focused law firm located in Falls Church, Virginia. The legal information given here is general in nature. If you want legal advice, contact us for an appointment.
“Kremlin political intrigues are comparable to a bulldog fight under a rug. An outsider only hears the growling, and when he sees the bones fly out from beneath it is obvious who won.” – Winston Churchill.
The Trump Administration, in both its first and second iterations, has not lived up to that Churchill quotation, not least because its principals are so paranoid and unprofessional that they usually air their grievances in public. Sometimes, when facing unfriendly questioning before Congress, a leading Administration official bangs the table about how the Dow Jones Industrial Average has broken 50,000; sometimes, when a bottle of bourbon goes missing, a leading Administration official threatens to polygraph and prosecute FBI agents. This is not, as a general rule, a thin-lipped bunch of Silent Cals.
The Department of Homeland Security has been an honorable exception to that general rule; its personnel have been, at least by Trump Administration standards, fairly disciplined about airing their grievances in public. That’s where the Kremlinology comes in. The latest intel suggests that a real behind-the-curtain fight is happening between two factions at DHS – one, personified by policy majordomo Stephen Miller, and the other, by bureaucratic knife-fighter (and Cava enjoyer) Tom Homan. The Homanites appear to be winning. The purpose of this advertorial is tell you why we think that is true, and provide a bit of speculation about why.
First, why do we think it is true? Not every resignation means a change in policy; sometimes, when the chief of the Border Patrol resigns after widespread accusations that he flew to Thailand, Colombia, and Mexico to avail himself of the services of prostitutes, it’s just an HR thing. But some reshuffles are more significant, and we think the following four suggest a new policy direction.
(1) Kristi Noem is out, and Markwayne Mullin is in. Secretary Noem performed her duties in vapid, vigorous, indecent, indecorous style, and she consistently personified the most outré and bizarre actions by the immigration enforcement bureaucracy, from calling protesters ‘domestic terrorists’ to LARPing as a HSI agent during raids. Former Sen. Mullin has taken a different public tack. Secretary Mullin – echoing public comments from Tom Homan – has repeated in interviews that DHS is targeting “the worst of the worst” rather than engaging in broad sweeps, and has said that the Minnesota operation, which led to the deaths of several American citizens, will not occur again. ” Secretary Mullin recently remarked, “[m]y goal in six months is that we’re not in the lead story every single day.” We don’t think you’ll see him posing at CECOT in a Rolex.
(2) Todd Lyons is out, and David Venturella is in. Todd Lyons, as those who hold grudges will remember, was the Acting Director at ICE who authored the memorandum instructing ICE personnel to use ‘administrative warrants’ to effect immigration arrests, and, moreover, told ICE personnel not to disclose the existence of the memorandum. We told you at the time that this was unconstitutional, and we were right. David Venturella, his replacement, is not an immigration dove. He has spent the last two decades doing business development and client relations (read: lobbying) for the GEO Group (read: private prisons), which operates immigration detention centers in which, inmates allege, they were forced to work for $1/day or be put in solitary confinement. But, on the plus side, Venturella hasn’t yet suggested that the 4th Amendment doesn’t apply to aliens, so he’s an upgrade in our book. Venturella, for those keeping score, is reputed to be a Homan ally.
(3) Greg Bovino is out, and no one has replaced him. No one really could replace him. Bovino, who was seen as a Noem ally, operated as a strange sort of immigration enforcer without portfolio, traveling from city to city, calling himself “Chief Bovino” (without irony) or “Commander at Large” (ditto), while wearing “vintage border patrol gear” (Hugo Boss, back catalogue) and leading theatrical, militarized operations in American cities. After he was fired, he refused to relinquish his Twitter feed. Eventually, the Administration took that away, too. Sic transit gloria bovis.
4) Alligator Alcatraz has gotten the chomp. (True, Alligator Alcatraz wasn’t an actual federal employee, but, then again, neither was Corey Lewandowski.) Alligator Alcatraz stood for a certain approach to immigration detention – build fast, build big, and tell nitpicking lawyers to jump into the nearest bog. Florida is closing Alligator Alcatraz for the most on-brand Trump Administration reason possible: because the federal government ignored a $600M invoice to reimburse Florida for the costs of running a state prison for federal purposes.
All of these changes suggest that the shock-and-awe approach of the Millerites is out, and the more targeted, bureaucratic approach of the Homanites is in. We aren’t especially optimistic about this. Homan still thinks that DHS should deport millions of people – way beyond its current capacity – and still thinks that DHS should arrest state and local leaders who disagree with the Administration’s approach. We also are mildly skeptical that Homan will manage to hold onto his position for long enough to see any major policy changes through. Secretary Noem and Attorney General Bondi lasted barely over a year, respectively, in office. The Trump White House loves to announce that its top officials have left to spend more time with their families. We think that’s the likely result here, too.
