Homeland agency fill-in gets Trump nod

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will nominate acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf to the top spot in the agency, rewarding a forceful advocate for administration policy whose leadership has been challenged on legal grounds.

The president made the announcement on Twitter. He praised Wolf’s management of an agency that plays a major role in the Trump administration’s policies on immigration and crime, which critics say detracts from the Homeland Security Department’s core mission to protect the nation from external threats.

Wolf’s prospects for Senate confirmation are unclear. There is a narrow window for him to be confirmed before the Nov. 3 election, with the Senate away until Labor Day and then scheduled to recess in mid-October.

He’s likely to face criticism over the role of Homeland Security in carrying out administration efforts to limit both legal and illegal immigration as well as the deployment of federal agents in tactical gear to confront protesters this summer in Portland, Ore., without the agreement of state and local authorities.

Wolf’s position of acting secretary has already been the subject of legal challenges. He has been in what is supposed to be a temporary role for more than 500 days, twice as long as permitted under federal law. The Government Accountability Office said on Aug. 14 that neither Wolf nor deputy acting Secretary Ken Cuccinelli could legally hold their positions.