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WASHINGTON – Today, Acting Department of Homeland (DHS) Secretary Chad Wolf appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee for his official confirmation hearing. Wolf has been unlawfully serving as the Acting Secretary since 2019. In August of 2020, the Government Accountability Office released a report confirming that Wolf had been improperly appointed to the position.   

The following statement is from Kelli Garcia, federal policy counsel of the °Ä²Ê¿ª½± Action Fund: 

“Since the day Chad Wolf was unlawfully installed as the Acting Secretary, he’s worked to complete the transformation of DHS into a political tool to advance President Trump's and Senior Advisor Stephen Miller’s anti-immigrant and white nationalist agenda. 

“Wolf has overseen an unrelenting barrage of restrictions on asylum seekers, essentially dismantling the asylum system as we know it, piece by piece. And the U.S. government has continued to separate children from their parents under Wolf’s direction. These policies have life-altering and deadly ramifications for hundreds of thousands of migrants who have fled persecution.

“Domestically, Wolf has presided over massive COVID-19 outbreaks in ICE facilities. ICE’s reckless mishandling of the virus has contributed to the deadliest year in ICE detention since 2005, when 21 people died in ICE custody. And horrific allegations about the violations of women’s bodily autonomy at the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia have recently come to light. In addition, Wolf directly oversaw the deployment of CBP agents to violently suppress Black Lives Matter protesters.  

“The policies that Wolf has implemented at DHS have disproportionately harmed Black, Brown and Indigenous people. The agency’s violent enforcement operations have sown fear, mistrust and anguish. Wolf has been an active, willing participant in this administration's scapegoating and abuse of immigrants.  

“Wolf should instead be appearing before Congress to answer for the human right abuses that DHS has committed under his watch. Senators should reject his nomination."