U.S. President Donald Trump announced the resignation of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Twitter Sunday.
Nielsen’s departure comes more than a year after she was confirmed to take over the post from John Kelly when he became the president’s chief of staff. She served as Kelly’s chief of staff before her Cabinet-level promotion.
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Nielsen became a face of President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policy, including the zero-tolerance approach to separating migrant children from their parents. Under the plan, the Trump administration sought to prosecute all adults who crossed the border illegally and more widely implement the child separation policy that previous administrations used more sparingly.
The policy over the spring and summer of 2018 left thousands of migrant children separated from parents and housed in tent cities.
The announcement also follows plans to cut aid to some Central American countries, marking a sudden reversal after Nielsen had days earlier visited Honduras to sign a compact regional agreement with Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
