Donald Trump's homeland security chief Kirstjen Nielsen quits

The US Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen has resigned. Nielsen who enforced some of President Donald Trump's contentious border policies, including the separation of migrant families, described it as “an honour of a lifetime” to work in the department.

Nielsen's name “will forever be associated with the Trump administration's family separation border policy that led to massive bipartisan outcry last year”, the BBC says.

The New York Times says the “beleaguered” Nielsen “enforced cruelty at the border” and warns that “her replacement could be worse”.

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The Washington Post notes that in just over two years, “the Trump administration has seen a remarkable amount of turnover in key positions”.

In a resignation letter, Nielsen wrote: “I have determined that it is the right time for me to step aside. I hope that the next secretary will have the support of Congress and the courts in fixing the laws which have impeded our ability to fully secure America’s borders and which have contributed to discord in our nation’s discourse.”

Speculation is already rife that Nielsen did not resign willingly. A source close to he said that she was put “under pressure” to step aside. CNN says Nielsen “believed the situation was becoming untenable with the president becoming increasingly unhinged about the border crisis and making unreasonable and even impossible requests”.

In recent weeks Trump has asked Nielsen to close the ports of entry along the border and to stop accepting asylum seekers, measures she said were inappropriate. A person close to Nielsen says she has felt “in limbo” over the last week, bearing the brunt of the president's anger over the border.

Democrats have seized on the news. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson said that “hampered by misstep after misstep”, Nielsen's tenure “was a disaster from the start” and that the policies “she enacted and helped craft” have created a “humanitarian crisis at the border”.

Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey called the move “long overdue” but added that the fight is “far from over to ensure Trump's assault on our immigrant community comes to an end”.

However, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham praised Nielsen, saying she “did her best to deal with a broken immigration system and broken Congress”.

The president has announced that Kevin McAleenan, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, will take over as the acting replacement for Ms. Nielsen.

After announcing Nielsen’s departure, the US President tweeted: “Our Country is FULL!”