President Trump's DHS secretary wasn't fully briefed on the immigration ban until it was already being signed

(Image credit: MOLLY RILEY/AFP/Getty Images)

published 30 January 2017

Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly reportedly wasn't briefed on President Trump's executive order on immigration until it was already being signed, The New York Times reported:

Gen. John F. Kelly, the secretary of homeland security, had dialed in from a Coast Guard plane as he headed back to Washington from Miami. Along with other top officials, he needed guidance from the White House, which had not asked his department for a legal review of the order.Halfway into the briefing, someone on the call looked up at a television in his office. "The president is signing the executive order that we're discussing," the official said, stunned. [The New York Times]

A member of Trump's transition team, Heritage Foundation Vice President James Jay Carafano, told The New York Times that "little of that work was shared with career officials at the Homeland Security Department, the State Department, or other agencies." Secretary of Defense James Mattis apparently did not see the finalized executive order until hours before Trump signed it Friday afternoon, which one Customs and Border Protection officer pointed out could be why so many border officers were unclear on how to carry out the order. "If the secretary doesn't know anything," the officer said, "how could we possibly know anything at this level?"