Former congresswoman and DHS employee calls on Secretary Nielsen to resign in scathing letter

Four members of a Department of Homeland Security advisory council resigned last week, calling the Trump administration's immigration policies "morally repugnant." But one of the now-former employees also sent DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen a personalized resignation letter, going even further in her caustic criticism.

"DHS has been transformed into an agency that is making war on immigrants and refugees," wrote Elizabeth Holtzman, a former Democratic congresswoman who was a co-author of the 1980 Refugee Act. She condemned the travel ban on Muslim-majority countries, the lack of support for DREAMers, and the "zero tolerance" policy that prosecutes any and all migrant crossing the border without authorization as "malign and ultimately self-destructive policies."

"The final straw has been the separation of children from their parents at the Southwest border," she continued. "This is child kidnapping, plain and simple." Holtzman also told Slate on Tuesday that the administration took a "much more punitive, cruel, vicious, heartless, ruthless, and harmful" approach to immigration policies. She said she'd like to "see this president out of office," and had a similar message for her former boss.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"Although it is I who am resigning in protest against these policies," she wrote to Nielsen, "it is you who should be resigning."