Yet another top Homeland Security official is leaving the department

Claire Grady.
(Image credit: Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images)

In one of her final acts as Homeland Security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen announced on Tuesday that Claire Grady, the department's undersecretary of management and acting deputy secretary, submitted her resignation, effective Wednesday.

Under the department's rules, if the secretary leaves, the undersecretary of management becomes acting secretary. President Trump apparently didn't know this, because when he announced on Sunday that Nielsen was stepping down, he also said Kevin McAleenan, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, would become acting secretary. Grady's departure now clears the path for Trump to install McAleenan.

The Department of Homeland Security is going through a tumultuous time, with Nielsen and Secret Service Director Randolph Alles both being pushed out. Several administration officials have said White House adviser Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner, is behind the shake-up, and the purge won't end with Grady's exit — Trump is reportedly also looking at removing two U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services leaders, director Lee Cissna and policy director Kathy Nuebel Kovarik, and Homeland Security general counsel John Mitnick.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.