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Congressional Hispanic Caucus Statement on GAO Confirming Trump’s Top DHS Appointments Were Illegal

August 14, 2020

SAN ANTONIO, TX Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) issued the following statement on GAO's decision confirming President Trump's top DHS appointments were illegal:

"Last December, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus joined Homeland Security Chairman Bennie G. Thompson and Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney in urging an emergency review of the legality of the appointments of Chad Wolf as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security and Ken Cuccinelli as the Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security.

"We were right — today the GAO confirmed that Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli were illegally appointed to their positions. The Trump administration went around Congress to make invalid appointments of anti-immigrant white nationalists in violation of the law. From dismantling the immigration system to tear-gassing peaceful protestors, their authority is illegitimate.

"In light of this GAO decision, both Wolf and Cuccinelli must resign in disgrace or be removed from their positions immediately. There are also major questions about the legality of their actions over the last 16 months that the DHS Office of the Inspector General must swiftly review."

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The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), founded in December 1976, is organized as a Congressional Member organization, governed under the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives. The CHC is dedicated to voicing and advancing, through the legislative process, issues affecting Hispanics in the United States, Puerto Rico and U.S. Territories.