[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Page 19423]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    CONFIRMATION OF KIRSTJEN NIELSEN

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I rise in opposition to the nomination 
of Kirstjen Nielsen to serve as Secretary of Homeland Security. While I 
believe that Ms. Nielsen has a solid understanding of the Department 
that she seeks to lead, I am not yet convinced that she will be a 
counterweight to the rabid anti-immigration policies coming out of the 
White House.
  I appreciated the opportunity to speak to Ms. Nielsen prior to the 
vote about my concern over the status of the Dreamers and temporary 
protected status, TPS, recipients. Dreamers were brought to this 
country through no fault of their own and are in limbo after the 
President abruptly canceled DACA and set arbitrary renewal and 
termination deadlines. TPS recipients, many of whom have been here for 
almost two decades, would have their lives endangered if forced to 
return to their home countries.
  While I understand that Ms. Nielsen cannot make ironclad commitments 
on how she would handle these issues, I could not in good faith support 
her nomination without clearer guidance and assurances about how she 
and the administration intend to resolve these matters. Many of my 
colleagues who supported her predecessor, General Kelly, have 
complained bitterly that promises he made to them have not been kept. 
Moreover, both as General Kelly's chief of staff at DHS and later as 
his deputy at the White House, I have to assume the Ms. Nielsen has 
been very involved in the development and implementation of the 
immigration policies of this administration. My vote yesterday was not 
so much a vote against Ms. Nielsen, as it was a vote to protest the 
anti-immigration policies flowing from the Trump administration.
  I am hopeful that, in the coming months, Ms. Nielsen will be able to 
provide a check on the worst impulses of this White House. I am not yet 
convinced that will happen and hope to be proven wrong. I do look 
forward to working with Ms. Nielsen once she is sworn in.

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