FILE - In this Sept. 23, 2020, file photo, acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee during his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Shawn Thew/Pool via AP)WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s acting head of the Department of Homeland Security abruptly resigned Monday, leaving the post ahead of schedule as the nation faces a heightened terrorism threat from extremists seeking to reverse the election. The announcement by acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf was perplexing. Peter Gaynor, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, will serve as acting head of the Department of Homeland Security until the Biden administration takes over. Trump appointed Wolf acting secretary in November 2019, following the resignation of Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary who took over following the resignation of Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

Documents in the report suggest Health and Human Services officials weren't told by the Department of Homeland Security why shelters were receiving more children taken from their parents in late 2017. Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee released the report Thursday with emails obtained from government agencies. The report outlines discussions since the start of the Trump administration of family separation as a law enforcement tactic. Documents in the new report suggest CBP did not communicate with HHS about why shelters were receiving more separated children. The email notes “the increase in referrals” of children unaccompanied by a parent “resulting from separation of children from parents.” White sent McAleenan a chart of all the children HHS had received.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White found Kevin McAleenan improperly leapfrogged to acting secretary when Kirstjen Nielsen resigned in April 2019. The Homeland Security and Justice departments did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday night. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency with Homeland Security that awards citizenship, green cards and temporary work permits, said it was reviewing the decision. Eight advocacy groups sued the administration in August after Homeland Security published a final version of the fee hikes, incorporating public feedback. McAleenan initially proposed the hikes in November in one of his last acts as acting secretary.

WASHINGTON – A whistleblower's complaint and a tight timeline are making it increasingly unlikely that the Senate will confirm Chad Wolf as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security before the election. President Donald Trump formally sent the nomination late Thursday to the Senate after announcing his intention to appoint Wolf in a tweet last month. But the full Senate is unlikely to hold a confirmation vote before the election, said two Republican aides granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations. Trump appointed Wolf acting secretary in November 2019, following the resignation of Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary who took over following the resignation of Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. “Their toxic and unethical actions are wholly incompatible with the non-partisan mission of the Department of Homeland Security,” he said.

Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Chad Wolf testifies during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing to examine Department of Homeland Security personnel deployments to recent protests on Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020, in Washington. (Toni Sandys/The Washington Post via AP, Pool)WASHINGTON President Donald Trump said Tuesday he will nominate acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf to the top spot in the agency. I am pleased to inform the American Public that Acting Secretary Chad Wolf will be nominated to be the Secretary of Homeland Security, Trump tweeted. Wolf was named acting secretary in November 2019 after Trump removed his predecessor, acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan after six months in the post leading an agency that has the third largest budget in the federal government. The nomination comes amid uncertainty over whether Wolf, as well as acting deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli, has been legally entitled to hold the top job at DHS.

But with acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan's Thursday departure date rapidly approaching, officials said McAleenan could stay up to a week longer to ensure a smooth transition. The official said the White House has determined Trump has that legal authority under a mechanism first reported by The New York Times. McAleenan, who's served as acting secretary since April, submitted his resignation to the White House earlier this month. In April, the White House's growing frustration with leadership led to the ouster that placed McAleenan at the helm. The White House also considered Chad Wolf to replace the outgoing acting Homeland Security secretary, according to two sources familiar with the process.

CNN imageMENLO PARK, Calif. - US Attorney General William Barr and senior government officials from the UK and Australia are formally asking Facebook to give up on its plan to encrypt user messages across its platforms. The encryption debate, which pits tech companies that want to ensure user communications are private and secure against law enforcement's desire to access such messages, is decades old. "We respect and support the role law enforcement has in keeping people safe," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement provided to CNN. "We strongly oppose government attempts to build backdoors because they would undermine the privacy and security of people everywhere." 'It would fundamentally compromise the security and privacy of encrypted communications on Facebook."

Carl Court/Getty ImagesNEW YORK - U.S. Attorney General William Barr wants Facebook to give law enforcement a way to read encrypted messages sent by users, re-igniting tensions between tech companies and law enforcement. Facebook's WhatsApp already has end-to-end encryption, meaning that even Facebook cannot read the text of messages. Facebook plans to extend that protection to Messenger and Instagram Direct. While law enforcement wants a way to read messages analogous to wiretaps for phone calls, security experts say giving police such access makes messaging insecure for everyone. Barr will make the request to Facebook in a letter with counterparts from the U.K. and Australia as well as U.S.

Getty ImagesWASHINGTON, D.C. - The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday issued a subpoena for documents related to reports of President Donald Trump offering pardons to administration officials in his push to further his immigration agenda. The subpoena to the Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday targets Trump's reported dangling of pardons. "The Framers did not envision the use of the presidential pardon power to encourage criminal acts at the President's direction," said House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, a Democrat from New York, in a statement. In April, the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to McAleenan requesting information from the administration about reports of pardons. The subpoena for documents, which was issued to McAleenan, is the latest in a series of subpoenas the panel has issued in recent weeks.

DHS public affairs Assistant Secretary Andrew Meehan decided to resign two weeks ago and his last day will be Sept. 20, according to a DHS official. WASHINGTON (CNN) - A senior official in the Department of Homeland Security will leave the agency next month, marking the latest top DHS official to leave the administration in recent months. DHS public affairs Assistant Secretary Andrew Meehan decided to resign two weeks ago and his last day will be Sept. 20, according to a DHS official. Meehan has been a close confidant of acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan, joining him at DHS headquarters to run the public affairs office. Meehan, who also oversaw public affairs at Customs and Border Protection, is the latest public affairs official expected to leave the department.

Despite the rise in domestic cases, there is no federal charge for "domestic terrorism." The US doesn't have a domestic terrorism law and no government agency designates domestic groups as being terrorist organizations. "FBI classifies it as domestic terrorism, but "white terrorism" is more precise. But only Congress can change the laws surrounding domestic terrorism, and Wiegmann alluded to the difficulty of any such action. The departments charged with the various aspects of domestic terrorism have had to contend with the rise of domestic threats and have faced questioning on their response to it.

CNN VideoMcALLEN, Texas (CNN) - Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says conditions at a Texas border detention facility are inhumane.Schumer and a group of other Democratic senators, including Oregon senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, toured the facility in McAllen on Friday. "It's been a very, very difficult day to see these people, particularly the children, treated in such inhumane conditions. (It) just tears at your heart strings and really makes you feel awful, Schumer said. They let us see whatever we wanted to see but we were told that they tried to make things look better. But even with that, it's awful the conditions that these people are placed in."

"On June 1 we have 2,500 children in our custody; 1,200 had been with us over three days. CBP border facilities have faced intense scrutiny over what lawyers, doctors and advocates have called major health and hygiene problems. A New York Times report published Saturday detailed outbreaks of scabies, shingles and chickenpox among the children being held in a facility in Clint, Texas. "This investigation is continuing and the agents will be held accountable if they're CBP employees who did inappropriate things," he said. "That's why we're enhancing our border security, that's why we've asked Congress to change the laws, but it's also why we need to do interior enforcement."

(CNN) - Pediatricians shared disturbing images drawn by migrant children who were recently separated from their parents while in US Customs and Border Protection custody. The staff at the center asked the children to depict their time in CBP custody. McAleenan, who is now acting secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, requested the meetings after two children died in CBP custody. A pediatrician caring for migrant children at an El Paso hospital said CBP's screening for children in its custody is "absolutely and unequivocally inadequate." He said other doctors would disagree with the AAP pediatricians about the health conditions for migrant children.

(CNN) - US Border Patrol apprehensions along the southern border dropped in June for the first month since January, according to preliminary internal data obtained by CNN. There were nearly 95,000 apprehensions on the US-Mexico border last month, down about 28% from 132,887 in May -- the highest month in more than a decade. Despite the drop, this June was much higher than the same time last year, when there were 34,089 apprehensions. The numbers are in line with forecasts from acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, who said Friday that it appeared there would be a 25% decrease in June numbers of migrants crossing at the US-Mexico border. The numbers come amid public outcry over reports that migrant children were held under poor health and hygiene conditions at multiple Border Patrol locations in Texas.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(CNN) - The FBI has seen a significant rise in the number of white supremacist domestic terrorism cases in recent months, a senior FBI counterterrorism official said Thursday. The domestic terror cases generally include suspects involved in violence related to anti-government views, racial or religious bias, environmental extremism and abortion-related views. The FBI wouldn't provide specific numbers to quantify the increase of in the number of white supremacist domestic terrorism cases. Unlike international terrorism investigations, domestic terrorism cases pose thornier issues for the FBI because of First Amendment protections. The US doesn't have a domestic terrorism law and no government agency designates domestic groups as being terrorist organizations.

(CNN) - Acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner John Sanders is resigning, he said in a message sent to agency employees Tuesday, amid the dramatic increase in the number of undocumented migrants crossing the border and a fight over how to address it. Sanders assumed the post after Kevin McAleenan, the former commissioner, moved up to fill the role of acting Department of Homeland Security secretary in the wake of Kirstjen Nielsen's ouster this spring. In his role, Sanders has overseen the agency charged with protecting the nation's border at a time when illegal crossings have hit record levels. When I began this journey, Commissioner McAleenan charged me with aligning the mission support organizations and accelerating his priorities. My hope is you build upon your accomplishments and embrace new opportunities, remain flexible, and continue to make CBP extraordinary.