Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan departs, leaving department at war with itself

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump is pushing out Kevin McAleenan, his acting Homeland Security secretary, making the lawyer and former Obama administration official the latest target in a long purge of leadership from the U.S. government's third-largest department.

McAleenan leaves the Department of Homeland Security in turmoil, at war with the White House and itself over the Trump administration's aggressive drive to restrict immigration, prioritizing it above the department's other responsibilities, such as counterterrorism and disaster response.

Despite withstanding months of public sniping from the administration and clear policy disagreements with the president, McAleenan also proved an effective implementer of some of Trump's most extreme crackdown efforts at the border.

But it wasn't enough. This reality was recently underscored when Trump refused to back down from a misstatement on Hurricane Dorian, forcing McAleenan, whose department also oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to hold up a doctored chart forecasting the storm's path for cameras in the Oval Office. As McAleenan led Trump in a tour at the border late last month, other officials interjected to defend and praise the president.

Under McAleenan, the Homeland Security Department has been beset by political infighting and frustration between border and immigration officials over the ever-changing directives from the White House and a surge in migrants at the U.S. southern