Chad Wolf
Chad F. Wolf is an American government official and former lobbyist. He is the acting Secretary of Homeland Security and Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Strategy, Policy, and Plans. He previously served in several positions in the Department of Homeland Security, including as Chief of Staff of the Transportation Security Administration and Chief of Staff to DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. He was an architect of the Trump administration family separation policy.
From 2005 to 2016, Wolf was a lobbyist, helping clients secure contracts from the Transportation Security Administration, his previous employer.
Education and early career
Wolf is originally from Plano, Texas. He graduated from Plano East Senior High School and then attended Collin College on a tennis scholarship. He then earned a B.S. in U.S. history from Southern Methodist University.Wolf worked as a staffer for Republican Senators Phil Gramm, Kay Bailey Hutchison, and then Chuck Hagel, for whom he worked for two-and-a-half years. From 2002 to 2005, he worked in the Transportation Security Administration, becoming Assistant Administrator for Transportation Security Policy in 2005.
Lobbyist career
From October 2005 to 2016, he was Vice President and Senior Director at Wexler & Walker, a now defunct lobbying firm. He helped clients obtain contracts from the TSA, his previous employer.In 2013 he received a Master Certificate in government contract management from Villanova University.
Return to government
In March 2017 Wolf became Chief of Staff of the Transportation Security Administration.In 2018 he became Chief of Staff of DHS under Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. While working for Nielsen, he was an early architect of the family separation policy. He later testified to Congress that his function was to provide information to the Secretary and "not to determine whether it was the right or wrong policy," though he agreed with the decision to end the policy. He also testified that he was not involved in the initial development of the policy by the Executive Office of the President and the Attorney General, though this statement was disputed based on internal documents.
He then became Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Strategy, Plans, Analysis & Risk, a Senior Executive Service position not subject to Senate confirmation. He concurrently served as Acting Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Strategy, Policy, and Plans. He was nominated in February 2019 to serve permanently in the Under Secretary role, and his confirmation hearing was held that June, but the nomination was delayed by Senator Jacky Rosen to protest poor conditions for children at DHS facilities.
Acting Secretary of Homeland Security
Appointment
Wolf's appointment as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security came after the departure of Kevin McAleenan was announced on November 1, 2019. The fact that he had previously lobbied for the National Association of Software and Services Companies, which was in favor of the H-1B visa program, led to criticism from groups favoring more restrictive immigration policies, but the Trump administration defended his record and privately asked Republican senators not to oppose his appointment.The administration waited for Wolf's confirmation as Under Secretary before appointing him Acting Secretary to avoid appointing him as a principal officer from a non-Senate-confirmed position, which many scholars and former government officials have argued is unconstitutional. DHS then had to move the Under Secretary position earlier in the line of succession, because the 210-day period in which an acting official may be named without a pending permanent nomination had expired, mandating that the Secretary's duties must be performed by the department's seniormost confirmed official.
Wolf was confirmed as Under Secretary on November 13, 2019, on a 54–41 vote, and was sworn in as acting secretary of DHS the same day. On November 15, House Democrats Bennie Thompson and Carolyn Maloney requested that the Comptroller General of the United States review the legality of Wolf's appointment on the basis that former Acting Secretary McAleenan did not have authority to change the department's line of succession, asserting that former Secretary Nielsen had not properly placed McAleenan first in the line of succession before resigning and that McAleenan's change came after the 210-day limit to his authority had expired.
In July 2020, University of Michigan law professor Nina Mendelson, an expert on federal vacancies, confirmed that an Acting Secretary can serve for only 210 days following vacancy by a Senate-confirmed officeholder. The last Senate-appointed DHS Secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, stepped down on April 10, 2019, 469 days earlier.
Tenure
In February 2020, Wolf announced that the Trump administration was revoking New York residents' ability to participate in Global Entry and other Trusted Traveler programs, in response to the state's "sanctuary" immigration policies, which jeopardized the government's ability to effectively vet travelers. The move prompted the State of New York to sue the administration. In July 2020, lawyers for the Trump administration informed the court that DHS officials had made false statements to justify excluding New York residents from the Trusted Traveler programs and that DHS would end the policy, admitting the inaccuracies "undermine a central argument" in their case.In July 2020, Wolf sent federal agents dressed in camouflage and tactical gear to Portland, Oregon, where they used tear gas on protesters. Agents also used unmarked vehicles to detain protesters without identifying themselves as law enforcement. Legal observers called this "abduction" and "kidnapping". Oregon Governor Kate Brown called the actions an "abuse of power" and accused Wolf of "provoking confrontation for political purposes". Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler called it "an attack on our democracy". Wolf alleged the protesters were a "violent mob" and "violent anarchists". The New York Times reported that an internal DHS memo had been presented to Wolf before the deployment that said the federal agents in question had not been specifically trained in riot control or mass demonstrations. Wolf was criticized for taking unauthorized photographs inside the courthouse, contrary to local and national court policy.
Tom Ridge, the first head of DHS, sharply criticized the deployment, saying, "The department was established to protect America from the ever-present threat of global terrorism. It was not established to be the president's personal militia." Ridge, the former governor of Pennsylvania, added that it would be a "cold day in hell" before he would have consented as a governor to such a deployment.
In a July 21 press conference, Wolf defended the deployment of officers in unmarked military-style uniforms, saying they had identifying numbers on their shoulders. But former Trump administration DHS spokesman David Lapan disputed that the officers are easy to identify, saying, "People like me, who served a long time, have to look very long and hard to figure out who these people are. For the average citizen, it looks like the military is being used to suppress American citizens. Even if that's not the case, and this is law enforcement, it creates the impression that the military is being used." In a Fox News interview on the same day, Wolf claimed it was necessary for the federal government to "proactively arrest individuals."
The Washington Post reported in July 2020 that Trump had told his aides that he liked Wolf more than his predecessors because his predecessors pushed back on Trump's expansive view of federal power.