37 Facts About Kirstjen Nielsen

Kirstjen Michele Nielsen is an American attorney who served as United States Secretary of Homeland Security from 2017 to 2019.

Kirstjen Nielsen is a former principal White House deputy chief of staff to President Donald Trump, and was chief of staff to John F Kelly during his tenure as Secretary of Homeland Security.

Kirstjen Nielsen is best known for implementing the Trump administration family separation policy.

Kirstjen Michele Nielsen was born on May 14,1972, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Phyllis Michele Nielsen and James McHenry Nielsen, both United States Army physicians.

Kirstjen Nielsen's father is of Danish ancestry while her mother is of Italian descent.

The oldest of three children, Kirstjen Nielsen has a sister, Ashley, and a brother, Fletcher.

Kirstjen Nielsen then attended the University of Virginia School of Law, receiving her Juris Doctor in 1999.

Kirstjen Nielsen took Japanese studies at Nanzan University, in Nagoya, Japan.

Kirstjen Nielsen set up, and led as assistant administrator, the Transportation Security Administration's Office of Legislative Policy and Government Affairs.

In early September 2017, just over a month after Kelly became White House chief of staff on July 31,2017, Kirstjen Nielsen moved to the White House, becoming the principal deputy chief of staff under Kelly.

On October 11,2017, President Donald Trump nominated Kirstjen Nielsen to be the new United States secretary of homeland security, replacing acting secretary Elaine Duke.

On January 16,2018, Kirstjen Nielsen testified before the United States Senate in favor of merit, rather than family, based immigration.

Kirstjen Nielsen said, "I did not hear that word used, no sir," although she said she heard "tough language" that was impassioned.

From March to December 2018, Kirstjen Nielsen sat on the Federal Commission on School Safety.

On March 23,2018, it was reported that Kirstjen Nielsen agreed with the enactment of the Presidential Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security Regarding Military Service by Transgender Individuals.

At a May 2018 congressional hearing, Kirstjen Nielsen said that she was unaware of the intelligence community's conclusion that Russia sought to interfere in the 2016 presidential election to help candidate Trump get elected.

Kirstjen Nielsen said that she had not seen the intelligence community briefing that Russia had tried to interfere in the 2016 election.

In July 2018, Kirstjen Nielsen said there were no signs that Russia was targeting the 2018 midterm elections in the same "scale or scope" as it did in 2016.

At the Aspen Security Forum, Aspen, Colorado, during an interview by Peter Alexander of NBC on July 19,2018, Kirstjen Nielsen stated that Russians had absolutely interfered in the United States presidential election in 2016.

In October 2018, Kirstjen Nielsen said that China has become a major threat to the US Kirstjen Nielsen confirmed, in an answer to a question from a senator, that China is trying to influence US elections.

Kirstjen Nielsen told an aide at the meeting that she would not authorize the use of the device and that its use should never be brought up to her again.

On June 18,2018, Kirstjen Nielsen defended the policy at a sheriffs' conference but said the administration had asked Congress "to allow us to keep families together while they are detained" as an alternative.

Kirstjen Nielsen held a press briefing with White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders in June 2018 amid growing public outcry about the family separation policy.

Kirstjen Nielsen accused the media and members of Congress of mischaracterizing the administration's policy.

Kirstjen Nielsen dismissed the suggestion that the administration was using family separations as political leverage to force Congress to support Trump's broader immigration agenda or to deter migrants from coming to the United States.

Kirstjen Nielsen got very little support from administration officials such as Miller, who was openly against her.

Sources told Politico that Kirstjen Nielsen had privately pushed for this executive order behind the scenes while at the same time saying publicly that the executive order could not be created.

In September 2018, The Intercept reported that Kirstjen Nielsen had previously personally authorized the family separation policy after receiving an April 23,2018, memo by the heads of three federal immigration agencies recommending the family separation policy for the express purpose of deterring migration.

At the time of the report, Kirstjen Nielsen had avoided attributing deterrence as the purpose of the policy.

Kirstjen Nielsen testified before Congress that "every parent" had the choice to take their child back and that the parents who left their children behind did so voluntarily.

Kirstjen Nielsen said she had ordered her agency to bolster medical screenings of children at the southwest border and had enlisted the medical corps of the United States Coast Guard to provide an assessment of CBP's medical programs.

Kirstjen Nielsen stated that she had been "repressed by Russia" and had fled Russia for Thailand.

In September 2020, Brian Murphy alleged that Kirstjen Nielsen had politicized the Department of Homeland Security and interfered with DHS intelligence reports to support the views of Stephen Miller and Donald Trump.

In May 2018, The New York Times reported that Kirstjen Nielsen considered resigning after President Trump berated her during a cabinet meeting for what he described as her failure to secure US borders.

Kirstjen Nielsen submitted her resignation as secretary of homeland security on April 7,2019, after a White House meeting with President Trump, two days after the President announced he wanted to go in a "tougher" direction on immigration.

Kirstjen Nielsen had cut short a week-long trip to Europe where she was going to discuss cybersecurity and terror threats with senior United Kingdom and Swedish government officials.

In October 2019, the Trump Administration announced that Kirstjen Nielsen had been appointed to the National Infrastructure Advisory Council.