Former DHS Chiefs Urge Donald Trump to OK Joe Biden Transition

Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge speaks during an event to mark
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Neil Munro

Four former chiefs of the homeland security department are pressing President Donald Trump to quickly allow Joe Biden to set up offices in government agencies, regardless of incomplete ballot counts and unresolved legal claims.

“By all credible accounts, state election officials have been diligent in conducting a fair, legal, and accurate count — county by county, state by state,” said the November 10 letter from the four former heads of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

“President Trump is assured the benefit of a fair process and the right to file legal challenges and request recounts, but his legal claims cannot and must not prevent the transition process from beginning,” said the letter, signed by the four DHS chiefs for former Presidents George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.

The signatories are Tom Ridge, Michael Chertoff, Janet Napolitano, and Jeh Johnson. A reporter for Politico posted the letter to Twitter.

The four secretaries are the establishment guardians of the hugely lucrative white-collar visa-worker programs, including the H-1B program. The programs allow Silicon Valley’s tech companies to consolidate their control of the nation’s tech sector, and allow Fortune 500 companies to spike stock value for Wall Street by shriveling the salaries of American graduates.

The visa-worker programs are used by CEOs and investors to minimize the role of American professionals in the tech sector because Americans can quit established companies to create innovative rivals.

Throughout Trump’s entire, the four guardians have consistently fought against any curbs on the visa programs. The all-hands defense by Fortune 500 companies — and universities — worked until August 2020, when Trump launched a series of reforms that would shrink the H-1B program.

The four chiefs’ petition excludes Trump’s two former DHS chiefs, Kirstjen Nielsen and Kevin McAleenan. Both of Trump’s DHS leaders cracked down on the politically obvious problem of blue-collar migration — but both also used the border uproar to divert media attention from the more important white-collar programs.

The full petition says:

Voting in the 2020 presidential election is over, and the American people have made their voices heard. By all credible accounts, state election officials have been diligent in conducting a fair, legal, and accurate count — county by county, state by state. President Trump is assured the benefit of a fair process and the right to file legal challenges and request recounts, but his legal claims cannot and must not prevent the transition process from beginning.

The Presidential Transition Act requires a transition to run concurrently with any election challenges and is intended to ensure the incoming administration is prepared to handle any challenge on Day 1.

A peaceful charge of power was defined as essential to national security by the 9/11 Commission. It was critical following the 2008 election, when the country was confronted with active terror during the transition and what was then the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. It was essential in 2016 when America was working to defeat ISIS. And it is essential now.

 

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