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U.S. NEWS Tuesday 9 april 2019

Secret Service head Alles

leaving, career official tapped

By ZEKE MILLER, COLLEEN hawk and White House se- conflicts, said the officials.
LONG and JILL COLVIN nior adviser, is also eyeing Murray, the assistant direc-
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. the removal of Lee Francis tor of the office of protec-
Secret Service Director Cissna, according to two tive operations, had served
Randolph "Tex" Alles has of the people. Cissna is di- as the special agent in
been pushed out of the rector of U.S. Citizenship charge of the agency's
Trump administration, amid and Immigration Services, Washington field office.
a burgeoning shake-up in which runs the legal immi- Sanders said Alles "has
the upper echelon of the gration system. done a great job at the In this Feb. 1, 2018 file photo, Director of the United States Secret
Department of Homeland Alles, a former Marine gen- agency over the last two Service, Randolph "Tex" Alles, speaks at the Atlanta Press Club
Security. eral who had no prior ties to years," and said Trump is in Atlanta.
White House press secre- the Secret Service, was rec- thankful for his service.q Associated Press
tary Sarah Sanders said ommended to the post by
Monday that President former White House chief
Donald Trump had select- of staff John Kelly. He had
ed career Secret Service been the acting deputy
official James Murray to commissioner of Customs
lead the agency, saying and Border Protection.
he will assume the role next In a message to the agen-
month. She added Alles will cy's workforce, Alles said
be "leaving shortly," though he was not fired, but said
the agency later said he Trump had "directed an
would leave in May. orderly transition in lead-
Alles' departure stems from ership for this agency." He
a personality conflict within expressed "regret" he was
the agency, three officials not able to address the de-
said, speaking on the con- partment before the news
dition of anonymity to dis- broke.
cuss the personnel matter. Confirmed in 2017, Alles
The officials said it was un- inherited an agency that
related to the resignation had been dealing with a
of Homeland Security Sec- series of security and per-
retary Kirstjen Nielsen and sonnel issues. Weeks before
a recent security breach at he was nominated, a man
the president's private club jumped the White House
in Florida. fence and spent 15 min-
Still, it comes amid a spate utes roaming the grounds.
of turnover across DHS that His appointment was set to
began last week when fulfill the recommendations
Trump withdrew his Immi- of a group of former senior
gration and Customs En- government officials that
forcement director's nomi- reviewed the Secret Ser-
nation to stay on perma- vice in 2014 and found that
nently. it was an "insular agency"
After Nielsen's departure, in need of an outsider to
an empowered Stephen lead it. But Alles' unfamiliar-
Miller, the immigration ity with the agency led to