Trump replaces Secret Service director

President Trump is removing U.S. Secret Service Director Randolph “Tex” Alles from his position.

“United States Secret Service director Randolph ‘Tex’ Alles has done a great job at the agency over the last two years, and the President is thankful for his over 40 years of service to the country,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Monday. “Mr. Alles will be leaving shortly and President Trump has selected James M. Murray, a career member of the [United States Secret Service], to take over as director beginning in May.”

CNN first reported that Trump was firing Alles, citing multiple administration officials.

{mosads}Alles reports directly to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who resigned Sunday effective April 10, reportedly due to her resistance against White House directives to resume separating migrant children from their families.

The Secret Service recently came under scrutiny for its handling of an incident in which a Chinese national was allowed to enter President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club. The woman, who alternately claimed to be there to swim and attend an event for Chinese-American business leaders, was eventually determined to be carrying two Chinese passports and a device containing malware.

The Secret Service and White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.

An administration official told CNN that Alles’s firing was part of a “purge” at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) following Nielsen’s resignation, saying Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Frances Cissna and the Office of the General Counsel’s John Mitnick would also likely depart soon.

Top Trump adviser Stephen Miller, an immigration hard-liner, has become Trump’s point man on immigration and border policy in recent weeks and is determined to replace DHS leadership with likeminded officials, according to the official.

The Associated Press, however, reported that Alles’s departure is “unrelated” to other exits from DHS.

We’re told this is not related to the other departures at DHS. https://t.co/wzyVFM20lG

— Jill Colvin (@colvinj) April 8, 2019

Updated at 2:35 p.m.