WASHINGTON (CN) - The acting head of the Department of Homeland Security is leaving his position, President Donald Trump announced on Friday.
Trump tweeted on Friday night that acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan is leaving for a job in the private sector and that his replacement will be announced next week.
"Kevin McAleenan has done an outstanding job as acting secretary of Homeland Security," Trump tweeted. "We have worked well together with border crossings being way down. Kevin now, after many years in government, wants to spend more time with his family and go to the private sector."
McAleenan took over the department in April after the agency's former secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned. Before taking the job, McAleenan was the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
McAleenan has been the public face of the agency during a time when it has issued a host of controversial immigration policies, including this summer's announcement of a regulation that would allow the government to hold children and families together for longer periods of time.
He also was involved in the negotiation of immigration agreements with El Salvador and Guatemala aimed at easing the flow of migrants seeking to enter the United States and oversaw an expansion of the administration's policy requiring people seeking asylum in the United States to remain in Mexico while their claims are adjudicated.
McAleenan's replacement will be the fifth person to lead the agency since Trump took office.
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