Acting Secretary of Homeland Security
Wolf began serving as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security in November 2019. In November 2020, a federal court ruled his appointment unlawful and overturned a set of his orders. On January 6, 2021, Trump formally withdrew his nomination of Wolf. Wolf resigned on January 11, 2021.
Wolf's appointment as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security came after Kevin McAleenan's departure was announced on November 1, 2019.
The administration waited for Wolf's confirmation as Under Secretary before appointing him Acting Secretary to avoid appointing him as a principal officer from a non-Senate-confirmed position. DHS then had to move the Under Secretary position earlier in the line of succession, because the 210-day period in which an acting official was eligible to be named without a pending permanent nomination had expired. This, in turn, mandated that the Secretary's duties had to be performed by the department's senior-most confirmed official.
Wolf was confirmed as Under Secretary on November 13, 2019, on a 54–41 vote. He was sworn in as Acting Secretary the same day.
On November 15, 2019, House Democrats Bennie Thompson and Carolyn Maloney requested that the Comptroller General of the United States review the legality of Wolf's appointment on the basis that former Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan did not have authority to change the department's line of succession, asserting that former Secretary Nielsen had not properly placed McAleenan first in the line of succession before resigning and that McAleenan's change came after the 210-day limit to his authority had expired.
On August 14, 2020, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) argued that Wolf had become Acting Secretary improperly. A number of federal courts later ruled that Wolf's appointment was invalid for reasons similar to those given by the GAO and issued orders on procedural grounds barring enforcement of rules Wolf had created.
On August 24, 2020, Trump announced that he would nominate Wolf as the permanent Secretary of Homeland Security. Wolf was expected to continue to serve as Acting Secretary during the confirmation process, as his acting appointment was made under the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and not the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, which prevents most nominees from simultaneously acting in the same position. On September 10, 2020, the nomination was formally submitted to the Senate. On September 23, 2020, Wolf appeared before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The committee reported his nomination favorably on September 30, but the full Senate took no further action before the end of the 116th Congress.
On January 3, 2021, Wolf's nomination was resubmitted to the 117th Congress, but on January 6, it was formally withdrawn.
Wolf maintained a low public profile during the early part of his term, prior to the deployment of federal law enforcement forces in Portland, Oregon, and elsewhere in response to rioting beginning in July 2020.
In 2017, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security awarded $6 million in contracts to Berkeley Research Group, where Wolf's wife, Hope Wolf, is an executive.
In February 2020, Wolf announced that the Trump administration was revoking New York residents' ability to participate in Global Entry and other Trusted Traveler programs, in response to the state's "sanctuary" immigration policies, which DHS said jeopardized the government's ability to effectively vet travelers. New York subsequently changed its law that had prevented sharing of information with federal law enforcement officers to expressly allow for information-sharing of New York Department of Motor Vehicles records "as necessary for an individual seeking acceptance into a trusted traveler program, or to facilitate vehicle imports and/or exports", and the DHS then removed the Global Entry restrictions.
During his tenure as head of the DHS, Wolf redirected resources in the DHS toward antifa, a loose movement of left-wing activists. In spring 2020, Wolf redirected staff reporting on alleged Russian interference in the 2020 election, ordering former head of DHS intelligence Brian Murphy to instead focus his reports on potential threats from Iran and China.
In September 2020, Wolf defied a subpoena to testify before the House Committee on Homeland Security.
In October 2020, Wolf sent Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey a letter calling on him to "commit to never again censoring content" on Twitter.
On January 11, 2021, Wolf resigned, with FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor as his replacement. He remained in his Under Secretary position. In his resignation letter, he cited "recent events, including the ongoing and meritless court rulings regarding the validity of my authority as Acting Secretary."
In July 2020, the Trump administration deployed federal law enforcement forces to Portland, Oregon, to help guard the federal courthouse against protesters who threw fireworks, frozen water bottles and balloons filled with paint and feces, which broke courthouse windows and that set parts of the courthouse on fire multiple times.
Oregon Governor Kate Brown, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, and Tom Ridge, the first head of DHS, criticized the deployment. Wolf argued that the protesters were a "violent mob" and "violent anarchists". The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) cited an executive order regarding "monuments, memorials and statues" as allowing federal officers to be deployed without the permission of individual U.S. states, as the federal government "has the right to enforce federal laws, investigate crimes and make arrests" within states.
