John Kelly, the Marine General to head Homeland Security: John Kelly, the Marine Corps general reportedly picked by Donald Trump to be Homeland Security secretary, will be the new administration's lead figure as it pursues the president-elect's goal of boosting the fight against Islamic extremists and illegal immigration.
The third general chosen for Trump's cabinet, Kelly spent 45 years in the Marines, holding a range of positions from field commands in Iraq to political liaison in Congress before finishing his career as commander of the US armed forces Southern Command covering Central and South America.
That experience -- and his record administering large operations -- will be useful if he is confirmed by Congress to take charge of the Department of Homeland Security bureaucracy of 240,000 civil servants, sorely in need of rationalizing and streamlining.
But meanwhile he will be in charge of fulfilling Trump's election promises to the American people to build a huge wall on the Mexican border to keep out migrants, and to tighten legal immigration processes to screen out potential extremists.
