President Donald Trump has cracked down on illegal immigration and reversed President Joe Biden’s immigration policies, but at least one of Biden’s political appointees in the Department of Homeland Security has kept his prominent DHS job under Trump.
Jeff Rezmovic, who currently serves as deputy assistant commissioner at the Board of Trade in Customs and Border Protection, has worked at DHS as an ostensibly nonpolitical career employee since 2011. Yet Biden appointed him to a top leadership role at DHS in July 2023. When Rezmovic failed to gain confirmation in the Senate, Biden withdrew the nomination—but not before Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas had weighed in.
While presidents appoint more than 3,000 people for political positions, the federal government directly employs roughly 2.3 million people, most of whom serve in purportedly nonpolitical, career positions. While the Office of Management and Budget tracks when political appointees transition to career positions—a process often referred to as “burrowing in” to the bureaucracy—Rezmovic never left his career position because Biden withdrew the nomination.
Even so, Rezmovic fits the broader trend of Biden appointees remaining in the bureaucracy under Trump.
Ken Cuccinelli, former acting deputy secretary of Homeland Security in Trump’s first term, raised concerns about Rezmovic.
“Jeff Rezmovic’s history is extraordinarily political for a career employee in DHS,” Cuccinelli told The Daily Signal in a statement Thursday. “He would not have been continuously moved to and through the extremely sensitive policy implementation positions of the last four years if he wasn’t doing the political work of Biden/Mayorkas, ultimately being formally nominated for a political appointment.”
“It is one thing for him to stay as a federal employee, but it is another matter entirely to employ him in any policy position or position of discretion or advice in a Trump administration,” Cuccinelli added (emphasis original). “The history of of deep state career employees working to undermine President Trump is simply too clear to walk into such a problem when it is avoidable.”
As recently as June 27, CBP’s Office of Trade announced that Rezmovic, deputy executive assistant commissioner, spoke at an annual trade conference that week.
According to his DHS profile, Rezmovic graduated from the University of Michigan and received his law degree from the University of Colorado. He served as a speechwriter at the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2010 and first joined DHS in 2011, working in the office of the deputy secretary.
Rezmovic also served as chief of staff of the DHS Blue Campaign, “where he shaped and implemented the department’s anti-human trafficking priorities” through a public awareness campaign and policy solutions to support survivors. He served as branch chief at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services from 2018 to 2020.
In the Biden administration, he served as deputy chief of staff for policy, supporting Mayorkas in “overseeing the daily operations of the department’s 260,000 personnel and $98 billion budget.” He rose to the role of associate deputy under secretary for management, overseeing “the department’s mission support functions, including human capital, security, procurement, information technology, and more.”
During his Nov. 2, 2023, confirmation hearing, Rezmovic mentioned that his mother worked for the Government Accountability Office and that his wife worked at the U.S. Agency for International Development, an agency Trump has effectively dissolved.
If confirmed, Rezmovic said he would focus on modernizing DHS’s financial systems, which he described as only 40% modernized. He said he would work to make the $8 billion information technology budget more efficient.
Mayorkas, who faced heavy criticism for reportedly failing to enforce immigration law in detaining and deporting illegal aliens, praised Rezmovic’s nomination in a lengthy statement.
He described Rezmovic as “a brilliant, selfless, and tireless advocate for our department and its mission, and for the people who carry it forward.”
Among other things, Mayorkas praised Rezmovic for leading the Surge Capacity Force, which mobilizes volunteers to help after natural disasters; for expanding the Nonprofit Security Grant Program from $180 million to $305 million; and for helping to create the Family Reunification Task Force, which Mayorkas credited with reunifying more than 700 separated children from their parents.
The House of Representatives voted to impeach Mayorkas in February 2024 on a largely party-line vote. The Senate rejected the articles of impeachment two months later. Republicans accused Mayorkas of “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” by allowing millions of illegal aliens to enter the country and settle in it.
Critics also attacked many of the programs Rezmovic helped lead.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, raised concerns that DHS was using its “temporary parole authority” through the Family Reunification Task Force to allow family members to enter and remain in the U.S. illegally in order to reunite with separated minors. This may have violated U.S. law, since those who enter the U.S. illegally are generally “barred from re-entry to the U.S. for a period ranging anywhere from 5 up to 20 years,” Cruz said.
A Middle East Forum study found that from 2013 to 2024 DHS awarded $25 million in grants, part of them through the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, to groups tied to terrorists. FEMA has paused the program, triggering an outcry from Democrats and some Republicans.
An April poll found that 75% of Washington, D.C.-based federal employees making $75,000 or more per year who voted for Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris in November said they would not follow a lawful Trump order if they considered it bad policy.
While some political appointees who took “career” positions may faithfully work for the U.S. government under any president, this poll suggests that some staff inside the federal government may work against the goals of the current president, in this case Trump.
Furthermore, a February Foundation for Government Accountability study found that Democrat employees outnumber Republican employees by a 2-to-1 margin across federal agencies. In the 2024 presidential election, 84% of the money federal employees gave in political contributions went to Harris.
Federal workers enjoy workplace protections that make them very difficult to fire. The new administration is seeking to reform these rules to enable the president to fulfill his duties as head of the executive branch without facing opposition from hostile bureaucrats.
The Daily Signal reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Patrol, and FEMA for comment.
This is the latest in a series on bureaucrats burrowing in. Part one covers eight appointees. Part two focuses on a former Russiagate adviser who works at the Federal Aviation Administration. Parts three and five expose a former lawyer for then-Sen. Kamala Harris who advised Harris during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and who now works at the Defense Department.
Part four focuses on a former Biden campaign lawyer who now works at the Justice Department. Part six highlights a former member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission who failed to get reconfirmed, “burrowed in” at the Department of Energy, and took the buyout. Part seven draws attention to a lawyer who worked with former Attorney General Eric Holder and who now works in the Trump DOJ.