Randolph Alles served for 35 years in the Marine Corps, retiring in 2011 with the rank of Major General. | Getty Retired Marine general expected to be named Secret Service director Randolph Alles, acting deputy at Customs and Border protection, is expected to be tapped for top job.

Retired Marine Major Gen. Randolph Alles, the current U.S. Customs and Border deputy, is expected to be tapped to lead the Secret Service, according to a former law enforcement official familiar with the selection process.

Alles has served as the acting deputy commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection since Trump’s inauguration. He previously served stints as the CBP’s acting executive assistant commissioner of enterprise services and leading the department’s Air and Marine Operations.


Prior to serving in the federal government, Alles served for 35 years in the Marine Corps, retiring in 2011 with the rank of Major General.

Alles will take the reigns over from Secret Service Deputy Director William Callahan, who has led the Service since former director Joseph Clancy retired on March 4.

The Secret Service has faced repeated breaches and controversies since President Donald Trump entered the White House earlier this year, with two agents reportedly fired over a fence jumping incident in early March.

Alles' expected appointment comes after a search that purposefully looked outside of the Secret Service ranks — and process that hasn't exactly been popular among former agents. The 6,500-person bureau has its own unique characteristics and culture, which are often best understood by someone who has served on a protective detail.

"Imagine taking a guy from USDA and moving him over to be the commandant of the Marine Corps," said Bill Pickle, a former deputy assistant director of the Secret Service. "They're totally different jobs."

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Pickle spoke last week, before word of Alles' expected appointment.

In an email last week, Secret Service spokeswoman Cathy Milhoan downplayed the leadership vacuum.

"The absence of an appointed director has not impacted our protective or investigative responsibilities," she said.

But former Secret Service agents have been clamoring for Trump to quickly pick Clancy's full-time replacement.

"It's devastating," said Dan Bongino, a former protective detail agent for presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. "They don't have anyone right now guiding the ship."

Patrick O'Carroll, a former Secret Service agent now serving as executive director of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, said the lack of a permanent director "obviously must have some strain" with an agency already suffering from low morale.

O'Carroll also urged Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly to put the Secret Service director appointment at the top of his to-do list considering it is Trump who benefits most.

"The reason is when you start taking a look at what could go wrong on your watch the last thing you want is for something to happen to the president," O'Carroll said.