President Donald Trump fired the acting attorney general on Monday night, replacing her with Dana Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates was fired hours after she refused to enforce Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order, which would ban immigrants and refugees from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from entering the United States, according to CNN.
On the same day, Trump told a Christian Broadcasting Network reporter that he would give higher priority to Christian immigrants and refugees than he would to Muslims, CNN reported.
On Monday, Yates, a Jan. 2015 appointee of former President Barack Obama, told Department of Justice officials that she does not believe enforcement of Trump’s executive order is just or legal, according to the New York Times.
In a White House statement issued Monday night, Trump called Yates “weak” on border control and illegal immigration, adding that she has “betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States.”
Boente will serve as acting attorney general until Sen. Jeff Sessions is confirmed by the United States Senate.
“I will defend and enforce the laws of our country to ensure that our people and our nation are protected,” Boente wrote in a statement.