Boston Native Tapped to Head Department of Homeland Security: Reports

Retired Marine General and Boston native John F. Kelly has been appointed to lead the Department of Homeland Security under President-elect Donald Trump, according to multiple reports Wednesday, including The Associated Press.

A 2011 article in the Boston Globe describes Kelly as a "Boston native, combat veteran, three-star general, and senior military adviser to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta," the son of a hard-working Brighton postal worker. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 1976, according to his biography on the Department of Defense website.

As DHS Secretary, Kelly will oversee a sweeping organization who's wide-ranging responsibilities have ballooned in recent years and landed in the center of some of the nation's most controversial debates. Among those responsibilities are border security, immigration enforcement, airport security, the Coast Guard, terrorism and cybersecurity.

Photo courtesy Department of Defense