The US Senate on Monday confirmed Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin as the new Secretary of Homeland Security, with a 54-45 vote largely along party lines. Mullin, a Trump loyalist, replaces Kristi Noem and will oversee the president's immigration crackdown.
Only one Republican, Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted against Mullin, while Democrats John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico supported him. Heinrich called Mullin a 'friend' who 'is not someone who can simply be bullied into changing his views' and expressed hope that he would not take orders from White House official Stephen Miller.
Mullin now leads a department of 260,000 employees, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol. His first tasks include reopening parts of the department shuttered in February after Democrats rejected funding legislation due to a lack of guardrails on immigration enforcement, following the killing of two US citizens by ICE agents in Minneapolis.
At his confirmation hearing, Mullin struck a diplomatic tone, saying his goal was to keep DHS out of the lead story every day. He expressed regret for calling one of the killed citizens 'a deranged individual' but deflected questions on specific immigration tactics, including keeping agents away from polling stations, saying 'if you're not a citizen, you shouldn't be voting anyway'.
Mullin affirmed that agents would not enter homes or businesses without a judicial warrant, despite reports of ICE using internal administrative warrants. The funding negotiations remain complicated, with Trump demanding support for the Save America Act, which imposes new voter ID requirements.
