The White House installed former Sen. Markwayne Mullin atop the Homeland Security Department to clean up the agency’s image while boosting deportation numbers. It’s a tall order for virtually anyone in a heated political environment — and he just made it worse for himself.
Instead of smoothing over divisions among conservatives who believe some migrant guest worker programs are necessary versus those who want to see migrants deported by the millions, Mullin unleashed a fresh MAGA firestorm and thrust the administration back into a familiar intraparty fight over the president’s immigration agenda.
Speaking Saturday at the National Governors Association meeting, Mullin suggested that more employment visas for certain industries should be on the table to fill gaps in the labor market. His comments drew immediate derision on social media from prominent MAGA voices, including Tomi Lahren, who said Mullin wanted to “appease liberal media and big labor.”
Mullin wasn’t saying anything markedly different from what Trump himself has said, and the latest blow-up isn’t likely to cost him his job. But it frustrated officials inside the administration, who viewed it as yet another unforced error from a secretary tapped to prevent self-inflicted political headaches.
“He was supposedly brought in to normalize the department, not advocate for the Jeb Bush immigration policies that were rejected back in 2016,” said an administration official, who, like others in the story, was granted anonymity to share internal thinking.
Mullin’s latest misstep underscores the precarious position he occupies and highlights the intractable problem that is likely to define his tenure: balancing the demands of immigration hardliners with the political and operational realities of trying to rapidly deport millions of unauthorized immigrants. And that tension may only intensify if MAGA hardliners perceive that business-minded Republicans who want to juice the workforce are being prioritized over deportations.
“There’s a massive and very vocal and powerful financial faction in the West Wing that’s pushing Trump and Mullin, for that matter, in this one direction, and then you have the base that’s pushing Trump in the other direction,” said a person close to the administration.
Both DHS and the White House insist there is no daylight between the president and his Homeland Security head, and the DHS secretary responded to the weekend backlash with a post that said “NO amnesty for illegal aliens. EVER.” In a Tuesday night interview with NewsNation, Mullin claimed that “the president and I are always on the same page” and that his critics misconstrued his comments.
“They can take whatever they want to out of context. The truth is that we are deporting more people, setting records week after week, than we ever did underneath the previous administration,” Mullin said.
White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said the president has “confidence in his Cabinet to carry out the agenda the American people voted for,” while touting the administration’s record on border security, deportations, efforts to crack down on fraud committed by unauthorized immigrants and the denaturalization of people who “illegally procured American citizenship.” A DHS spokesperson added: “This is one team, and we have one fight to secure the homeland. Secretary Mullin works closely with President Trump, Stephen Miller, and Tom Homan to deliver on the American people’s mandate to remove criminal illegal aliens from this country. The results speak for themselves.”
Mullin was tapped in March to steady the agency after fallout from the administration’s Minneapolis operation in which two federal agents killed two U.S. citizens. And he’s had some success: Gone are the flashy, high-profile raids that drew widespread protests earlier this year, even as the DHS secretary claims his agency is arresting and deporting a record number of unauthorized immigrants — some 4,000 a day, Mullin said this week.
POLITICO reported this week that the numbers are not even close to that high. DHS has deported as many as 2,000 people per day in recent weeks, which is roughly in line with Noem’s tenure.
MAGA’s frustration extends beyond what they view as lagging deportation numbers. Mullin paused some vehicle stops last month after two ICE-involved shootings, prompting accusations from the president’s supporters that the administration was softening its enforcement. Trump, after steep online pushback, reversed the DHS order.
He also lacks an extensive background in immigration policy, and has at times made public comments on the issue — both before and during his tenure at DHS — that have frustrated immigration hardliners.
During his March confirmation hearing, Mullin stated he was amenable to requiring ICE to obtain warrants signed by judges before they entered homes, a position that put him at odds with the White House. And after the Supreme Court in June ruled in favor of the Trump administration’s efforts to nix temporary protected status for Syrian and Haitian migrants, Mullin made comments implying that there were other pathways for those TPS recipients to stay legally in the United States. He walked those comments back.
People close to the administration, including some who want to see a more aggressive deportation effort, say it will be easier to judge Mullin’s tenure after the election. Their view is that the White House wants to avoid reopening a damaging political fight on immigration enforcement ahead of the midterms. That’s an especially acute worry among some Republicans after polls showed weakening support on immigration and Republican allies warned the party was losing ground with key voting blocs, including Latino voters, young voters and moderate Republicans.
“We understand the politics of midterms. They don’t want to make a huge noise,” said the first person close to the administration. “They’re trying to do the best they can to appease the mass deportation people without ticking off and motivating the left even more.”
Others argue that MAGA critics overreacted to Mullin’s comments over the weekend, and pointed out that some of the loudest voices were allies of Noem, his predecessor. That includes Gregory Bovino, the former Border Patrol commander who led a series of aggressive raids in blue cities and who was sidelined after the shooting deaths in Minneapolis.
“A lot of the people who are squawking either don’t have a lot of experience in the policy arena, or they have unrealistic expectations for enforcement,” said a second person close to the administration. “Or they may be a little bit disgruntled because they may have been somewhat sidelined in how these policies have been developed.”
Republicans on Capitol Hill have also defended the DHS secretary, brushing off the latest criticism facing Mullin. Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) swatted away the concerns Mullin is soft on immigration enforcement, and said “the numbers show he’s tough, to say the least.”
And Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said Mullin is doing a “great job.”
“I’m sure that the secretary will implement the policies the president wants,” he said.
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