The Senate voted on Monday to install Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, handing the MAGA firebrand the reigns of the agency tasked with enforcing President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda.
Mullin was confirmed 54-45, with all but one Republican, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, voting to enlist him in Trump’s Cabinet. Democratic Sens. John Fetterman and Martin Heinrich broke party lines with their “yes” votes. Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego was absent for the vote on Monday.
Monday’s vote followed a combative confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security Committee last week, during which Mullin was scrutinized over his aggressive temperament and pressed to reveal the origin of past comments he made about encountering war despite never having served in the armed forces.
Mullin said his war comments — part of a pattern that suggests he is somehow familiar with active combat — originated from a “classified” overseas trip he took as a House member in 2016. Committee members asked him to provide further details about the foreign travel in a secure room used for detailing highly classified information.
Between shouting matches with Paul, the committee chair with whom he has had a long, public feud, the Oklahoma Republican walked the line between promising to effect change across the embattled agency and signaling support for Trump’s mass deportation agenda and harsh enforcement tactics.
Mullin will succeed former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, whom the president ousted after a series of misgivings. Even Republican lawmakers had grown vocally critical of Noem over her unapologetic $220 million border security ad blitz and relationship with special government employee Corey Lewandowski.
Once sworn in as secretary, Mullin will take charge at a turbulent time for the agency.
Democrats have refused to renew federal funding for DHS, which has been shut down for weeks, until the White House agrees to reform immigration enforcement tactics across the agency after federal officers killed two people in Minneapolis in January.
At the top of Democrats’ list of demands is a requirement for federal agents to obtain judicial warrants before entering a home or a business, rather than the administrative warrants Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have been using. Those are approved by DHS officials rather than a judge.
Mullin agreed to end the administrative warrant practice at his hearing in a sign that he may be willing to move the needle forward on the funding negotiations.
“A judicial warrant will be used to go into houses and to place of businesses, unless we’re pursuing someone that enters in that place,” Mullin said after he was pressed on the issue by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. He also said he wouldn’t “micromanage” the agency by continuing the personal review policy Noem implemented on all contracts, grants and expenditures exceeding $100,000. But Mullin dodged several questions from Democrats over whether he would stop pursuing the White House’s quota of 3,000 migrant arrests per day. He also didn’t provide a firm answer to questions about his willingness to execute unlawful orders from Trump, saying instead that he would work within the confines of the Constitution, which the agency has frequently interpreted in a contested way. TSA agents have missed their first full paycheck as the weekslong shutdown drags on and airport lines reach hourslong wait times. Mullin’s promise on judicial warrants inspired cautious optimism among negotiators, but there is still no DHS reform deal between Democrats and the White House.
Sydney Carruth is a breaking news reporter covering national politics and policy for MS NOW. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at SydneyCarruth.46 or follow her work on X and Bluesky. Recommended
