Senate Confirms Mullin as Next DHS Secretary

The Senate on March 23 confirmed Oklahoma’s Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin as the next Department of Homeland Security secretary.

The Senate voted 54–45 to confirm Mullin, who will replace DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.

​President Donald Trump, while praising Noem, reassigned her as special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, following protests in Minnesota over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations that led to two U.S. citizens’ deaths.

The confirmation of a new Homeland Security leader comes as Congress and the White House spar over agency funding amid Democratic criticism of DHS’s handling of immigration operations and deportations.

The partisan standoff led to a partial shutdown of DHS that has resulted in long lines at U.S. airports as some Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents have quit or not shown up for work due to delayed paychecks. Over the weekend, Trump ordered immigration officers to assist TSA agents.

During Mullin’s confirmation hearing on March 18, lawmakers questioned him on immigration enforcement, emergency response, and how he would lead the agency.

Mullin urged Congress to fully fund DHS, saying it’s ​“unconscionable” to let agency workers go unpaid.​

He suggested that Congress was “playing with fire” by withholding money during a conflict with Iran and apparent lone-wolf terrorist attacks that have occurred across the country in recent weeks.

Mullin suggested that he would take a fresh approach to immigration enforcement by working with local governments and law enforcement.

“I would like to go in there and talk to the mayors,” he said. “I’d like to go in there and talk to the sheriffs, talk to the chiefs, say, ‘What are your concerns?’”

He indicated during the hearing that he would take a different approach to immigration enforcement surrounding the use of administrative warrants.​

Democrats have demanded the use of judicial warrants for ICE to enter homes or businesses as a condition of funding DHS.

Pressed by Democrats, Mullin also pledged to restructure the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) rather than eliminate it.

​“We’ll be adequately staffed to respond to our nation’s disasters, but it’s going to take some time to get there because, like I said, people are quitting today because they’re not getting paid for the third time in a year,” he said, highlighting the current lack of funding for FEMA.

Mullin also clashed with the Republican chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Rand Paul, who accused Mullin of having “anger issues” and joined some Democrats in questioning whether Mullin was fit to lead DHS during last week’s heated confirmation hearing.

The chairman accused Mullin of failing to condemn a political violence incident in 2017 that left Paul with broken ribs after his neighbor tackled him on his lawn in his Bowling Green, Kentucky, neighborhood.

Paul also played a video of Mullin at a 2023 hearing, where he urged Teamsters Union President Sean O’Brien to stand up and fight him.

Mullin pointed out that he and O’Brien had settled their differences and that the union boss was in the audience to show his support during the hearing.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.