Sen. Markwayne Mullin does not sit on any committees with direct authority over immigration or the Department of Homeland Security. But his record on the issues the high-profile agency handles signals that he will bring a hardline approach to his new role atop the department.
In recent months, Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican who President Donald Trump nominated last week to take the reins at DHS, has waded into the controversial waters of the White House’s immigration policies. Trump announced Mullin as his pick concurrently with saying Kristi Noem would exit the position, becoming the first cabinet secretary of the president’s second term to leave.
He called Alex Pretti, the ICU nurse killed by federal immigration agents earlier this year, a “deranged individual.” He co-sponsored legislation after the killing of Renee Good at the hands of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent that would increase penalties against people who resist or assault law enforcement officers with vehicles. And he has expressed skepticism about birthright citizenship, a constitutional right that Trump has tried to end.
“I think he’s no-nonsense,” Lora Ries, director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at the Heritage Foundation, said in an interview. “It’s going to be about the mission for him. It won’t be about himself.”
