While speaking with Jake Tapper on Sunday morning, Mullin defended the Trump administration’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitian and Syrian immigrants after the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the secretary’s choice to end a particular country’s TPS cannot be legally challenged.“Temporary Protected Status was never intended to be permanent, and there’s a lot of people who came here 15, 20 years ago, underneath TPS that’s already changed their status,” Mullin said before explaining how immigrants affected by the ruling can remain in the U.S.
“These individuals have a couple of choices. They can try to apply for a permanent residence here, they can apply for a temporary visa if they choose to, or they can choose to go back, and if they want to go back, we’ll help them with that.”Mullin’s words were interpreted by some as representing him moving away from a previous promise of the Trump administration to carry out “the largest and most aggressive immigration enforcement effort in American history.”Former Border Patrol Commander at Large Gregory Bovino said on X “I guess Republicans want to lose the midterms… Promising mass deportations won big” while Fox News host Laura Ingraham said “This is not what we voted for.”Mullin responded to the backlash in an X post Sunday night, clarifying, “If you are in the country without status, you are here illegally. Illegal aliens have two choices — they can either accept a $2,600 stipend and a flight home to self deport, or they will be removed.”
