Mullen, Trump’s security pick, is poised to inherit a challenging Department of Homeland Security

WASHINGTON (AP) — If confirmed, Sen. Markwayne Mullen will be the new Secretary of Homeland Security, and he will enter the department’s sprawling campus in Washington, D.C., with his appointment scheduled.

Immigration enforcement is at a crossroads. Disaster-stricken states and their lawmakers are angry about delayed federal aid. Frustrated travelers are facing long security lines at the airport due to a month-long funding battle in Congress.

Mullen will take over from outgoing Secretary Kristi Noem, who took office with the support of President Donald Trump, but whose social media-driven management style of the government’s third-largest department contributed to her downfall.

“We have serious management problems at DHS, and we need someone to steer the ship,” said Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Los Angeles, adding that he told the Oklahoma senator that a full audit of the department was needed.

Mullen, a former mixed martial arts fighter, has developed a reputation as a fighting presence in the Senate. After 13 years in Congress, he is trusted by his fellow lawmakers and is expected to follow the White House’s policy priorities. His confirmation hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

Mullen will oversee immigration enforcement

Mullen’s biggest challenge will be taking on the administration’s core policy of mass deportations, which has led to a wave of immigrant detentions, stoked fear in local communities and raised concerns about detention and enforcement methods.

A year of high-profile operations has led to rising numbers of arrests, but also criticism that officers were too aggressive. The shooting death of two protesters in Minneapolis by federal officers has sparked calls for reform in immigration enforcement agencies.

Approval of Trump’s approach to immigration has fallen from when he began his second term, with most Americans saying Trump has “gone too far.” The tense public mood may force Mullen to recalibrate how the agencies he will oversee carry out the deportation campaign.

Since his nomination, Mullen has not publicly revealed his vision for running the department and has declined to answer questions.

Read more: Who is Markwayne Mullen, Trump’s new nominee for the Department of Homeland Security?

He is likely to be a loyal ally of Trump in his new position. In the Senate, he was less focused on legislation and more involved as a White House spokesman, speaking to the president frequently and amplifying his messages in the halls of the Capitol and behind closed doors.

He has been a strong supporter of the funding Congress approved last summer for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to strengthen immigration enforcement.

After two American citizens were shot dead in Minneapolis, he supported law enforcement and blamed local leaders for rhetoric that he said “emboldened” the protesters.

John Sandweg, a former acting director at Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the Obama administration, said Mullen will need to balance pressure from different players within the administration on how to conduct future enforcement operations — whether to ramp up deportations through arrest sweeps or keep enforcement more targeted at people who have committed crimes.

He added, “He will have to come to terms. Is it about numbers or quality?” Sandweg said. “And I think he’s going to have a lot of pressure to deliver on the numbers as well.”

The first challenge facing Mullen is a cut in DHS funding

Mullen is also locked in a battle with Democrats in Congress who are demanding reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, halting funding for the Department of Homeland Security for a month.

Senate Democrats want to make changes to immigration enforcement before approving more money. These include a ban on the wearing of masks by deportation officers, an end to roving patrols by officers searching for immigrants, and a requirement that officers use warrants signed by a judge to enter a person’s home. Republicans maintained their stance against these demands.

As the crisis continues, thousands of Department of Homeland Security employees are forced to work without pay, including security screening workers at airports. Some airports have begun to see long security lines, raising concerns about screening workers calling in sick, taking on side jobs to make ends meet, struggling with fuel costs or quitting their jobs altogether.

In his new position, Mullen is expected to work to improve relations with Congress, where Republicans have treated Noem with suspicion. He is close to House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Los Angeles, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Republican of Los Angeles.

Republicans hope that replacing Noem with Mullen will be enough change to satisfy Democrats’ demands for funding the department.

“This is what the Democrats demanded,” Thune said. “They wanted a new change and a change in leadership, and this is what is happening now.”

But Democrats insist on making sweeping changes.

“I like Markwayne personally, but I don’t think it’s a question of who’s in charge, it’s a question of law,” said Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii.

States demand change in disaster response agency

Mullen will also inherit a Federal Emergency Management Agency mired in turmoil and uncertainty over the administration’s attempts to shift responsibility for disasters to states and Trump’s threats to abolish the agency.

Noem’s Department of Homeland Security has led a torrent of policies in the name of that goal, cutting funding, firing employees and attracting lawsuits over how much authority the Homeland Security secretary can exercise over the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which still lacks a permanent director.

Noem enacted a policy of personally approving expenditures in excess of $100,000, which critics said delayed billions in disaster recovery dollars. State emergency managers hope to see a quick repeal, along with the release of grant funding for preparedness and resilience, said Karen Langdon, a spokeswoman for the National Emergency Management Association.

More than $2.2 billion in recovery and mitigation projects were still awaiting DHS approval as of Friday, according to official figures seen by The Associated Press.

The Trump-appointed FEMA review board, which Noem chairs, was months late in issuing a highly anticipated recommendation report after the outgoing secretary clashed with other board members over the extent of implementation of reforms.

Mullen’s views on FEMA are not entirely clear, but he has expressed doubts about the federal response to disasters in the past.

“It’s not FEMA that’s going to respond,” he told Fox Business shortly after Hurricane Helen in 2024. “It’s local residents that are going to respond, and we’ll fight with FEMA to get compensation if they pay the costs.”

Lawmakers and states generally support reforms that would streamline disaster aid and ease the bureaucratic burden, but state and local governments need reliable leadership and time to prepare for the changes, said Sarah Labowitz, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“What we want to see going forward is predictability,” Labowitz said. “There is a lot of work to be done to restore confidence.”

Associated Press reporters Mary Clare Jalonick, Kevin Freking and Stephen Groves contributed to this report.