Senate approves Trump’s homeland nominee with immigration crackdown under scrutiny
Mullin, a businessman and former mixed martial arts fighter, backs Trump’s hardline immigration view but signalled during a confirmation hearing that he would dial back some aggressive immigration policies, including a directive that said federal immigration officers could forcibly enter private homes or businesses without judicial warrants
The US Senate confirmed President Donald Trump's nominee for Homeland Security secretary, Markwayne Mullin, to replace outgoing Kristi Noem, heralding a shift in leadership as public support for Trump's immigration crackdown has fallen.
The vote count was 54–45.
Mullin, a businessman and former mixed martial arts fighter, backs Trump's hardline immigration view but signalled during a confirmation hearing that he would dial back some aggressive immigration policies, including a directive that said federal immigration officers could forcibly enter private homes or businesses without judicial warrants.
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Democrats have blocked funding for the 260,000-person Department of Homeland Security since mid-February in a push to scale back Trump's immigration enforcement tactics. Airport security screeners who have missed paycheques have increasingly been calling out sick, leading to longer lines in US airports.
Senate Republicans repeatedly have rejected a Democratic bill that would have paid Transportation Security Administration workers while negotiations on immigration enforcement practices continued.
The Trump administration began deploying federal immigration officers at airports on Monday to help with screening, but the impact remained unclear.
The new leadership at DHS offers the Trump administration a chance to pivot away from Noem, a former governor of South Dakota who put herself at the forefront of Trump's mass deportation effort.
Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers sharply criticised Noem at congressional hearings in early March over her remarks painting two US citizens fatally shot by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis as perpetrators of "domestic terrorism", even as video evidence undercut those claims.
Noem also faced scrutiny at the hearings over a $220 million advertising campaign that was awarded to Republican-connected firms without a standard contract bidding process.
Trump fired Noem after the hearings, saying she would depart by 31 March and become special envoy to a new "Shield of the Americas" initiative to promote his security policies in the Western Hemisphere. The Republican president nominated Mullin to replace her, kicking off a scramble to confirm him in the Senate, where Republicans have a 53–47 advantage.
