Republicans really want America to believe that Markwayne Mullin will be a breath of fresh air at the Department of Homeland Security. Oklahoma’s junior senator was nominated as DHS secretary by Donald Trump at the same time that his predecessor, Kristi Noem, was publicly fired without her apparent knowledge. Her tenure at the agency saw her become the heavily worked-over face of Trump’s disastrous mass deportation policies, which led to the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, racially charged and violent arrests of other Americans citizens and the imprisonment of small children — including infants — in detention camps.
After Noem’s chaotic leadership, congressional Republicans have been eager to portray Mullin as a fresh start for DHS — a turn toward a more humane and responsible organization. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.. said as much when he admitted the GOP was “in a course-correction mode right now” after experiencing “a little hiccup with some of the Hispanic and Latino voters for certain because some of the immigration enforcement was viewed to be over-zealous.” Mullin’s nomination, he said, was proof of the change.
