Trump Souring on DHS Secretary Mullin Over Off-Message Immigration Remarks

President Trump is growing increasingly frustrated with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, whom he tapped in March to replace fired Secretary Kristi Noem. Despite the deteriorating relationship, a senior administration official confirmed Trump has no current plans to remove him — marking a notable but not unprecedented tension at the top of an agency that has churned through six secretaries across Trump's two terms.

The breaking point came in early August when Mullin told the National Governors Association in Oklahoma City that the idea immigration steals American jobs is 'true in some industries, but not all,' and floated immigration as a potential fix for low labor-force participation in certain regions. The remarks landed like a grenade among Trump's most vocal supporters. Right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, who speaks with Trump regularly, publicly demanded Mullin's firing, accusing him of doing 'absolutely nothing to increase the rate of mass deportations.' Mullin rushed to post a clarification — 'NO amnesty for illegal aliens. Ever.' — within hours.

The NGA episode wasn't isolated. After two back-to-back fatal shootings of immigrants within a single week, Mullin unilaterally halted most vehicle stops by federal immigration agents — a policy Trump reversed the very next day via social media, annoyed he hadn't been consulted. Mullin also wanted to cancel the July 4th fireworks on the National Mall due to lightning, a suggestion Trump publicly mocked from the podium that evening. And following the Supreme Court's late-June ruling greenlighting an end to Temporary Protected Status for roughly 350,000 Haitians, Mullin suggested on television that some might be able to stay by pursuing permanent legal status — a message sharply at odds with the administration's deportation-first posture.

The friction is compounded by a fierce internal battle over Mullin's nominee to permanently lead ICE: Lance Schroyer, a veteran of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol who served on Mullin's Senate security detail but has no federal government or immigration enforcement experience. Rank-and-file ICE officials have openly balked, and border czar Tom Homan is on record opposing the pick. Mullin has made a direct appeal to Trump on the nomination, but the Senate has yet to even schedule a confirmation hearing for Schroyer.

Underlying all of this is a structural tension in the job itself. Mullin was brought in explicitly to lower DHS's public profile after immigration agents fatally shot two American citizens in Minneapolis — yet Trump simultaneously demands visible, aggressive deportation activity. On the enforcement numbers, Mullin has actually delivered: ICE is now arresting between 1,500 and 2,000 immigrants per day, among the highest daily totals of the administration. But DHS hasn't been publicizing those figures, leaving Mullin politically exposed to critics who see only the rhetorical stumbles.