President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he would fire Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem and replace her with Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma). Senators now have an opportunity to ask the nominee what he’ll do to reset Trump’s wayward immigration policy.
Noem made a spectacle of deportation operations. Deliberate attempts to appear as aggressive and tough as possible squandered public support for the president’s electoral mandate to remove violent criminals who are illegally in the United States. Americans do not like chaos, neither at the border nor in their neighborhoods.
The incoming secretary would be wise to focus on targeting the most dangerous people who are in the country illegally, rather than rounding up otherwise law-abiding workers just to meet ambitious quotas. The quality of arrests matters more than the quantity.
Trump already recalibrated following public backlash to the killings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by federal immigration agents. He promoted border czar Tom Homan, who had been sidelined by Noem, to wind down the federal surge in Minnesota. Homan has been reporting directly to the president.
The job is made easier if DHS remembers the benefits of legal migration and reopens some of the pathways to entry that have been shut down by the administration since last year. Immigration remains vital to the future health of the aging American economy. Winning the artificial intelligence arms race will require welcoming engineers from the rest of the world.
Most pressing, though, is hammering out a bipartisan compromise to fund the department and end a partial shutdown that has dragged on nearly three weeks. Democrats have been holding out for concessions, and Noem’s exit is a big one. Reasonable requests include requiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to wear body cameras and not masks while on duty. The training for new officers could also return to 2024 standards. Requirements were weakened to get new recruits into the field more quickly.
Since the partial shutdown began on Feb. 14, the U.S. has gone to war with Iran. It is vital that DHS be fully functional, but many workers are furloughed. This includes hundreds of people focused on cybersecurity.
The final straw for Trump was reportedly Noem’s admission that he approved in advance the $220 million ad campaign that starred her. Multiple GOP lawmakers were scandalized not just by the wasteful expenditure but by her refusal to engage with inquiries from them and her department’s own Trump-appointed inspector general.
Mullin appears poised to be confirmed on a party-line vote after what will surely be a contentious confirmation hearing. Even though Mullin is one of their colleagues, even GOP senators ought to continue exercising vigorous oversight. They can ask, for example, how he might respond to pressure from Stephen Miller, the president’s tough-talking deputy chief of staff who has championed harsh DHS crackdowns and dismissed the agency’s deadly mistakes.
Looking ahead to the final three years of his term, Trump has special credibility with the MAGA base, as does Mullin, to pursue broader immigration reform. If Trump makes it a priority, even if Democrats control Congress next year, there is a grand bargain to be had that abandons performative cruelty and embraces orderly efforts that have a track record of keeping Americans safe.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) has been no fan of Miller or Noem, but he expressed confidence on Thursday that Mullin will “restore competence” and “refocus efforts on quickly distributing disaster aid,” something else Noem struggled to do. “Another big positive,” the senator added, “he likes dogs.”
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