Markwayne Mullin is learning the hard way that telling the truth isn’t part of the job description at President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security.
The DHS secretary caught flak last week from MAGA’s nativist commentariat after an appearance at the National Governors Association summer meeting. Mullin was blasted for supporting immigration reform and correctly pointing out that some migrants can apply for permanent residence.
But his biggest gaffe was calling for more work visas.
“We want to take care of Americans first,” Mullin said, but “there’s a way to utilize labor where we’re not having the participation rate we need to, and we can plug those holes.”
The comment is at odds with claims that migrants steal American jobs. The frustration spilled over to the White House, where Trump is reportedly souring on his new secretary.
A White House spokeswoman said the president has “confidence in his Cabinet to carry out the agenda the American people voted for.” But the president might want to heed his secretary’s advice: Immigration doesn’t just help address labor shortages in critical industries where Americans haven’t been able to fill job openings. In all industries, the influx of workers helps grow the economy.
U.S. labor force participation is at its lowest since the pandemic, and many industries like health care and construction are desperate for workers. If anything, Mullin is doing Trump a favor: Labor shortages disproportionately affect rural and red states.
A recent report from North Dakota State University found that rural states would see the largest economic benefit from immigration-driven population growth. The Dakotas, for example, have the most job openings per unemployed worker in the country.
Opening up more work visas to understaffed areas and industries would help American employers staff up without feeling compelled to hire illegal labor.
Despite Mullin’s supposed heresy, he’s still on track to carry out Trump’s mandate for mass deportations. DHS is aiming to make 2,000 arrests a day, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported over 350,000 deportations since last October. That puts immigration authorities on a trajectory to break President Barack Obama’s record for most deportations in a year.
MAGA seems more interested in having a DHS secretary who disparages migrants than one who can execute Trump’s deportation agenda while telling the truth about our broken immigration system.
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