Two months after the Trump administration fired Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem under a cloud of controversy, DHS’ most aggressive and controversial practices have largely continued under her successor, Markwayne Mullin.
Mullin replaced Noem in March after months of growing external outrage and internal dissatisfaction with her leadership. Along with allegations of frivolous spending sprees by Noem and other top aides, there were repeated instances of DHS officials lying about deadly and violent incidents involving immigration agents.
In its attempts to move past Noem’s controversies, the administration portrayed Mullin as a more serious and focused leader. On May 15, the conservative Washington Examiner reported, in a piece based on anonymous administration sources, that Mullin was distancing himself from Noem’s policies. For example, Mullin reportedly paused the purchases of large warehouses across the country that Noem had intended to convert into detention centers, and DHS is also reevaluating the use of state-run detention centers, such as Florida’s infamous Alligator Alcatraz camp in the Everglades.
“I would say that the approach is more sensible and not flashy. No gimmicks,” a senior administration official told the Examiner. “Not hooking up their friends.”
The Examiner reported that Mullin “has spent nearly two months in his new role plotting a course that will make the jailing of illegal immigrants through court proceedings more efficient and cost-effective, without the pomp and circumstance seen over the past year.”
“Pomp and circumstance” is certainly one way to describe violating hundreds of court orders, staging violent immigration raids for social media content, and doing photo shoots at foreign mega-prisons.
But in any case, there is little evidence of a more sensible, less gimmicky DHS since Mullin took over. Mullin just this week floated the idea of punishing so-called sanctuary cities by pulling Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents from nearby airports and refusing to process international travelers, a move that would cause massive disruptions to air travel.
“If CBP isn’t there processing international flights, then those individuals when the airlines land won’t be permitted into the United States,” Mullin said in a Thursday interview with Fox News.
Mullin has also threatened to withdraw CBP from Newark International Airport in New Jersey because of ongoing protests at the Delaney Hall detention center, where detainees have reportedly been on hunger strike to protest poor food, medical neglect, and substandard living conditions.
The scene outside of Delaney mirrors the chaotic protests in Chicago, Portland, and other cities during Noem’s tenure. Sen. Andy Kim (D–N.J.) was pepper-sprayed by federal immigration agents on Monday. Last night, photojournalist Mostafa Bassim posted an Instagram story alleging that a federal officer intentionally smashed his camera with a baton, even though Bassim was clearly identified as press.
As for the allegations of poor conditions inside the Delaney detention center, “This isn’t a Holiday Inn,” Mullin said in an interview yesterday with Fox News. “We’re not providing luxury housing. What we’re doing is providing a sanitary place for them to be detained. We’re detaining murderers, rapists, pedophiles, drug dealers. We’re meeting the calorie standard.”
According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University, which tracks immigration enforcement data, 70 percent of the roughly 60,000 people being held in ICE detention nationwide as of April 4 had no criminal conviction.
DHS both denies that a hunger strike is occurring at Delaney and that the conditions there are anything but exemplary.
Of course, DHS has consistently denied dozens if not hundreds of allegations of medical neglect and brutal conditions in immigration detention centers around the country since the Trump administration launched its mass detention and deportation program. DHS insists, despite detainees dying of tooth infections, that its detention centers meet all standards for humane confinement.
In a May 20 interview with the Washington Examiner, White House border czar Tom Homan said he is working closely with Mullin to expand the number of available beds in immigration detention from 68,000 to 100,000.
Meanwhile, an Associated Press investigation found suicides in ICE custody have dramatically spiked, rising at a rate that outpaces the overall population growth.
