When Markwayne Mullin succeeded Kristi Noem as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in March, he was expected to be less spotlight-seeking than his predecessor, but no less dedicated to Trump’s deportation policies. As a freshman senator from Oklahoma, Mullin had defended the federal immigration agent who reportedly killed 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis, opposed birthright citizenship and called for shutting down airports in “sanctuary cities.” President Donald Trump called him a “MAGA warrior.”
Yet this MAGA warrior apparently isn’t good enough for MAGA die-hards. They’re furious and calling for his ouster over comments he made Saturday at a National Governors Association meeting in which he drew a distinction between legal and illegal immigration, and also suggested immigration reform would be a good idea in the long term because it’s needed to help the economy grow.
These pundits and activists seem to be angry that Mullin dares suggest any immigration into the country is acceptable.
“If we’re looking to grow our economy, we need more permanent solutions on [work visas], because this narrative that it steals American jobs is true in some industries, it’s not true for all industries,” Mullin said in one of the comments that drew the MAGAsphere’s ire. He added, “It is America. We want to take care of Americans first. It’s our economy, it’s our homeland, 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.”
Right-wing conspiracy theorist and media personality Laura Loomer slammed Mullin — whom she called “Markwayne Muslim” in an attempt to use “Muslim” as a slur — saying he was excited to give “millions of illegal aliens mass amnesty.” (Mullin neither used that phrase nor specified that his idea of reform entailed widespread amnesty.) Fox News host Tomi Lahren said, “Markewayne [sic] wants to appease liberal media and big labor.” Conservative activist Robby Starbuck accused Mullin of projecting “weakness” and called for him to be replaced.
After the blowback began, on Saturday, Mullin posted on X what appeared to be a defensive clarification of his comments: “NO amnesty for illegal aliens. Ever. We are a nation of laws. If you are illegally present in the United States of America— you will be detained and deported. Period.” But the statement seemed to do little to put out the firestorm.
Former Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino — who exemplified the showboating of Noem’s DHS — objected to Mullin treating legal immigration as acceptable in any form. “He proudly announces nearly 900,000 naturalizations in 12 months (95% third world immigrants), then lectures us about the legal process,” Bovino wrote on X. “He celebrates your replacement as long as it’s done legally, without mentioning that 80% of legal immigrants will vote Democrat.” Bovino’s invocation of “replacement” references the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory. And while immigrant voters do lean Democratic, his number is not accurate.
As Politico notes, Trump’s deportation machine is still going at full speed: Under Mullin, “nearly every metric — including removals, arrests, detention population — is up, with several at record or near-record levels for this administration.” And yet MAGA is piling on him anyway, showing the depth of their anti-immigrant fanaticism.
These pundits and activists seem to be angry that Mullin dares suggest any immigration into the country is acceptable and — to at least some extent — economically beneficial to anyone but immigrants themselves. Mullin, of course, is right. Robust immigration is essential for the economic growth of affluent countries, whose birth rates are generally on the decline. But he’s forbidden from speaking the truth, lest he violate the dictates of the white nationalist ethos of MAGA activists.
For now, the Trump administration has not indicated that it has lost trust in Mullin, but given Trump’s fixation on satisfying his base, competence won’t keep Mullin safe. Given that deportations are continuing at an aggressive pace, one wonders if MAGA critics really just crave the theatrics of cruelty and domination that Noem excelled at, with her photo shoots at a notorious El Salvador megaprison and her championing of Alligator Alcatraz detention center in the Florida Everglades.
Bovino is presumably disappointed by the downturn in street fights and federal immigration agents acting like a militant occupying force in American cities. Perhaps Mullin just needs to be overtly sadistic to gain their trust.
The post Why MAGA is turning on Trump’s DHS chief appeared first on MS NOW.
