WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats hammered Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin Tuesday during a heated Senate hearing, calling his threats to pull officers from some airports in so-called sanctuary cities “insane” and accusing his department of recklessly spending billions of dollars.
In his confirmation hearing earlier this year, Mullin portrayed himself as a steadying hand for the Department of Homeland Security after multiplecontroversies roiled his predecessor's tenure. But on Tuesday, Democrats expressed deep skepticism of his ability to change the department, specifically its approach to immigration enforcement and its commitment to the rule of law.
“I want to be very clear, Secretary Mullin, I’m watching closely to see what steps you now take as the new DHS secretary,” said Washington Sen. Patty Murray. "Even now, we are seeing some outrageous proposals.”
Mullin, who just a few months ago was a senator alongside those criticizing him, defended himself, calling the attacks “outlandish” and “just flat wrong.”
Mullin’s appearance at the appropriations subcommittee on homeland security comes as the Senate is weighing legislation that would fund immigration enforcement agencies through the end of President Donald Trump’s term in a maneuver that would bypass the need for support from Democrats, who have demanded restraints before agreeing to fund the agencies.
The attempt to fund those two agencies for the long term has been stalled over separate Republican opposition to a $1.776 billion settlement fund to compensate Trump allies who believe they have been politically prosecuted, a plan that was suspended on Tuesday.
Murray cited Mullin's threats to pull U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers from airports in states that the Trump administration deems “sanctuary cities,” meaning they don't cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Your plan to withdraw CBP officers from airports in cities that don’t roll over for Trump, that is insane," Murray said. "It would also spell economic crisis for blue and red states.”
Mullin has set the travel industry on edge with threats to withdraw CBP officers from airports in so-called “sanctuary cities.” There is no strict definition of what constitutes a sanctuary jurisdiction, but the term is generally used to describe cities and states that limit cooperation with ICE. Courts have rejected the idea of pulling funding from them in the past.
Mullin hasn't yet put forward a concrete proposal but has repeatedly suggested publicly that he's weighing the idea.
The U.S. Travel Association said Mullin also confirmed during a meeting with the group last month that he was considering such a move. The trade group had met with Mullin to discuss other Trump administration proposals affecting the travel industry.
U.S. Travel and the major airlines quickly condemned any move to pull CBP officers from airports, and even Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said it doesn’t make sense to him.
Such a move could upend international travel at a time when millions of visitors are gearing up to come to the U.S. for the World Cup.
Although Democrats criticized Mullin for the suggestion, he wasn't directly asked about the plan during the Tuesday hearing and didn't address the issue.
Murray also said she believed the White House still had significant influence over Mullin and DHS.
“I have yet to see you take back the reins from Stephen Miller,” she said, speaking of Trump's advisor who's one of the architects of the administration's immigration crackdown.
After a blistering opening statement from Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut questioning his commitment to the rule of law, Mullin diverted from his opening statement to defend himself and his department.
“When you start saying it’s unconstitutional, what’s unconstitutional that we’re doing? We swore to uphold the Constitution, just like you swore to the Constitution,” said Mullin, who blamed rhetoric like Murphy’s for a growing number of threats and attacks against his officers.
Murphy also pressed Mullin over treatment of detainees at an ICE detention facility in Newark, New Jersey. Protesters and Democratic members of Congress have raised concerns about the treatment of immigrants being held in the facility.
Democratic members of Congress who've toured the facility say the food has sometimes contained maggots and criticized the level of medical care for detainees. Murphy added to those criticisms, saying detainees had described “spoiled food, delayed medical treatment, sewage backups" as well as "undue pressure to sign deportation paperwork.”
The Department of Homeland Security has denied any allegations of abuse or mistreatment inside the facility.
Mullin said Tuesday that there are currently about 700 detainees in Delaney which he said is licensed to hold about 1,000 people. He pushed back on the criticism, saying that health inspectors were just recently at the facility and found “zero violations.” Mullin also accused some of the protesters of attacking DHS officers.
“We had officers bit, we had officers scratched, we had officers poked, we had officers hit,” said Mullin.
Mullin also faced criticism about money disbursed for disaster relief through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat, cited recent reports that Trump has approved more major disaster declarations for red states than blue.
“Do you think it’s right for a president to approve disaster aid based on whether a state voted for him, instead of the amount of damage that actually occurred in the state?” Peters asked Mullin.
“That’s not my experience with the president,” Mullin replied, pointing out that Trump last week issued a flurry of disaster approvals and denials to both red and blue states. Disaster aid “shouldn’t be politicized,” Mullin later added.
Republicans largely expressed support for Mullin's work, saying he was following the rule of law. He did face pushback from Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who asked whether DHS would be flexible on high fees and quotas for certain types of work visas.
Tuesday's hearing was the first time Mullin has appeared in the Senate since his confirmation hearing in March. Mullin, who was tapped by Trump to lead Homeland Security after his predecessor Kristi Noem was fired, will testify in the House about the budget on Wednesday.
__
Associated Press writers Rio Yamat in Las Vegas and Gabriela Aoun Angueira in San Diego, California, contributed.
