Senate approves Trump’s Homeland nominee Mullin with immigration crackdown under scrutiny

WASHINGTON - The US Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s nominee for Homeland Security secretary, Markwayne Mullin, to replace outgoing Kristi Noem, heralding a shift in leadership as public support for Mr Trump’s immigration crackdown has fallen.

The vote count was 54-45.

Mr Mullin, a businessman and former mixed-martial arts fighter, backs Mr Trump’s hardline immigration view but signalled during a confirmation hearing that he would dial back some aggressive immigration policies, including a directive that said federal immigration officers could forcibly enter private homes or businesses without judicial warrants.

Democrats have blocked funding for the 260,000-person Department of Homeland Security since mid-February in a push to scale back Mr Trump’s immigration enforcement tactics. Airport security screeners who have missed paychecks have increasingly been calling out sick, leading to longer lines in US airports.

Senate Republicans have repeatedly rejected a Democratic Bill that would have paid Transportation Security Administration workers while negotiations on immigration enforcement practices continued.

The Trump administration began deploying federal immigration officers at airports on March 23 to help with screening but the impact remained unclear.

The new leadership at DHS offers the Trump administration a chance to pivot away from Ms Noem, a former governor of South Dakota who put herself at the forefront of Mr Trump’s mass deportation effort.

Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers sharply criticised Ms Noem at congressional hearings in early March over her remarks painting two US citizens fatally shot by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis as perpetrators of “domestic terrorism” even as video evidence undercut those claims.

She also faced scrutiny at the hearings over a US$220 million (S$281 million) ad campaign that was awarded to Republican-connected firms without a standard contract bidding process.

Mr Trump fired Ms Noem after the hearings, saying she would depart by March 31 and become special envoy to a new “Shield of the Americas” initiative to promote his security policies in the Western Hemisphere. The Republican president nominated Mr Mullin to replace her, kicking off a scramble to confirm him in the Senate, where Republicans have a 53-47 advantage.

During a Senate confirmation hearing on March 19, US Senator Rand Paul, the top Republican on the panel, slammed Mr Mullin for a history of violent rhetoric, including remarks in February condoning an attack on Mr Paul in 2017 that left him with broken ribs and a damaged lung.

While Mr Paul opposed Mr Mullin's nomination, Democratic Senator John Fetterman, a moderate from Pennsylvania, provided backing that permitted Mr Mullin to advance to a Senate vote.

Public backing for Mr Trump’s immigration policies diminished in recent months as masked federal agents surged to US cities to search for possible immigration offenders.

The Trump administration has signaled it could try to shift its message on the issue. White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair told Republican lawmakers during a closed-door meeting in Florida in March that they should stop focusing on Mr Trump’s push for mass deportations and instead highlight the arrests of people with criminal records, Axios reported.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr Trump himself has told his inner circle that some mass deportation policies went too far.

In response to a request for comment, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the administration’s immigration enforcement agenda would not change.

“President Trump’s highest priority has always been the deportation of illegal alien criminals who endanger American communities,” she said. REUTERS