Senate to consider Markwayne Mullin’s nomination amid DHS shutdown

Trump pick for homeland security secretary followed firing of Kristi Noem amid blowback for anti-immigration tactics

A Senate committee on Wednesday will consider Markwayne Mullin’s nomination to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which Democrats have forced into a partial shutdown until their demands for guardrails on immigration enforcement are met.

Donald Trump nominated Mullin, a first-term Republican senator from Oklahoma, as DHS secretary earlier this month, after the president ousted secretary Kristi Noem amid public blowback against the administration’s aggressive approach to its mass deportation agenda, which resulted in the killings of two US citizens by immigration agents in Minneapolis.