A Senate committee on Thursday voted to advance the nomination of Sen. Markwayne Mullin to become Homeland Security secretary, even as the committee's Republican chairman criticized Mullin and voted against him.
The vote sends President Donald Trump's homeland pick to the Republican-controlled full Senate for a vote, where Mullin will need a majority to be confirmed.
Trump fired embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem earlier this month after she was criticized by Republican lawmakers over her handling of Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown and management of the 260,000-person department.
The Republican president then nominated Mullin, a businessman who spent a decade in the U.S. House of Representatives before becoming a senator in 2023, to take over the role.
During a confirmation hearing on Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Republican Chairman Rand Paul criticized Mullin for making violent statements, including showing support for a man who attacked Paul in 2017. After the hearing, Paul said he would oppose Mullin's nomination.
If confirmed, Mullin, a member of the Cherokee Nation, would be the second Native American to serve as a Cabinet member.
Trump surged federal agents into U.S. cities beginning in mid-2025 to make immigration arrests, with major operations in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Minneapolis, where masked officers employing militaristic tactics led to legal challenges and public criticism.
Support for Trump's immigration approach decreased as agents clashed with city residents and fatally shot two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, Reuters/Ipsos polls show.
Mullin signaled at the hearing on Wednesday that he would approach some issues differently than Noem if confirmed as secretary.
The Trump administration issued an internal policy last year that told federal immigration officers they could enter private homes without a judicial warrant, a controversial policy that Democrats and civil rights groups oppose.
Mullin said that under his leadership, officials would need a judicial warrant to enter a home or business unless they were pursuing someone into the building.
He said he would revoke a Noem policy that required her to personally approve any DHS contracts over $100,000, which led to criticism that it had delayed disaster recovery grants.
"That's called micromanaging," Mullin said. "I don't know if the secretary put that in or someone else did. I'm not a micromanager."
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat from Michigan, said significant and lasting reforms still needed to be made to put guardrails on Trump's immigration crackdown.
"The trust is gone, and not just with Democrats," she told Mullin on Wednesday. "That's why we're here. That's why your predecessor was fired. And there needs to be fundamental reform."
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