‘There Is No Quota’: Homeland Security Chief Pushes Back As GOP Backlash Mounts Over Migrant Arrests
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin defended the administration’s immigration enforcement tactics during an interview with CNN anchor Dana Bash, pushing back against criticism from within the Republican Party and denying the existence of White House deportation quotas.
The discussion followed a recent campaign ad released by Florida Republican Representative Maria Elvira Salazar, who represents a majority-Hispanic district. In the ad, Salazar argued that migration enforcement efforts have “gone too far,” citing figures showing that roughly half of the 50,000 individuals detained in July had no criminal record, and warning that the administration risks alienating Hispanic voters who supported Donald Trump in 2024.
Mullin dismissed political concerns, stating that federal agencies are obligated to carry out immigration statutes as written.
“At DHS and ICE, every single day we enforce our nation’s laws. That’s it,” Mullin said. “We don’t pick and choose which laws we enforce. We enforce the immigration policy that Congress passed and obligated Department of Homeland Security to enforce.”
Addressing reports that federal agents are aggressively targeting undocumented immigrants without serious offenses, Mullin argued that entering the country without authorization is itself a violation of the law. He explained that agents often encounter additional individuals while executing administrative or judicial warrants on specific targets.
Law Enforcement Officer
“When we go out and we serve an administrative warrant or judicial warrant… that individual very seldom, in fact ever, is actually by themselves,” Mullin said. “We have an average over three individuals that’s usually in the house or in the vehicle with them. We detain those individuals at the same time because regardless, they still broke our nation’s laws.”
When asked whether agents are arresting non-criminals to satisfy daily targets dictated by the administration, Mullin flatly rejected the premise.
“I have never talked to anybody at the White House about any quota. We do our job every single day. There’s no quota,” Mullin said. “Our focus is to go after the worst of the worst. But we make contact with an illegal, regardless of how many years you’ve been here, we are obligated by statute to at that point arrest you and to make sure we know who you are.”
During the interview, Bash questioned the detention of individuals navigating the asylum system. Mullin stated that DHS only detains asylum seekers if they fail to adhere to their release conditions, comparing the requirements to domestic parole rules.
“When they claim asylum, they get paroled into the country. When they get paroled, they give us an address, they give us a phone number where they’re staying,” Mullin said. “When they choose not to update their status, then we do, because now they have a parole violation and we go and find that individual.”
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin
Bash also pressed Mullin on bystander footage from Alamo, Texas, showing ICE agents using physical force to detain an individual while two U.S. citizen teenagers filmed the encounter.
Mullin noted that he had not reviewed the full footage prior to the interview and could not evaluate the specific use of force without context, but argued that agents must respond to physical non-compliance.
“I don’t know what the resistance level was. Obviously, they were struggling with the individual,” Mullin said. “We try not to escalate it, but we have to match whatever resistance they’re having.”