Tom Homan Praises Markwayne Mullin: 'Right Guy, Right Time, Right Job'

Tom Homan, former President Trump's border czar, lauded the appointment of former Sen. Markwayne Mullin to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). During a question-and-answer session at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Homan described Mullin as 'the right guy, right time, right job'.

Homan emphasized the difficulty of the DHS position, stating it is 'the most grueling, controversial, hardest job in United States government', where decisions often draw criticism. This year’s CPAC meeting was held in Grapevine, Texas, and featured a number of top GOP leaders.

Homan noted that Mullin is 'digging in deep' to the responsibilities of his new role, taking over leadership at a precarious time for the agency. The DHS has been shut down for over 40 days, with Democratic legislators refusing to back a necessary funding package until the Trump administration agreed to several reforms to the department’s immigration enforcement agencies.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has called for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to adopt a mask ban, a universal code of conduct, and judicial warrant reform.

The White House has countered these requests with several reforms to expand federal officers’ body camera usage and limit enforcement operations at sensitive areas, like churches and schools. However, the Democrats have refused to budge on their demands.

On Thursday afternoon, four House Democrats backed a GOP-led proposal to reopen the department, but the party’s senators are continuing to block this legislation. Democratic Senate leadership members are instead continuing to push for a bill that would fund only the Transportation and Security Administration (TSA), after the shutdown has resulted in lapsed paychecks at the agency for over a month.

Staffing shortages resulting from these have led to hours-long wait times in security lines at airports across the country as fewer and fewer TSA agents remain willing to work without pay. Some Senate Republicans have proposed funding TSA and other DHS agencies — including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the U.S. Coast Guard — and then later funding ICE and CBP through the reconciliation process.

However, this proposal has yet to receive broad support among GOP senators.