Oklahoma Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin was confirmed by the Senate on the evening of March 23 to become the ninth secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The vote came against a backdrop of growing lines at US airports as the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) struggles with a lack of funding. Democrats refuse to fund the DHS without concessions that the Republicans will not grant. President Donald Trump has upped the ante by demanding that any new agreement on DHS funding should be tied to the election integrity measures contained in the SAVE America Act that Democrats and a few Republicans have so far blocked.
“Don’t make any deal on anything,” President Donald Trump told Senate Republicans during a recent speech, “unless you include voter I.D., and you have to be a citizen to vote – you have to show citizenship to vote..."
DHS Becomes a Political Hand Grenade
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been deployed to selected airports to support the TSA. Democrat insiders have suggested some in the party are optimistic that the strategy will backfire on President Trump, though it doesn’t seem clear how that would work out. Anti-ICE protesters running amok in airports is probably not going to go over well with anyone.
Withholding funding from the DHS while the US is engaged in military action against Iran, the number one state sponsor of terrorism, is a risky prospect, to say the least. In the world of counterterrorism, there’s a well-known adage: We have to get lucky every time – they only have to get lucky once. Obviously, the entire country should be hoping there are no attacks in America, but the Democrats perhaps should be hoping for that more than anyone else.
President Trump seems in no mood to compromise, however. He is laser-focused on the SAVE America Act and had previously vowed not to sign any other legislation until that act was on his desk.
Now – and likely using the Iran conflict as leverage – Trump has tied the importance of verifying voter eligibility to another issue that resonates with most Americans. During the speech quoted earlier, the president pointed out that “voter I.D. is part of homeland security.”
It is hard to argue that, not for the first time, Democrats find themselves on the minority side of what is commonly known these days as an 80/20 issue. And the president may have out-maneuvered them by sending ICE to the airports – and without masks.
Pressure On the Democrats
Incoming DHS boss Mullin’s confirmation vote went as one could have expected. It was a party-line affair with a couple of exceptions. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was the sole Republican to vote against the DHS nominee. Two Democrats crossed the aisle in the opposite direction to support Mullin. Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico voted with Republicans.
Heinrich said he believed Mullin was "not someone who can simply be bullied into changing his views.” Heinrich pointedly added, “And I look forward to having a secretary who doesn’t take their orders from Stephen Miller.” He was referring to the man who could fairly be considered the driving force behind the Trump White House’s tough stance on illegal immigration.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is teeing up another vote on a bill to fund the DHS, along with a resolution supporting DHS agencies. The latter vote, of course, is designed entirely to put Democrats on record as picking a side, so to speak.
Who comes out on top of the political fight? With an American public torn between largely supporting Trump’s deportation drive but not approving of DHS – and specifically ICE – tactics, that may depend less on ideology, results, and consequences than on messaging.
