President Donald Trump has reassigned Kristi Noem and nominated Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin to become the new DHS secretary.
Art Arthur, resident fellow in law and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, believes the president is signaling he values Mullin's recent defense of the department funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
He also notes that the former professional Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter, who was inducted into the Oklahoma Wrestling Hall of Fame, maintained an undefeated record throughout his career.
"Senator Mullin is a fighter. He's a literal fighter," Arthur says. "He's not a man who's afraid to stand up for things that he believes in."
Trump recently reassigned Noem after mounting criticism over her leadership of the department, including the handling of the administration's immigration crackdown and disaster response.
Noem's tenure looked increasingly short-lived after hearings in Congress this week, where she faced criticism from Republican lawmakers for her $220 million ad campaign that encouraged people in the country illegally to leave voluntarily.
Trump commended Noem's service and her "numerous and spectacular results (especially on the Border!)." She will now be "Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas," a new security initiative that the president said would focus on the Western Hemisphere.
Bob Maginnis, a retired Army infantry officer and president of Maginnis Strategies, LLC., says it is kind of hard to know in advance how this nomination will work out, but "Mullin seems to be a pretty rock-solid guy."
"I think that he'll do the bidding the president has in mind," Maginnis predicts. "Strategically, it might be good because the problem has been in the Senate; perhaps having a senator take over that job, versus Noem having been a governor, is not a bad idea."
Mullin would need to be confirmed by the Senate, but under a federal law governing executive branch vacancies, he would be allowed to serve as an acting Homeland Security secretary as long as his nomination is formally pending.
