Markwayne Mullin
2026 Events (6)
DHS Secretary Mullin asked DOJ to investigate voter-data nonprofits ERIC and CEIR over disputed privacy-law claims
On September 2, 2026, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin sent Attorney General Todd Blanche a letter asking the Justice Department to investigate the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) and the Center for Election Innovation & Research (CEIR) for allegedly violating the federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act by sharing state motor-vehicle and voter data. The letter, released publicly by the White House on September 4, also asked DOJ to review whether certain ballot-marking devices comply with federal law. CEIR's executive director denied the allegations, and a federal judge had already dismissed a similar civil suit against the group as frivolous in June 2026.
DHS launched criminal voter-fraud investigation surge across nine states ahead of midterms
On September 1, 2026, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, through Secretary Markwayne Mullin, directed Homeland Security Investigations -- an ICE component that ordinarily handles trafficking, smuggling, and child-exploitation cases -- to begin a coordinated criminal voter-fraud investigation surge in nine states: Washington, Wisconsin, Missouri, Georgia, California, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New York, and Connecticut. Internal DHS guidance reviewed by CNN directs field interviews and investigative leads through mid-October, timed to the run-up to the 2026 midterm elections, even as the department's own internal records show it substantiated only 185 of the roughly 16,000 noncitizen voter registrations it had publicly claimed to find in Nevada.
DHS and DOT's 'Operation Highway Shield' detained 51 immigrant truckers, arrested 86 drivers across 4 Midwest states
DHS and the U.S. Department of Transportation ran "Operation Highway Shield," a three-day joint immigration and trucking-enforcement sweep from July 28-30, 2026, across Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Ohio. Federal agents detained 51 immigrants, including 21 holding non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses, placed 766 drivers and vehicles out of service, arrested 86 operators, and cited 36 drivers for failing English-language-proficiency tests. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the operation targeted "illegal aliens" and non-English-proficient truckers, the second wave of a program that began in Florida in March 2026.
DHS Secretary Mullin waived dozens of environmental and historic-preservation laws for border wall construction from Big Bend to Lake Amistad
On July 27, 2026, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin signed a Federal Register notice waiving dozens of federal environmental, public-health, and historic-preservation laws — including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, and the Wilderness Act — to speed construction of border barriers, roads, staging areas, and surveillance infrastructure along the Rio Grande across the Border Patrol's Big Bend and Del Rio sectors, from the Big Bend region to Lake Amistad. DHS justified the waiver by citing more than 89,000 Big Bend Sector apprehensions between fiscal years 2021 and 2025, even though the agency's own more recent data show apprehensions there fell 74 percent between fiscal 2023 and fiscal 2025, to 3,096. It was the second Mullin-signed environmental waiver for the Big Bend region in two months, following a narrower June 2026 waiver covering a different stretch of the river corridor.
DHS Secretary Mullin threatened election officials with fines and prison time, citing unsubstantiated claim of 250,000 noncitizen voters
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin held a July 17, 2026 news conference in Washington, D.C., one day after President Trump's prime-time address reviving 2020 election-fraud claims, asserting without evidence that DHS had found 250,000 noncitizens registered to vote in California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Nevada. Mullin said DHS would make "security enhancements" mandatory for states seeking federal election funding, and warned that noncompliant state and local election officials could face fines, penalties, and prison time.
ICE staff at Dilley detention center read from D.C.-dictated scripts and barred direct answers during congressional oversight visit
During an oversight visit to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center on April 8, 2026, Reps. Joaquin Castro and Greg Casar found that ICE staff had been directed to read from Washington-dictated scripts and were barred from answering their questions directly, with all inquiries required to be submitted in writing for routing to D.C. ICE also sent D.C.-based monitors to observe the congressmen during the visit. The obstructions followed the ouster of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and her replacement by Acting Secretary Markwayne Mullin.