On Tuesday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin responded to a question on whether the agency has “moved to criminal illegal aliens as a focus” by saying that they are not and “we’re staying focused on all illegals, without question.” But the agency is trying to do things without attracting as much media attention.
Host Rob Schmitt asked, “Are we staying strong on the idea of deportations for all illegals, or have we moved to criminal illegal aliens as a focus?”
Mullin answered, “No, we’re staying focused on all illegals, without question.”
Mullin added, “We’re purposely trying to be a little bit more quiet. I made this very clear, when we were moving forward with my nomination, that I wanted to get DHS out of the headlines so our ICE agents, our CBP agents, and all the other law enforcement agencies we have underneath DHS could go do their jobs without being harassed by the media. That doesn’t mean we’re slowing down even a little bit. In fact, just yesterday, we arrested over 1,900 individuals. We have over 60,000 individuals that are currently being detained, going through the process of being deported. Last week, we deported over 2,700. We’re getting slowed down a little bit because of some of our court issues. We’re working through that, but we haven’t missed a beat. We’re still on track, pushing as hard as we can. We just are doing it in a different way, by using local law enforcement to work with us.”
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