Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin suggested on Tuesday that “politicized” courts are the reason why he didn’t directly commit to obeying court rulings concerning the Department of Homeland Security.
In his first congressional hearing as the new DHS chief, Mullin repeatedly said his department will “enforce the law” and is “never going to break the Constitution.” But when Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) pressed him on DHS abiding by court rulings, the secretary declined to provide a definitive answer.
“If we didn’t think courts were politicized, then I would probably be able to answer that,” Mullin responded. “But we see courts over and over again that use their bench for their political opinion, not just the rule of law.”
When Murphy said the witness indicated DHS will not follow court orders, Mullin told the senator, “Don’t start putting words in my mouth. … You’re making an assumption on court orders I haven’t seen.”
Astounded by the response, Murphy said his Republican and Democratic colleagues on the Senate appropriations subcommittee presiding over the hearing “should be really, really freaked out.”
Mullin fired back, saying, “We should be really concerned about the rulings that come out of the courts and how often they get overturned.”
“Not all judges are above the law, but sometimes they think they are,” he said. “That’s why we see lower courts get overturned by higher courts constantly.”
The back-and-forth began when Murphy noted a Republican-appointed federal judge said Immigration and Customs Enforcement has violated nearly 100 court orders.
“This is a really important discussion for us to have, because this is, whether you want to believe it or not, at the root of our disagreement,” Murphy said, adding, “That it is very hard for us to figure out how to fund an agency that is violating the law.”
The purpose of the hearing was to review the department’s budget request for the upcoming fiscal year. DHS is requesting $118.4 billion in overall funding. Of that money, $10.5 billion is set aside for ICE and $22.9 billion is reserved for Customs and Border Protection. Federal immigration enforcement was a hot topic during the hearing.
Near the end of his testimony, Mullin accused New Jersey Democrats of politicizing the protests outside Delaney Hall by claiming that state health inspectors were denied full access to the facility. The state health officials were granted limited access instead.
“We’ll always allow them to have access,” he said. “But because they want to politicize it, the governor wants to politicize it by saying that they weren’t allowed access. It’s not true.”
Murphy then said the secretary’s excuses were “endless,” firing back at the witness.
“Anytime somebody disagrees with you, whether it’s a member of this committee, whether it’s a state public health agency, whether it’s a federal court, they are politicizing the Department of Homeland Security,” he said as Mullin accused the senator of doing the same.
Returning to his original question about DHS’s commitment to follow court orders, Murphy argued both parties will end up disobeying rulings because of the precedent set by the Trump administration.
“If Republican administrations don’t implement court orders that they believe to be politicized, then Democratic administrations will not implement court orders that they believe to be politicized,” the Connecticut Democrat said.
NEW JERSEY ATTORNEY GENERAL SUES OPERATOR OF DELANEY HALL DETENTION CENTER
Mullin doubled down on his view that the courts are politicized, alluding to court rulings that have set back the administration’s agenda.
“What I would love to see is the courts actually do their job and not play politics,” he said. “But we also see that the upper courts always overturn, or a lot of times, overturn these lower courts. So, you tell me if they’re being politicized. We both know they are.”