President Donald Trump’s nominee for new U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, assured a Senate hearing Wednesday that the agency he aspires to lead will not raid homes or workplaces without a warrant, a requirement his immigration agents have ignored since last year.
“We will not enter a home or a workplace without a warrant, unless we are pursuing a person breaking into a workplace or a home,” assured Mullin, whom Trump has nominated to replace the controversial Kristi Noem, removed by the U.S. president last March 5.
Markwayne Mullin vows to stop warrantless searches
President Trump’s pick for Homeland Security Secretary, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), said during his confirmation hearing that he regrets calling Alex Pretti a “deranged individual” after he was shot and killed by Customs and Border Patrol agents in south Minneapolis earlier… pic.twitter.com/BpJFUaZ8MV
– CBS News (@CBSNews) March 18, 2026
The need for these court orders is one of the conditions that the Democrats are demanding from the Republicans in order to approve the Department’s budget – partially closed since February 14 – and reopen it.
Internal memos that have circulated within the Department’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since last year have instructed its agents to conduct raids without a warrant from a judge.
Negotiations, in which even the White House is getting involved, remain open pending an agreement between the two parties.
Mullin also addressed the issue of sanctuary cities in a somewhat different way than other Trump administration officials, as he was open to collaborating with those cities and stated that he would try to reach out to sheriffs and police chiefs to learn about their problems so they could be resolved.
In addition, in the Senate appearance, Mullin qualified some of the policies that have generated the most tension in recent months, as he assured that the immigration service should focus on surveillance of dangerous criminals instead of conducting massive community operations such as those in Minneapolis.
During his speech, Mullin stated that he regretted comments he made about protester Alex Pretti, who was killed by federal agents during immigration raid protests in Minneapolis on January 24, in which he said he was “a deranged individual” and someone who “was going to cause the most harm.”
“I probably should have retracted those words. I shouldn’t have said that,” Mullin told Senator Gary Peters.
Filed under: Markwayne Mullin court orders
With information from EFE
