The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has declared war on immigration fraud with the appointment of Markwayne Mullin as the new Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, replacing Kristi Noem. Mullin was officially sworn-in on Tuesday following his bipartisan confirmation by the state.
Who is Markwayne Mullin?
Before joining US President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, Markwayne Mullin spent 13 years representing Oklahoma in both the US Senate and the House of Representatives, according to the Homeland Security website. Mullin built a name for himself in the Senate as a key link between the Republican-led House, the Senate, and the White House, helping push forward Trump’s legislative plans.
Over the past year, he played an active role in getting several major bills passed, including the “One Big, Beautiful Bill”.
Outside politics, Mullin runs a business and works as a cow-calf rancher. He has been married to his wife, Christie Mullin, for 28 years, and they have six children together.
What is Mullin expected to do as the new DHS Secretary?
According to the DHS, Mullin will get to work right away and build directly on what’s already been achieved, including locking down the border, getting “criminal illegal immigrants” out of the country, taking the fight to terrorists and cartels, making disaster response faster and more effective, and “serving the American people”.
With the DHS post captioned “Declaring War on Immigration Fraud”, it is quite clear that the crackdown is likely to get more intense in coming days.
‘I do spank’: Mullin’s old clip talking about beating children surfaces
Amid Mullin’s appointment, an old video of him has resurfaced online, drawing attention to his views on disciplining children. The clip, reported to be from 2023 by MediaTouch, was recorded during a “City Elders” event hosted by a church on October 6 that year.
In the video, Mullin talks about strict parenting and says he believes in physically disciplining children. Speaking at a church event organized by the City Elders group on October 6, 2023, Mullin described growing up scared of his dad’s belt and said that kind of firm correction taught him respect without going overboard. He told the crowd that parents need to be ready to correct their children the same way.
He pointed out his young twin kids sitting right there and said straight up, “Guys, I tell you right now, I do spank. I have no problem with that.” He added that even right after a spanking, when he’s still angry, they’ll come right back, climb into his lap, and hug him tight. That, he said, has taught him he needs to get better at forgiving quickly.
Mullin then acted out how his daughter Larra used to react, pleading over and over, “No, Daddy, no, Daddy, I’m sorry, Daddy,” and getting so worked up she couldn’t even bend over for the spanking.
About his son Andrew, he said the boy hated doing anything wrong and was actually the toughest one to punish—because Andrew would already be so hard on himself that big tears would roll down his face.