Markwayne Mullin has promised to keep DHS out of the spotlight. Months later, ICE shootings, in-custody deaths and new political battles thrust the agency back into the headlines.
Protests erupt across the US after two ICE shootings
Protesters from Houston to Boston, Portland, Maine and Los Angeles have spoken out against fear and injustice in the wake of two recent ICE shootings.
Markwayne Mullin has vowed to take the Department of Homeland Security out of the headlines as the new secretary.
A surge in immigration enforcement in several cities had become increasingly unpopular among Americans, especially after DHS officers killed at least two Americans in the winter.
Mullin, a former Republican senator from Oklahoma, pledged during his Senate confirmation hearing in March to change the agency’s practices and quietly implement President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration enforcement priorities while protecting the country.
“My goal in six months’ time is to not be featured in the headlines every day,” Marin said during the March 18 hearing. “My goal is to make sure people understand that we’re there and that we’re protecting them and working with them. My goal is to make all of you proud.”
Less than four months later, things changed.
Mullin found his agency back in headlines around the world after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot and killed two people in two U.S. cities within a week.
On July 7, an ICE officer opened fire on a van during a traffic stop in Houston, Texas, killing the driver, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old father from Mexico, as he was about to start his shift.
Then, on the morning of July 13, during a traffic stop in Biddeford, Maine, ICE agents shot Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero, 25, killing his Colombian father, who was authorized to work in the country.
In both incidents, DHS officials said the officers fired their weapons out of fear for their safety. Protests continued in both cities. ICE initially suspended traffic stops following the shooting. President Trump reversed that decision the next day.
And as new political battles emerge, the two shootings raise new questions about why ICE officers were not wearing body cameras. DHS and some leading Republicans blamed Democrats for the development of the case, even though the department promised to ensure all ICE arrest teams have cameras within 60 days.
In a July 15 statement to USA TODAY, Marin said DHS’ primary goal is to “keep our officers safe and keep criminals off our streets.”
“Illegal aliens will be arrested and deported wherever they are. If you are in the country illegally, leave now,” Marin said, adding that police officers are facing an increase in vehicular attacks.
“Trying to evade arrest is dangerous,” Marin said.
“This reckless illegal alien activity occurred after sanctuary politicians held a webinar and shared resources on how to openly defy ICE,” Marin said, extending his criticism of a number of leading Democratic politicians.
Here’s how 2026 played out for the Department of Homeland Security.
‘Single-minded focus’ on Trump’s immigration enforcement promise
The year began with turmoil in the Midwest, followed by historic spending for DHS and a record year for deaths in custody. The Trump administration launched Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis in December, and the DHS-led sweep will continue until 2026. Protests erupted after masked armed agents descended on American streets.
A week into the new year, an ICE officer in Minneapolis shot and killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old American citizen and mother who was in her car during a protest. Two weeks later, about a mile away in the same city, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents killed another American, 37-year-old nurse Alex Preti, during a protest.
Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was quick to label them domestic terrorists before video evidence emerged that contradicted her account. Polls soon showed that Americans’ support for the heavy-handed tactics of aggressive immigration enforcement officials in American cities began to decline. The tactic began to draw ire from Democrats and Republicans.
Although the operation was ultimately canceled, DHS entered a turbulent year in 2026. Founded in the shadow of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, DHS has grown to enormous size, with hundreds of billions of dollars poured into expanding detention and deportation efforts while fortifying the southern border.
“This is single-mindedly focused on removing people from the country,” said Doris Meisner, former director of the Bureau of Immigration and Nationality, the predecessor to DHS under Republican President Ronald Reagan and Democratic President Bill Clinton.
In doing so, Meisner, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, told USA TODAY the agency is receiving historic “military-level” funding. DHS, and ICE in particular, currently has more funding than some countries’ entire military budgets.
Meissner said DHS operations seem quieter since Minneapolis, but the administration is prioritizing only one part of the immigration system: enforcement. He said officials were ignoring immigration courts, asylum and other aspects of the legal immigration system.
“They took a series of actions that definitely changed the optics,” Meisner said. “I’m not at all convinced that there will be any changes to the policy itself.”
DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Biss told USA TODAY this year that DHS has been fulfilling President Trump’s promise to arrest and deport immigrants suspected of crimes since day one.
“The border is currently closed,” Biss said in a statement. “For the past 12 months, there have been zero releases at our border. We remain true to the President’s promise to make America safe again.”
He said 70% of the country’s citizens have been charged or convicted of crimes, and more than 3 million people have been forcibly removed. Detentions and deportations are at record levels, but 3 million people are unlikely to have been deported, according to an analysis of federal data. Meanwhile, a recent analysis by the Data Deportation Project, which obtained ICE data through public records requests, found that the vast majority of people arrested have not been convicted of any crime, and only 3% have been convicted of a violent felony.
At the same time, the United States is experiencing record numbers of deaths in immigration detention. At least 52 people have died in ICE custody since 2025, according to USA TODAY tracker. By early July, there were 21 deaths in 2026. A Human Rights Watch report released in June found that since President Trump took office for his second term, the death rate is at its highest level in more than a decade.
Suspicions of taxpayer mismanagement amid record spending
Meanwhile, at DHS headquarters in Washington, D.C., the agency is facing a major controversy.
In enacting the president’s priorities, the administration oversaw a sharp decline in border crossers and an increase in the number of people detained and deported. But the deaths of Mr. Preti and Mr. Goode enabled minority Democrats to push through a record shutdown in an effort to reform DHS.
Meissner said the Democratic effort failed because the government shutdown ended while DHS continued to receive large amounts of federal funding.
But Noem may have lost her job after appearing in Congress in March. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) called Noem’s leadership a “disaster.”
Noem reportedly had to personally approve all agency deals. During the government shutdown, DHS acquired two new luxury jets worth more than $70 million each for Noem’s travels.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, slammed Nohm over her spending, including $220 million in television ads that she said the president approved. Trump reportedly did not. Kennedy told Fox News that Nomu was “as dead as fried chicken.”
New leadership, same priorities
Mullin has promised to fill Noem’s role and keep the agency out of controversy as it deals with the closure. Mullin, a former mixed martial arts fighter and business executive, started his own battles with Democratic cities and states, but lawmakers approved his nomination.
The government blamed the shutdown’s impact on air travel for not paying Transportation Security Administration workers in March, before President Trump took executive action to pay TSA workers. The administration’s introduction of ICE at airports was controversial.
In New Jersey, protests erupted at a controversial private ICE detention facility, with detainees going on labor and hunger strikes. Marin has threatened to halt the processing of international arrivals in what he sees as a lack of response from local authorities, warning that it could disrupt business and tourism to major U.S. cities that drive the country’s economy.
The administration’s border czar, Tom Homan, who oversaw the cancellation of the operation in Minneapolis, threatened to rush ICE agents to New York City, the nation’s largest metropolitan area, home to numerous immigrant enclaves and the country’s main economic engine. Homan complained to Democratic city and state officials over so-called sanctuary policies that limit local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement.
All of this happened as the United States hosted the World Cup, a global soccer tournament comparable to the Super Bowl with billions of viewers and millions of fans from around the world. DHS helped oversee safety measures for 78 games played in the United States in June and July. DHS said the Federal Emergency Management Agency has invested nearly $900 million in host cities to protect residents and visitors.
Fans have criticized the US government’s response to visa restrictions and travel bans on fans, players and even FIFA referees.
The Iranian national team was forced to practice in Tijuana, Mexico, while playing matches in the United States. Iraqi fans were unable to obtain visas to attend their team’s games in Boston and Philadelphia.
Days before the start of the tournament, CBP rejected African Male Referee of the Year Omar Altan, who was scheduled to become the first Somali to officiate at a FIFA World Cup. DHS’s Biss said Artan was deemed ineligible for entry due to “vetting concerns.”
Will DHS be reformed with billions of new dollars?
Meanwhile, DHS has been given more funding to carry out its priorities. Republicans took the unusual step of introducing a $70 billion reconciliation bill in June to fund DHS for three years. This is on top of $170 billion from the President’s Tax and Spend Act of 2025. Even if Democrats take control of Congress in the 2026 midterm elections, the new spending would shore up immigration enforcement resources for the remainder of President Trump’s second term.
Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-Va.), a member of the House Homeland Security and Oversight Committee, said DHS has been unwieldy and difficult to manage since its creation.
However, there is little oversight of new funding levels, including contracting practices. Walkinshaw said it was unclear how Mullin would part ways with Noem on issues such as purchasing a warehouse for the detention center.
In June, officials said the expansion plan would not move forward, and DHS announced that ICE would use existing space rather than a new empty warehouse. The agency is selling at least one of the Michigan warehouses it previously purchased, according to court records.
“We’ve seen promises to review and assess things, but we haven’t seen any concrete changes to clean up their act,” Walkinshaw said. “This is unfortunate because it concerns the reputation of the agency that will exist after Donald Trump is no longer president.”
Mullin appeared before lawmakers and outlined changes he would make to DHS.
For example, he canceled a number of Noem-era contracts that have yet to be signed as part of an effort to ease some of the practices that drew bipartisan criticism under the previous secretary.
In Congressional testimony in recent months, Mullin said DHS has followed the law and will continue to follow the law. “We swore an oath to protect the Constitution just as you swore an oath to protect it,” Marin told lawmakers in June.
Contributors: Suhail Bhat, Ignacio Calderon, Christopher Kang, John Heasley, USA TODAY’s Michael Loria and Janine Santucci
