Can Markwayne Mullin succeed as Homeland Security secretary?

President Trump’s firing of incompetent Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is welcome news. But unless he changes his harmful polices on immigration and other areas the Department of Homeland Security oversees, the department will continue to be plagued by problems and Americans will suffer.

Don’t expect the president to make massive changes.

For years, Trump has been an extreme opponent of unauthorized immigrants — especially non-white unauthorized immigrants. He has repeatedly promised to stop their “invasion” of the U.S. 

Immigration was a winning issue for Trump in the 2024 election, but his approval rating on the topic in a Reuters/Ipsos poll in February fell to just 38 percent. This came after immigration enforcement agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis who were among thousands of protesters around the nation against masked ICE agents grabbing suspected unauthorized immigrants off the streets and from their homes and workplaces to be deported.

You would think being on the wrong side of public opinion would prompt Trump to accept sensible Democratic proposals for reforming ICE and for comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship for law-abiding immigrants already in our country.

But Trump believes his policy choices are brilliant, and that they become unpopular only because the people who work for him don’t properly communicate and implement them. Consequently, he seems to believe that changing the public face of his immigration crackdown by firing Noem will increase his public approval.  

The new face Trump wants to put on his war on unauthorized immigrants is Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who served in the House for 10........

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