Acting Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin traveled to Arizona’s southern border Thursday to highlight what he described as a major achievement in President Trump’s immigration crackdown: no migrants apprehended while attempting to enter the country illegally have been released during the administration’s first 17 months.
Mullin toured an undisclosed section of the border where construction on Trump’s long-promised wall was recently completed. He claimed the same area had seen hundreds of thousands of migrants enter the United States undetected during former President Joe Biden’s administration.
“Under the Biden administration, there was no national security — because you can’t have national security if you don’t know who’s inside the country,” Mullin told The California Post.
“A secure border, and knowing who’s entering your country, is where you can start actually saying we have national security,” he added.
Mullin estimated that between 500,000 and 1 million migrants were apprehended and released in that stretch of Arizona during the Biden years. He acknowledged, however, that the precise number may never be established because records from the previous administration were incomplete.
By contrast, Mullin said, the number of migrants apprehended and released at the location under Trump has fallen to zero.
The acting DHS secretary also said federal authorities have identified 2,268 known terrorists who entered the country illegally since Trump returned to the White House. He cited the figure as evidence that the administration’s tougher enforcement policies have improved public safety.
“American people deserve to be safe in their cities, in their towns, on their streets, in their neighborhoods, at their schools, while they’re shopping,” Mullin said. “And every single murder that takes place at the hands of an illegal is 100% preventable.”
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Even as the administration promotes its border enforcement statistics, Trump’s signature wall project continues to face setbacks. Completion could now be delayed until the end of 2027.
Mullin had previously projected that the first wall would be completed by June of next year. He attributed the delay to lawsuits filed by environmental groups and political opponents of Trump, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
According to Mullin, the legal disputes have complicated efforts to obtain access to land required for construction. He added that providing more funding would not necessarily speed up the project.
“National security should be first. We want to be good stewards of the land too,” Mullin said. “But because we have these activist judges, because we have areas like that, it’s slowing down our ability to gain access to some of this land.”
Mullin also criticized sanctuary policies in California and New York, where local authorities face limits on their cooperation with federal immigration officials.
He argued that those policies have hindered the Trump administration’s deportation and immigration enforcement efforts, despite opposition from local officials and immigrant-rights advocates.
“I get that some people may not like immigration enforcement, but the truth is, we’re a nation of laws,” Mullin said.
“The sanctuary cities and sanctuary states do nothing to help people’s lives out,” he added. “They actually cause more problems and take freedom away from American citizens who are trying to live their lives.”
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