Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin forcefully pushed back on a reporter Friday who asked about ICE reportedly “ramping up” daily arrests heading into the midterm elections, dismissing the premise as a media “narrative.”
Mullin held a news conference Friday to address the latest ICE shooting, in which 28-year-old Oscar Belgal was shot in his car in New York City while his 5-year-old child was in the vehicle. DHS said Belgal had a history of run-ins with police and did not follow lawful orders given to him.
During the press conference, Mullin blasted New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, both Democrats, over their condemnations of the shooting.
Things heated up when a reporter began asking about a “ramp up” in ICE arrests, referring to a CNN report that cited two people familiar with the situation. According to the report, ICE agents were told to increase daily arrests by 1,000. DHS has long denied that agents have arrest quotas.
Mullin wasted no time rejecting the claim.
“Why do you say ramp up the pace? We do our job everyday. That’s a narrative. I’m going to push back on this real quick. That’s a narrative, that you guys have said we’re ramping up up to the midterm elections,” Mullin said.
“We’re not ramping up anything. We’re doing our job everyday. That’s all we do,” he continued.
The DHS secretary questioned where the claim originated.
“This whole narrative that says we’re ramping up, where’d that come from? Was there an email you guys read? There wasn’t,” he said.
Mullin noted that just a week earlier, the media had accused the department of the opposite.
“I think it was last week you guys were accusing us of saying that we’re dialing down enforcement in certain areas. I’m going, no, we’re not,” he said.
He insisted that ICE’s work is steady and constant, regardless of the calendar.
“We pursue the worst of the worst, regardless if it’s Sunday, regardless if it’s Monday, regardless if it’s Christmas, regardless if it’s Thanksgiving, regardless if it’s on a Saturday,” Mullin said. “We are pursuing the worst of the worst every day. There is no ramp up. There is no drawdown. We’re doing our job.”
The reporter then tried rephrasing, dropping the “ramp up” language.
“As deportations continue, are you going to continue using the planes that were purchased during the prior DHS administration and are you —” the reporter began before Mullin cut in.
“I have no idea what that has to do with the worst of the worst,” Mullin said.
When the reporter tried again, Mullin flatly refused to take the question and took aim at “fake news.”
“All you’re doing here is you’re trying to take this to someplace else because you know we arrested the worst of the worst last night and you’re trying to bring up something controversial,” he said.
“This is what I hate about fake news. When we do a press conference on something, you guys want to completely steer away when you realize this is not someone you should be defending and you bring up something as ridiculous as that,” Mullin added.
He made clear he would only take questions about the matter at hand.
“I’m just saying, I’m not even going to entertain your question because that’s not what we’re here for. If you want to ask something that is pertaining to this press conference, I’m happy to do that,” Mullin said
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