DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin pushed back hard on claims that deportations are slowing under the Trump administration.“I wanted to get DHS out of the headlines so our ICE agents, our CBP agents and all the other law enforcement agencies we have underneath DHS could go do their job without being harassed by the media,” Mullin said. “That doesn’t mean we’re slowing down even a little bit.”He laid out the numbers: “In fact just yesterday we arrested over 1,900 individuals. We have over 60,000 individuals that are currently being detained going through the process of being deported. Last week we deported over 2,700.”Mullin explained the shift in tactics: “We’re getting slowed down a little bit because of some of our court issues we’re working through that but we haven’t missed a beat. We’re still on track — pushing as hard as we can. We just are doing it in a different way by using local law enforcement to work with us.”He highlighted the 287(g) program: “In fact I had a meeting this morning with local law enforcement about our 287(g) program that is very effective.”Mullin made it clear the pressure hasn’t let up: “It was interesting to me Rob when I sat down and talked to my ICE agents and in a different state today they were surprised we’re leaning so hard because underneath Biden we were leaning extremely hard in that so no absolutely positively we’re not slowing down one bit.”
