Markwayne Mullin has started making policy changes at DHS. Some GOP lawmakers want him to do more

By Annie Grayer, Michael Williams, CNN

(CNN) — During his confirmation hearing last month, Markwayne Mullin promised to make changes at the Department of Homeland Security if he were to be confirmed as its next secretary.

He called the controversial policy under outgoing Secretary Kristi Noem that required her approval of contracts exceeding $100,000 “micromanaging.” He said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers would be taken off the “front lines” and revert to relying on more restrictive judicial warrants to enter someone’s home or a private business. Ideally, he said, DHS would not be in the headlines nearly every day as it was under Noem’s leadership.

Nine days after being sworn in, Mullin has delivered on some of those promises.

But some lawmakers, including Republicans who broadly support President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda, want Mullin to go further as he attempts to right an agency that experienced a year of chaos under his predecessor.

Changes for planes, contracts, detention centers

Mullin is pausing the use of DHS planes to fly migrants to other countries, GOP Rep. Mark Amodei told CNN, though it is unclear if DHS is still chartering flights through other companies.

Amodei, who spoke with Mullin on Thursday, said it is part of a broader effort by the new secretary to pause the changes instituted under Noem to evaluate their cost effectiveness.

“We want to see that analysis, that cost benefit analysis,” said Amodei, who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees DHS. “Just show us how those numbers work out. The previous leadership at Homeland was missing in action on that explanation, or even a response.”

CNN has asked DHS for more details on the pause of migrant flights.

The $100,000 contract-review policy, which under Noem was blamed for creating a bottleneck of funding during several natural disasters last year and causing bipartisan resentment in states which were seeking much-needed disaster relief, was rescinded on Wednesday, according to a copy of a new memo signed by Mullin and reviewed by CNN.

The new policy now requires all contracts exceeding $25 million be approved by the DHS deputy secretary. Leaders of individual components within DHS are now responsible for greenlighting contracts below $25 million.

A DHS spokesperson said in a statement that Mullin “re-evaluated the contract processes to make sure DHS is serving the American taxpayer efficiently,” and rescinded Noem’s previous memo “to streamline the contract process and empower components to carry out their mission to protect the homeland and make America safe again.”

Mullin’s team is also reviewing all immigration detention warehouse projects across the country, a source familiar told CNN. The effort to install mega warehouses for migrant detention is being paused pending further review, the source added.

The move comes after significant pushback from local leaders and even some Republican lawmakers who supported the detention effort in theory, but were concerned about the strain such massive facilities would put on local infrastructure and communities.

Some of those local leaders told CNN that meetings that had previously been scheduled with DHS officials about those warehouses have been paused due to the review of DHS processes under the new leadership.

While they’ve expressed some optimism about how a Mullin-led DHS would change how it interacts with local communities where the agency wanted to place these warehouses, the local leaders remain cautious considering their experiences with DHS under Noem.

“Until DHS/ICE proves me wrong, I will work under the notion that their past behavior is an indication of their future performance,” said B.R. White, the city manager of Oakwood, Georgia, where DHS had planned to build a sprawling detention facility with little notice and no public hearings.

“I do desire to be proven wrong,” White added. “Just maybe the new DHS Secretary will logically discover the same flaws and issues with the program as the communities impacted by DHS purchases and proposed purchases.”

“As with any transition, we are reviewing agency policies and proposals,” the DHS spokesperson said.

Mullin is also weighing further rule changes related to how ICE operates — a key sticking point as the funding standoff embroiling his agency nears its 50th day, one source familiar with the discussions told CNN.

‘Review everything’

Taken together, these changes signify a broader effort from Mullin to pull back on some of Noem’s policies and rebuild trust with the public and key allies on the Hill, who under Noem’s tenure often felt in the dark on major developments happening in their own backyard and concerned about her priorities.

Republicans hope that they will find a more willing and accessible partner in Mullin, a former senator, to enter a new era of immigration enforcement that creates less controversy.

Some Republicans are pushing Mullin not to take a piecemeal approach and instead revisit everything Noem touched. They want a course correction to refocus the agency to only go after violent criminals and those with active deportation orders as the party has faced backlash against its sweeping crackdown on unauthorized immigration under Noem.

“Review everything that was being done under Secretary Noem” GOP Rep. Carlos Gimenez, who serves on the House committee that oversees DHS, told CNN about his message to Mullin. “I think a lot of things need to change and hopefully he will be the agent of change.”

GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who leads a bipartisan caucus of moderate House members, introduced a bill on Thursday with Democratic Rep. Thomas Suozzi to significantly change how the administration conducts removal operations, including mandating agents to remove their masks in most cases and requiring judicial warrants for criminal arrests— adopting some of the reforms that Democrats have been pushing for in negotiations over DHS funding.

Fitzpatrick, a former FBI agent who worked with Mullin when he was in the House, told CNN that he supports strong border security, but believes there has been an “over enforcement” of immigration laws in the US and wants Mullin to approach the job with more empathy and compassion.

“What has been lacking in immigration enforcement in recent months is empathy. And I think we need to approach the job with empathy. These are human beings, regardless of how you view immigration, we always need to treat human beings like human beings,” Fitzpatrick told CNN.

Fitzpatrick has discussed his bill with GOP Sen. Susan Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee and has been critical to DHS negotiations, but the path to this bill’s passage remains unclear.

Even before Mullin took over, President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan had begun enacting changes to ICE amid the fallout of federal officers killing protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

Upon arriving in that city, and replacing Greg Bovino, a controversial Border Patrol official whose tactics were widely blamed for ratcheting up tensions between federal officers and protesters, Homan ended roving patrols of agents and deployed body cameras for all ICE officers while working with local leaders to smooth tensions before pulling back on the agency’s foothold in the city.

Unlike Noem, Mullin has quickly formed a close relationship with Homan.

This article has been updated with additional information.

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CNN’s Gabe Cohen and Andy Rose contributed to this report.