Trump Replaces DHS Secretary Kristi Noem With Senator Markwayne Mullin

On March 5, 2026, President Trump announced he was replacing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and nominating Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma to lead the department. Trump said Noem would become Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas, the Western Hemisphere security initiative he was launching that week. The change came during a partial government shutdown driven by a standoff over DHS funding, and after a year in which the department's immigration-enforcement operations produced repeated controversies. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held Mullin's confirmation hearing on March 18, where he was pressed on whether ICE would seek judicial warrants.

Swapping the leadership of the largest federal law-enforcement department in the middle of a funding lapse, and moving the departing secretary to a newly created envoy post rather than out of government, raises questions about the reasons for the change and about continuity of command at an agency operating under contested legal authority.

Mullin's nomination proceeded to the Senate; by June 2026 he was serving as DHS secretary, appearing as the named petitioner in the Supreme Court's TPS decision.