Trump DHS pick Markwayne Mullin will appear before senators for his confirmation hearing

WASHINGTON (AP) — Markwayne Mullin, President Donald Trump's pick for Homeland Security secretary, appears before senators on Wednesday for his confirmation hearing and will face questions over his vision for a department tasked with carrying out the Republican administration's push for mass deportations.

Mullin, an Oklahoma senator, has spent 13 years in Congress and has emerged as a close ally of the president's. If confirmed, he would replace outgoing Secretary Kristi Noem, who was fired earlier this month amid mounting criticism of her leadership of the Department of Homeland Security.

The hearing will be the first opportunity for lawmakers and the public to hear directly from Mullin about how he intends to run the third-largest department in the Cabinet. The sprawling department, with a workforce of roughly 260,000 employees, oversees a diverse mission set of responsibilities ranging from protecting the president from a bullet to helping states recover from disasters to deporting people in the country illegally.

Mullin is a former mixed martial arts fighter who ran a plumbing business in Oklahoma before running for Congress. He has in the past indicated support for immigration operations, and he's expected to be a faithful ally for Trump's agenda if he is confirmed for the top job at DHS.

“Whether it be protecting the homeland from bad actors, stopping dangerous drugs from flowing into American communities, or removing the worst-of-the-worst criminal illegal aliens, Senator Mullin will work tirelessly to implement the President’s agenda,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in an emailed statement Tuesday.

The president's immigration agenda and how Mullin intends to execute on it is expected to be a key line of questioning as Democrats drill down into Mullin's views. The hearing comes as the president's mass deportations agenda is at a crossroads, and Mullin will face pressure to reach the president's lofty deportation goals when the public mood has soured over the aggressive way immigration enforcement operations have been carried out.

Anger over the Trump administration's immigration enforcement tactics has prompted Democrats to refuse to fund DHS until it makes a series of changes to its officers' conduct.

In an opening statement released ahead of the hearing, Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the ranking member on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said the Democrats were asking for “straightforward” reforms in line with rules police departments follow. Peters underlined the challenges that Homeland Security is facing from threats from Iran to criminal hackers and said the department needed someone with a “steady hand." But Peters said he had “reservations” about whether Mullin was ready to assume such a significant role.

As the latest partial government shutdown drags on, there have been long security lines at a growing number of U.S airports as security screeners go into another month without pay. Republicans have repeatedly charged that Democrats are risking the nation’s national security by blocking funding to the department.

Under Noem, intense enforcement operations were launched in places including Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis, where immigrants were rounded up in arrest sweeps and protesters clashed with federal officers.

Activists and politicians accused DHS officers of smashing car windows, roughing up bystanders who tried to record their activities and detaining immigrants in squalid conditions. The shooting deaths of two protesters — Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis — contributed to swelling criticism of Trump’s immigration agenda.

Homeland Security has said that its officers are responding with force only when necessary and have blamed activists and politicians, who they say are dialing up the rhetoric against their officers.

Mullin also will likely face questions about the future of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, which is in the middle of a tumultuous reform process after Trump said he wanted to overhaul it, if not eliminate it.

Noem led a Trump-appointed FEMA Review Council that was set to recommend sweeping changes to how the federal government helps states, tribes and territories prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters. The reforms had the potential to drastically reduce federal support for disasters and put more responsibility on local jurisdictions.

Meanwhile, under Noem’s leadership, all contracts above $100,000 had to wait for her approval. That led to long delays for states desperate for reimbursements for money they’d already spent on things like storm debris removal.

After two acting administrators left FEMA during Noem’s tenure, the agency is still without a permanent head.

Trump said he was making Noem a special envoy for a new security initiative that would focus on the Western Hemisphere. Noem thanked Trump for the appointment and touted her accomplishments as secretary, saying she made “historic accomplishments” at DHS to make America safe.

Associated Press writer Gabriela Aoun Angueira contributed.

FILE - Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla. speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Jan. 14, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., speaks with reporters on the steps at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, March 5, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., speaks with reporters on the steps at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, March 5, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., arrives before Ireland's Prime Minister Micheál Martin presents President Donald Trump with a bowl of shamrocks during a St. Patrick's Day event in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, March 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

NOME, Alaska (AP) — Former reality TV star Jessie Holmes cruised to a repeat victory in the Iditarod, the roughly 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) sled dog race in Alaska.

Holmes guided his dog team across the finish line Tuesday night in the old Gold Rush town of Nome, a Bering Sea coastal community. He pumped both fists in the air as the crowd cheered for him and his team of 12 dogs.

After finishing, the dogs got steaks and Holmes answered some questions accompanied by his lead dogs, Polar and Zeus.

“Zeus led every single run except one. I just wanted to let someone else have some fun. And Polar deserves it more than anybody,” he said. “He leads by example.”

The race started March 8 in Willow, a day after the ceremonial start was held in Anchorage. The course took dog teams and their mushers over two mountain ranges, along the frozen Yukon River and across the unpredictable Bering Sea ice.

Holmes, a former cast member on the National Geographic reality show “Life Below Zero,” is the third competitor in the 54-year history of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race to repeat the year after winning for the first time. The others were Susan Butcher in 1986-1987 and Lance Mackey in 2007-2008. Both went on to win four titles.

Holmes told The Associated Press before the Iditarod that this year’s race was the most important of his career. “That’s hard to put that on yourself because you got to live with that pressure every day,” Holmes said. “And if I do not make it, it is going to absolutely crush me.”

He will pocket about $80,000 for this year’s win, up from the $57,000-plus he took home last year. This year's purse was boosted by financial support from Norwegian billionaire Kjell Rokke, who participated in a newly created, noncompetitive amateur category. Rokke reached Nome on Monday, under rules that allowed him to have outside support from a former Iditarod champ, flexible rest periods and to swap out dogs.

Holmes' first Iditarod was in 2018. His seventh place finish earned him rookie of the year honors. He has now raced in the Iditarod nine times, earning seven top 10 finishes. He’s been in the top five the last five races.

He appeared for eight years on “Life Below Zero,” which chronicled the hardships of people living in rural Alaska.

Holmes used the money he earned from the show to buy better dogs and equipment, and also was able to purchase raw land near Denali National Park and Preserve. A carpenter by trade, he’s carved his homestead in the wilderness, where his closest neighbor is about 30 miles (48 kilometers) away.

Rokke, who now lives in Switzerland, provided $100,000 in additional prize money and $170,000 to Alaska Native villages that serve as checkpoints. Another musher in the noncompetitive “expedition” class, Canadian entrepreneur Steve Curtis, pledged $50,000 to help youth sports programs in the villages. Curtis did not finish the race.

The race’s biggest critic, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has claimed that more than 150 dogs have died in the history of the Iditarod. It urged Rokke to spend his money to help dogs rather than put them through “hazards and misery.”

The Iditarod has never provided its count of dogs who have died on the race.

One dog has died in this year's race, a 4-year-old female named Charly on musher Mille Porsild's team, the Iditarod said in a statement Tuesday. A necropsy will be conducted.

Thirty-four competitive mushers started, matching the inaugural 1973 race for the second fewest in race history. The retirements of many longtime mushers and the high cost of supplies, such as dog food, have kept the fields small this decade.

Jessie Holmes poses with his lead dogs Zeus, left, and Polar, after claiming his second straight Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race championship, in Nome, Alaska, Tuesday March 17, 2026. (Marc Lester/Anchorage Daily News via AP)

Jessie Holmes hugs his dogs at the finish line, after claiming his second straight Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race championship, in Nome, Alaska, Tuesday March 17, 2026. (Marc Lester/Anchorage Daily News via AP)

Jessie Holmes poses with his lead dogs Zeus, left, and Polar, after claiming his second straight Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race championship, in Nome, Alaska, Tuesday March 17, 2026. (Marc Lester/Anchorage Daily News via AP)

Jessie Holmes arrives first to the finish lane, claiming his second straight Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race championship, in Nome, Alaska, Tuesday March 17, 2026. (Marc Lester/Anchorage Daily News via AP)

Defending Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race champion Jessie Holmes poses for a selfie with a fan during the ceremonial start of this year's race in downtown Anchorage, Alaska, on Saturday, March 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)