Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin argued this week that strict border enforcement is good for the American economy, pushing back on claims that the country needs high levels of immigration to sustain growth.
Speaking in a policy discussion with Breitbart News, Mullin said tighter national security draws business investment because it creates stability that employers can count on.
“National security brings more businesses because it brings stability than anything else,” Mullin said. “Because if they know they can trust the government, they know they can be in a safe area. They know they don’t have to worry about their equipment being ripped off. They can know that their employees are going to be safe coming to and from work. They know that they might have employees that could pass a drug test and show up.”
Mullin said national security cannot exist without border security, warning that lax enforcement — which he said marked the Biden administration — leaves the government unable to account for who is inside the country.
He also pointed to housing costs as a key piece of the economic argument, saying mass migration drives up prices and squeezes working Americans.
“So when we go into areas and we do immigration enforcement, when we leave, we see the average house rent drop by about six percent,” Mullin said. “So if they can’t afford to live in the area that the employer or the manufacturer is building because they’re priced out of the market, then they can’t get the people there to begin with.”
He said border security and housing affordability go together. “You got to have national security and you got to have affordability at the same time, which … those two run hand in hand,” he said.
Mullin rejected the idea that the administration’s approach amounts to opposing immigration altogether, saying legal immigrants who follow the process are welcome.
“We’re not anti-immigration. We’re just saying that you got to follow our nation’s laws,” Mullin said. “If you follow the nation’s laws and you go through the proper process to get here, and you want to embrace what America is about — a land of opportunity and freedom, not bring your agenda into our country, not break the laws and come in and try to bring the country you ran from to come to the United States and try to change this to them — if you want to embrace what America is all about, we want you.”
He said the rules apply regardless of how long legal immigration takes.
“If that takes you 18 months or if it takes you 18 years, you still have to follow the law,” Mullin said. “If you choose to cut the line because you think that you’re impatient and you want to jump over everybody else, that’s our job to hunt you down and send you back, and we will do that.”
Mullin tied enforcement of immigration law to broader concerns about crime and civic order, naming Portland, Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles as cities he said have suffered from weak enforcement.
“We’re just a nation of laws, and if we don’t enforce our nation’s laws, then what separates us from a third world country and a first world country is a criminal activity,” Mullin said. “So, if we force our nation’s laws, we’ll keep ourselves from becoming a third world country, like you see in some of these cities.”
He added that he believes declining enforcement has coincided with visible decay in some major cities. “New York, [have you] been to New York lately? Looks like a freaking trash pit,” Mullin said. “But that’s what it becomes when you become sanctuary cities. You invite all that criminal activity, and when you have criminal activity, it also brings the morale of the country down.”
