Maribel Hastings
Posted March 26, 2026
With the transition of power at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—Oklahoma Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin was confirmed on Monday—no major changes to the Trump administration’s detention and deportation agenda are expected. Specifically, the administration is acquiring new detention facilities and allocating significant funding to pursue its stated goal of one million deportations per year.
Part of Mullin’s fortune is reportedly tied to companies linked to DHS. Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, noted that “If Republicans thought Noem’s self-promoting and dealing was problematic, they have not explained why Mullin’s is different, including his recent multiple trades at DHS-connected corporations.”
Ahead of the midterm elections on November 3, when immigration policy and other items on Trump’s domestic agenda are unpopular among voters, some Republicans are showing signs of concern, especially if they are seeking reelection this fall.
No matter how much they tweak it, Trump’s immigration strategy remains extremist.
But even politicians facing reelection as late as 2028 are expressing concern. Such is the case with Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson, who told the Associated Press he is concerned because his state’s dairy industry relies on immigrant labor, most of whom are undocumented.
According to an analysis by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, immigrants account for 70% of the state’s dairy industry workforce. But they are also present in other industries such as agriculture and services.
“Can we just turn back the clock and have all these people who came in here illegally just be back home?” he asked. “In terms of actually implementing that, it’s a lot tougher — particularly, in fact, when you realize a lot of these people, most of them, came here to seek opportunity, wanting freedom,” he said. “They’re working, supporting their family, contributing to organizations and the community.”
Johnson seems to have had an epiphany after 15 years in the Senate. His state, like so many others across the country, relies heavily on the hard work of undocumented workers whom Trump’s deportation machine has removed and seeks to remove from the country by labeling them “criminals.”
It is not just dairy workers but also those in meat and poultry processing plants, agricultural workers who are experts at planting, tending, harvesting, and packaging the products we consume daily. It is construction workers whose labor drives the economy. Workers in hotels, restaurants, hospitals, and caregivers for children, the elderly, and the sick. Whatever the industry, undocumented labor is present.
But that same Senator Johnson had the opportunity in 2013 to support immigration reform that would have provided a path to legalization for millions of undocumented workers—like those who keep Wisconsin’s dairy industry afloat.
Johnson voted against S. 744, which passed on June 27, 2013, by a vote of 68-32 with the support of the entire Democratic caucus and 14 Republicans in a Senate that was, at the time, controlled by Democrats.
As has been the case for years, the Republicans who controlled the House of Representatives, then led by John Boehner, let it “die,” as they have devoted themselves solely to obstructing any hint of a sensible solution and exploiting the issue solely for electoral gain. Boehner also refused to allow debate on a Republican or bipartisan version that could be reconciled with the Senate bill.
Moreover, South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham was one of the so-called Gang of Eight—four Democratic and four Republican senators who negotiated the language of S. 744. But now Graham spews nothing but venom against immigrants, sticking to the script of Trump and his advisor Stephen Miller.
At this stage, it is an insult to our intelligence for Republicans like Johnson to feign regret over failed immigration reform. They’ve squandered countless chances for change and continue to posture as if blameless. Their crocodile tears are transparent and self-serving.
Now that Trump’s violent, extremist immigration strategy has eroded Republican Party support ahead of the midterms, some believe that softening their rhetoric and avoiding mention of mass deportations could help them retain the support of disaffected voters who backed them in 2024 but may now regret it—immigration being one factor.
No matter how much they tweak it, Trump’s immigration strategy remains extremist. And Mullin is just another clone of Trump and Miller.
Maribel Hastings is a Senior Advisor to América’s Voice.
- On Immigration, Mullin is Yet Another Clone - March 26, 2026
- The Iran War Does Not Erase the Domestic War on Immigrants - March 12, 2026
- The President Avoids His Violent Immigration Strategy Like the Proverbial Devil Avoids Holy Water - March 5, 2026
