Napolitano on the new Secretary of Homeland Security: Be Serious, be professional

When Markwayne Mullin was confirmed as Secretary of Homeland Security this week, he inherited a sprawling department that includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol. All have been embroiled in controversies — from viral and sometimes violent arrests of immigrants and citizens, to the recent removal of his predecessor, Kristi Noem, and her right hand on border enforcement, Greg Bovino.

Meanwhile, also under Homeland, thousands of airport security screeners work without pay or quit as lawmakers battle over border enforcement, a few weeks before midterm primary elections. 

Mullin will have to deal with all that. Few know the challenges of his job better than Janet Napolitano, who held it under President Barack Obama. Now a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, she has some advice.

This interview was edited for clarity and length.

Denise Amos: What would you say to Senator Markwayne Mullin as he takes over DHS? 

Janet Napolitano: First I wish him all the best because what the department needs is strong, stable leadership that appreciates the depth and breadth of responsibilities that DHS has, that appreciates the expertise that is contained within the department, that understands the necessity of the department to interact with state and local authorities more so than most federal departments have to, and that can get DHS back on sound footing, because it clearly is not now.

What about newly appointed Border czar Tom Homan, who is taking over ICE?

Homan worked at DHS when I was there. When I was Secretary, he was head of ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations) at ICE. I knew him. He is very conservative on immigration policy. But he’s also a law enforcement professional. He knows how to prioritize within law enforcement missions. 

When you led Homeland did you have as much interference from the White House as the department does now?

When I was secretary, President Obama generally trusted me to run the department and to consistently do what the president’s goals were. We interacted with the White House all the time.  But it wasn’t the way I perceive it in the current administration, where you have someone like Stephen Miller basically dictating what happens on the immigration front, to the exclusion of all the other functions DHS is required to perform.

What functions are important but are deprioritized now?

One is the Cyber Infrastructure Security Agency, CISA. When I was secretary we were building our cybersecurity capability, because it has become increasingly important. Over the last year CISA has lost almost 40% of its personnel. It was existing until very recently with an interim director. It cut back on its functions.

Now, with the war against Iran — and Iran is a very active cyber-adversary — people are asking what’s happened to cybersecurity for our nation’s critical infrastructure? Well, look back at the last few months and you’ll see.

FEMA is another one. There’s this ongoing debate about whether FEMA does too much, whether more should be handled by the states. That’s a legitimate debate. But in the meantime, they’ve removed all kinds of expertise from FEMA, people who know how to muster the resources necessary when you have to handle a major disaster. On top of it, you had this weird rule by then-Secretary Noem that she had to personally approve every $100,000 contract. DHS is a $55 billion-plus agency. That FEMA money needs to move. Those delays really hurt people on the ground. 

Let’s talk about the shutdown.

These TSA workers have a 0-fail requirement. They have to protect the nation’s aviation. And they make $40,000- $50,000 a year. They live paycheck to paycheck. And now they’re missing paychecks. How does that communicate to this workforce that they are an appreciated and important part of national security? We’re already seeing agents calling in sick; they’re getting second jobs and they’re resigning. 

When you were with DHS did you envision ICE and Border Patrol being this large and controversial?

I think the over-generous allocation of money to ICE in the Big Beautiful Bill will turn out to be a mistake. We’re already seeing that affect the rapid hiring they’re trying to do. The reduction in the necessary training and the need for that training was made very obvious in their conduct in these big urban operations in Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis.

We’re seeing it in the rush to build detention facilities, on the notion that anybody picked up should automatically be put into detention. That has clogged the federal courts because, as people contest their detentions, they file habeas petitions — and they’re filing them by the thousands —  other important matters to be resolved by federal courts can’t be handled. 

You have to back up the bus and say, is the nation safer because of this?

I will give the administration credit. I think the border security is an achievement. He allocated resources that I think prior administrations may have requested but didn’t get. They’ve managed to basically shut down traffic on the southwest border. I’m the former governor of Arizona, so I really know that border. But this mass deportation effort has been ill-conceived and unprofessionally carried out. 

Did you make requests for more border resources and were turned down?

We were always asking for more resources everywhere. We were asking for more resources for the Secret Service. Congress, even in the Big Beautiful Bill, didn’t meet those demands. Instead, it gave an unbelievable amount of money to immigration enforcement. I hope Congress plans very vigorous oversight of how that money gets spent. 

Border security was a challenge when you were secretary. What would you do differently? 

It’s interesting they’ve managed to reduce illegal immigration across the southern border to a very low number without building or completing their so-called wall. Our view was that manpower and technology combined would be more effective than building a wall. 

On deportation, we said you‘re going to prioritize those who are in the country illegally who have committed other serious crimes, those who are known gang members or national security threats, and then those we have apprehended near the border before they get into the interior of the United States and establish themselves.

What happened in the current administration is just a rush for numbers — go get 3,000 people a day where you can find them. And then they started the business of these roving patrols in cities. 

How they pick the cities is interesting. In Minneapolis, for example, you had 2,000 or so ICE and 800 or 900 Border Patrol agents, who are not trained to deal with urban environments where there may be protests. And then they were under the leadership of Greg Bovino, who was a Border Patrol guy from El Centro. It was just a disaster.

How many deportations did you average, compared with deportations today?

When I was secretary, President Obama got the nickname deporter-in-chief, much to his chagrin, because I come from a border state heavily impacted by illegal immigration traffic, and I believe in protecting our nation’s borders and an effective immigration system. 

Our country really demands both. 

Is it a big deal that agents doing sweeps wear masks and aren’t identifying themselves? 

I think what is necessary is for ICE to be required to adhere to the practices that we require of all other law enforcement. We had agents wearing masks from time to time, but it was under certain very specific conditions.

This business of universally wearing masks is extremely troublesome. The reason given is because the agents are all being doxxed. You could say that about any law enforcement agent. If you’re concerned about that then increase the penalties for doxing. 

What troubled me was this appearance of thousands of federal agents dressed in quasi-military gear — like they were invading Fallujah — going into a city like Minneapolis. They had 3,000 federal agents descend on Minneapolis, which only had 600 police officers. It looked like a military invasion.

What should DHS do to minimize political damage?

It’s interesting, in the weeks since Bovino was removed and since the murders —  I won’t say murders, the killings —  in Minneapolis you really saw public opinion turn. The administration has gone a lot quieter. They haven’t removed all the forces in Minneapolis, but I think they’ve removed quite a few of them. 

I think Senator Mullen will be advised by the president that he doesn’t want mass deportation on the front pages of the paper. And focus more on those who are illegal aliens who’ve committed other crimes. There are some. Find them. Deport them. But that takes more than patrols roaming around picking up people.

Why did they pick Minneapolis, Chicago and Los Angeles for mass enforcement?

If numbers were their game — if you look at undocumented immigrants residing in the United States —  the top state would be California. But number 2 and 3 would be Texas and Florida. 

This is not an administration that favors states or cities that have Democratic leadership. 

Do you think DHS has too many departments? 

Yes, it was created in the wake of 9-11, and Congress took 22 agencies and put them all under one umbrella and then created some new ones. I was the third secretary of Homeland Security. To create clear mission statements, clear priorities, and to run it truly as an integrated federal agency was a real challenge. My successor continued to make progress. 

Then we had the Trump term and we had six secretaries in four years. Then you had Biden and he had one secretary, but by then immigration was overwhelming. I’m not going to second guess what happened under President Biden except to say the focus on the border was not what it should have been. That caused a wave of immigration into the country. And by the time he figured out he needed to take action, it was too late. 

If you were advising Sen. Mullin, what should be his top priorities? 

I think he should reestablish the secretary as a serious person. This is not a job to do media campaigns. And it’s not a job to show up and put on a bullet proof vest, to show how tough you are. It’s a real job and it’s a hard job and it’s an important job. He needs to handle it professionally, and he needs to think through the overall department, not only the immigration issue. 

One thing he can do is not label people “domestic terrorists” right off the bat before any facts are known and not pay for a $220 million media campaign that focuses on himself — and maybe not buy a luxury airplane to travel all around.

He needs to look at how they’re hiring and how they’re training. He’s going to have such a laundry list of things that need to be done, that were not done or were done improperly, that he’s got a lot of matters on his plate.