End Citizens United Opposes Senator Markwayne Mullin for United States Secretary of Homeland Security

An open letter from ECU President Tiffany Muller

After firing Kristi Noem, President Trump nominated Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma to be Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), a role that involves overseeing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Senators should oppose Mullin’s nomination, which is being considered this week. He is unfit to oversee the unprecedented additional $75 billion in taxpayer dollars that Congress allocated ICE and is a standout in Washington for his brazen conflicts of interest.

Mullin has used his Senate seat to enrich himself. On December 29, 2025, just five days before the Trump Administration invaded Venezuela, Mullin – a current member of the Senate Committee for Armed Services – purchased stock in the major defense contractor Raytheon and in the oil companies Chevron and Conoco Phillips.

A few days later, Mullin went on CNBC and told viewers that the U.S. government’s invasion of Venezuela would be positive for Chevron “because there’s a tremendous amount of opportunity for the company and for their shareholders.” For Mullin, that was already true: The shares that he’d purchased just before the invasion had already increased in value. The same thing had happened last year, when Mullin bought multiple defense contractor stocks ahead of Israel’s 12-day conflict with Iran in June.

Mullin has traded some $24 million worth in stocks in the last three years. Many of those shares are for defense contractors and other businesses with government contracts. Just as Israel-Iran tensions were escalating, an analyst for the watchdog Capitol Trades described Mullin’s trades as: “These aren’t generic long-term plays. They’re tightly timed trades that preceded a geopolitical event with major market impact.” According to their analysis, as of early March, Mullin’s February 2025 purchase of shares in L3Harris Technologies Inc., a defense contractor, has returned 82%. There’s no escaping the fact that Mullin made well-timed, highly profitable trades while sitting on Congressional committees that gave him privileged access to inside information.

The pattern of self-enrichment appears to continue as Mullin is poised to take over DHS: Last month, Mullin bought stock in multiple military contractors, including VSE Corp., which signed a new contract with the DHS in February. Mullin also recently bought between $15k and $50k of stock in Stride Inc., a for-profit educational company that reportedly has been tapped by DHS to operate a school at an ICE detention center in Dilley, Texas, where families are reportedly being held in abysmal conditions. Mullin also holds shares in Microsoft, Amazon, NVIDIA, and other major tech companies that have ongoing contracts to provide the surveillance apparatus to ICE. If confirmed, Mullin would have the power to determine the fate of all of those deals.

End Citizens United opposes Congressional stock trading. Public servants should serve their constituents, not their personal financial portfolios. This view is shared by the American people. According to a 2023 University of Maryland survey, a staggering 86% of Americans support a ban on Congressional stock trading.

If Mullin does take over DHS, the stakes will keep getting higher. Last year, Republicans in Congress allocated ICE an unprecedented $75 billion in additional spending, which the agency is spending on roving patrols of masked agents who have killed two American citizens, and every single day arrest our neighbors in their homes, workplaces, at schools, and in the streets. ICE is now trying to rapidly acquire massive detention centers around the country so it can imprison thousands more in what it calls its “long-term detention solution.” And the friend of Trump who is set to oversee that enormous budget – and the imprisonment of thousands of people – is someone who has shown he has no scruples when it comes to making a buck for himself.

If confirmed, Mullin could easily enrich himself with insider knowledge about which companies are about to get fatter ICE contracts. Worse still, he could make decisions about how ICE agents operate and what conditions are like in detention centers – including where children are being detained – based on what will be best for his stock portfolio.

Even by the standards of the Trump Administration and its endless grift, that is an abomination. We cannot let someone as openly corrupt as Mullin have the responsibility of overseeing $75 billion in taxpayer dollars and an ICE agency already known to be corrupt and dangerous. Senators must oppose Mullin for DHS Secretary.