Mullin then delivered his sharpest accusation.
“So every single death, so when you said a while ago that the blood is on their hands, you are absolutely correct because every single death that has occurred by an illegal that was released into this country underneath the Biden Administration, every one of those is 100% preventable,” Mullin told host Sean Hannity.
“And the Biden Administration turned a blind eye and thank God the American people put President Trump back in office,” he said.
Mullin’s comments fit a broader argument the Trump administration has made since returning to Washington: that the chaos at the southern border was not inevitable, but the result of deliberate policy choices.
The current DHS chief, who took over the department in March 2026, has repeatedly emphasized enforcement and the removal of illegal immigrants accused or convicted of serious crimes. His appointment also marked a dramatic career change after serving Oklahoma in both the House and Senate.
The Biden-Era Numbers Tell the Story
Long before Biden left the White House, federal immigration statistics were sounding alarms.
ICE’s fiscal year 2023 report showed an enormous number of noncitizens on the agency’s non-detained docket — individuals with pending immigration cases or final orders who were not being held in ICE detention.
Reporting at the time described that population as exceeding 6 million, nearly twice the approximately 3.26 million recorded at the end of the Trump administration.
The growth coincided with an unprecedented surge at the southern border that overwhelmed federal resources and ultimately spilled into cities hundreds and even thousands of miles from Mexico.
New York City and Chicago became two of the most visible examples as local officials struggled to find housing, shelter space and other resources for newly arrived migrants.
ICE itself acknowledged the pressure the immigration surge placed on its personnel.
“While ICE carefully prioritized its resources to meet these evolving mission needs and agency personnel continued to perform at a high standard, these increased demands have strained a workforce that has remained relatively static for the past decade,” the report said, according to the outlet.
At the same time, ICE detention numbers climbed substantially. The detained population reportedly increased from 26,299 to 36,845 by the end of fiscal year 2023 — an increase of more than 40 percent.
Yet those numbers represented only a fraction of the millions of immigration cases accumulating inside the country.
Republicans Warned Biden He Had the Authority
Throughout the crisis, congressional Republicans maintained that Biden did not need to wait for a massive new piece of legislation before taking action.
Their argument was straightforward: the executive branch already possessed significant authority to change enforcement priorities, restrict releases and strengthen border operations.
Mullin is now making essentially the same point from inside DHS.
Trump’s return to office provided Republicans with an opportunity to test that argument by dramatically changing the federal government’s approach to immigration enforcement.
Mullin has continued pushing Trump’s deportation agenda since becoming DHS secretary. In June, he said the department was increasing deportations and expanding cooperation with state and local law enforcement through the 287(g) program.
His message has been consistent: immigration laws already exist, and the federal government’s job is to enforce them.
Washington’s Border Fight Was Never Just About Money
The confrontation over immigration became especially intense in late 2023 as Republicans tied border security to debates over additional foreign aid.
House Republicans demanded stronger action from the Biden administration while Washington debated billions of dollars in assistance for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
Then-House Speaker Mike Johnson also blasted the administration after U.S. officials held talks with Mexican leaders that included immigration issues while negotiations with Republicans on Capitol Hill remained bitterly divided.
For conservatives, the episode reinforced a central complaint about Biden’s presidency: Washington appeared capable of discussing long-term immigration accommodations while failing to stop the immediate surge at the border.
The consequences stretched far beyond immigration statistics.
Border Patrol agents faced enormous workloads. Immigration courts accumulated staggering caseloads. Major cities spent heavily responding to new arrivals. Meanwhile, Americans repeatedly watched horrific crimes involving suspects who were in the country illegally become national news.
Mullin says those tragedies cannot simply be separated from the policies that allowed illegal immigrants to remain in the country.
That position has become a defining part of his tenure at DHS. In a June CNN interview, Mullin similarly argued that even one death at the hands of someone in the country illegally is unacceptable and preventable, while defending the administration’s aggressive approach to enforcement.
The political dividing line could hardly be clearer.
Democrats and immigration advocates have criticized the Trump administration’s enforcement tactics and raised serious questions about the conduct of ICE officers. Mullin himself has faced scrutiny following deadly encounters involving immigration agents this summer.
Republicans, however, contend that the far greater failure was allowing the border crisis to reach historic proportions in the first place.
Mullin’s accusation against Biden boils that argument down to its most politically explosive form: the federal government had the power to act, Biden had the opportunity to act, and Americans are still living with the consequences of his decision not to do so.
