CHIMNEY ROCK, N.C. (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Tuesday toured North Carolina areas devastated by Hurricane Helene in 2024, revealing plans to prioritize relief to disaster-impacted communities on his first official trip since replacing Kristi Noem, whose leadership cast uncertainty over federal disaster response.
While the trip focused on emergency management, Mullin also weighed in on immigration enforcement, a centerpiece policy of the Trump administration, which his department also oversees. He suggested he might halt customs processing at airports serving cities whose local governments resist the administration’s immigration policies, a move that would align with his predecessor’s hardline approach.
At his confirmation hearing last month, Mullin tried to project a softer tone on immigration enforcement, after a backlash over high-profile operations and the deaths of two Americans at the hands of federal officers. Mullin also signaled a different approach to the Federal Emergency Management Agency following criticism of Noem’s policies.
At a roundtable discussion Tuesday, Mullin said FEMA was focused on catching up on past disaster work and clearing a backlog of needs that stacked up during his predecessor’s tenure ahead of the Atlantic hurricane season, which begins June 1.
“Disasters are happening constantly,” Mullin said, adding that he would brief President Donald Trump Tuesday on the 22 still pending major disaster declaration requests from states and tribes across the U.S. “We’re trying to push this stuff forward as fast as possible.”
Mullin also said he “may have identified” a candidate for permanent administrator of FEMA, which is on its third temporary leader since Trump took office, but declined to name them.
Asked if eliminating FEMA — which Trump has threatened to do — was still on the table, Mullin said “reforming FEMA would be a better term.”
Mullin’s visit comes less than a week after he ended Noem’s directive that all DHS expenditures over $100,000 be personally approved by the secretary’s office, a rule that critics said bottlenecked FEMA reimbursements and compromised disaster response and recovery.
Mullin threatens to remove CBP officers from some airports
While Mullin has already made strides on disaster response, he has yet to set forth a clear vision for immigration enforcement, although he is expected to align with the president’s agenda. That was apparent in his comments about removing Customs and Border Protection officers from airports in so-called “sanctuary cities.”
“If they’re not enforcing immigration laws, then why would I be processing immigration in their city?” Mullin said, adding that the idea was still under consideration. He suggested he would raise it in his briefing to Trump.
Mullin said the idea was meant to “streamline” DHS in the face of the ongoing partial shutdown of his department. But withdrawing CBP officers from airports could disrupt international travel and trade. CBP officers check all incoming travelers into the country as well as the billions of dollars of trade that enters through land crossings and airports.
The Trump administration has already threatened to withdraw funding to Democratic cities and states that it says do not cooperate with immigration enforcement.
North Carolina is still hard-hit
Few disaster-hit areas experienced the impacts of FEMA’s recent tumult as acutely as North Carolina, where about $1.6 billion in FEMA public assistance dollars has been obligated so far and where roughly 2,000 projects are still in some stage of FEMA approval, according to a letter North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein sent Mullin after his swearing in.
Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis excoriated Noem for delays in reimbursements to his state just days before her firing, telling her at a Senate hearing she had “failed” at FEMA.
Mullin said at the roundtable that Trump told him he wanted North Carolina to be his first stop. Trump “wanted North Carolina to love” the president, Mullin recounted.
North Carolina carries outsize political significance this year. Tillis is retiring, raising Democratic hopes of a pickup this fall. The race is sure to attract hundreds of millions in campaign spending and pits Democrat Roy Cooper, the state’s former governor, against Michael Whatley, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Helene, a 350-mile-wide (560 kilometers) hurricane, ravaged multiple southeastern states in September 2024.
The storm caused 108 deaths in North Carolina and $60 billion in damages. It destroyed homes, businesses and utility infrastructure.
Hurricane damage is still visible, with cars and remnants of homes washed up on banks, remains of knocked-out bridges and piles of branches that rushed down the river when it swelled to a torrent of water.
Hilary Yoxall, who lives in Lake Lure and runs a nonprofit that helps families in need, said many people were still impacted by the disaster, removing fallen trees from their property or struggling with high insurance in the storm’s aftermath.
“For a lot of people, they’re still in the throes of everyday recovery,” she said.
Misinformation shrouded FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene
Rep. Chuck Edwards, a Republican representing some of the impacted areas who lost one of his own businesses in the storm, said Tuesday he also grew frustrated with what he called FEMA’s “bureaucracy” and the difficulties local communities faced in receiving payments.
“Still plenty of bureaucracy there,” said Edwards, who praised Mullin’s removal of the $100,000 rule.
FEMA’s presence in North Carolina had a tense start as distrust grew among some impacted residents, fueled in part by then-candidate Trump’s own misinformation about the Biden administration and FEMA’s response in the swing state.
After an armed man was arrested in Lake Lure for making threats toward FEMA workers, the agency temporarily suspended door-to-door home visits in the affected areas.
North Carolina’s governor, a Democrat, welcomed Mullin’s visit. “It is encouraging that Secretary Mullin is getting down to business,” Stein told The Associated Press in a statement Tuesday.
On Monday, FEMA approved $26 million in buyouts of damaged and destroyed North Carolina homes, saying in a statement that Mullin encouraged the agency to “redouble its efforts” to help survivors.
Mullin’s remarks drew a sharp contrast from Noem, who repeatedly called for FEMA to be eliminated “as it exists today.” Trump floated the idea of eliminating FEMA altogether on a North Carolina visit just days into his second term, calling the agency a “very big disappointment.” A presidentially appointed council is expected to soon release a report recommending sweeping reforms.
Other challenges await Mullin. Over 4,000 FEMA staff are furloughed or working without pay since the shutdown began on Feb. 14 and the agency’s Disaster Relief Fund, which would be replenished by an appropriations bill, is running low.
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Aoun Angueira reported from San Diego, California.
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