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Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told the “Ruthless Podcast” that 2,210 terrorists have been apprehended under the Trump administration’s aggressive approach to solving illegal immigration.
“Underneath President Trump, we’ve arrested, so far as my numbers walking into here, 2,210 terrorists in this country,” Mullin said in an exclusive interview released Thursday morning. “Most of them came over and claimed asylum, gave a fake name. Some of them we caught, but a lot of them came in and … the Biden administration was just cutting them loose.”
Mullin said that under the Biden administration, 97% of individuals DHS encountered were released within 27 hours.
Earlier this month, ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, DHS had announced that it had detained 2,150 known or suspected terrorists.
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Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin speaks during a news conference at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on July 17, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Mullin noted that these individuals were classified as terrorists. “There’s a difference between a suspected terrorist and a terrorist watch list,” the secretary explained to the co-hosts. “These were terrorists.”
Mullin said the arrests resulted from a new administration-wide approach to illegal immigration.
“One directive we had is we’re no longer just playing defense,” Mullin told the hosts. “We’re on the offense. President Trump has given us the authority to go on the offensive. For instance, cybersecurity. We’re no longer sitting there and just protecting as you try to attack us. We’re swimming upstream now. We’re going after the people that are coming after us. We’re aggressively going after individuals. I want to put you on offense.”
Mullin rose quickly to the Cabinet post. He served in the House before winning election to the Senate in 2022. President Donald Trump nominated him to lead DHS in March, and the Senate confirmed him 54-45 on March 23.
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents walk a detainee out of the Ventura County Government Center in Ventura, California, on July 27, 2026 (Blake Fagan / AFP via Getty Images)
“I thought I was busy as a Senator,” Mullin said of his move to DHS. “I haven’t slept through the night. I’m not joking when I say this. I haven’t slept through the night in six months,” the Oklahoman added.
With just over a month to go until the November midterm elections, podcast co-host Josh Holmes commended the secretary for his job performance as immigration remains a polarizing political issue.
“You also inherited a department that the reason it was shut down is that Democrats have demagogued everything to do with border security and ICE in particular,” Holmes told Mullin. “Under the previous DHS administration, there was some kind of prioritization of the lowest-hanging fruit of deportations rather than what you’re talking about, which is that people need to get the hell out of here as fast as possible.”
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Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin speaks during a news conference at the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice building on Sept. 30, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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