Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is sharply criticizing Democratic lawmakers who have called for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, arguing that dismantling the agency would undermine federal immigration enforcement and homeland security.

Speaking with Breitbart News in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Mullin was asked about what Democrats might do with the Department of Homeland Security if they regain control of Congress in the 2026 midterm elections.

“We have the job of protecting the homeland and it should never be controversial … what it really comes down to is they’re anti-law enforcement,” Mullin said.

He also offered a broader theory about the political conflict surrounding federal immigration enforcement.

“My theory behind that is … the only way you can take a Republic and turn it into a socialist, communist country, is you’ve got to fabricate chaos,” Mullin said. “If there’s no chaos, you’ve got to create the chaos.”

Mullin’s comments came after Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Delia Ramirez of Illinois appeared at a press conference last month calling for sweeping changes to the federal immigration enforcement system.

Ramirez explicitly called for abolishing ICE and ending immigration detention facilities.

“Today we are saying we want to abolish ICE,” Ramirez said. “We’re saying we want to end the detention that is creating profits for corporations at the expense of our very own family, friends, and neighbors.”

Ramirez, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, also argued that DHS should be dismantled.

“As a member of the Committee of Homeland Security, I am clear that DHS must be held accountable for their violence,” she said. “You see, they’ve never demonstrated commitment to our rights, to due process, to the rule of law, or human dignity, and we know that an administration and their cronies that are profiting off our pain are not those that are going to center humanity. And DHS must be dismantled.”

Jayapal likewise called for the closure of private immigration detention facilities and criticized conditions inside detention centers.

“We are here today to say this simple message: Shut it down. Shut it down. Shut down the private for-profit detention centers,” Jayapal said. “Stop the incarceration of 65,000 immigrants in these for-profit facilities every single night, at enormous cost to taxpayers and enormous cruelty to detainees.”

She also accused detention facilities of providing inadequate food, water and medical care and called for what she described as justice and accountability.

The dispute reflects a fundamental divide over the federal government's approach to immigration enforcement. Mullin is defending DHS and ICE as necessary law-enforcement institutions responsible for protecting the country and enforcing immigration laws. Jayapal and Ramirez are arguing that the existing detention and enforcement system causes unacceptable harm and should be dismantled or fundamentally replaced.

The disagreement is likely to remain part of the broader congressional debate over immigration policy as the midterms approach.

For Mullin, the question is ultimately about whether federal immigration enforcement remains an essential function of government.

For Democrats advocating abolition, the question is whether agencies such as ICE and DHS have exercised those powers in a manner consistent with due process and human rights.

The political battle over those competing visions is now moving beyond rhetoric and toward a consequential question for voters: what should America's immigration enforcement system look like, and how much authority should the federal government have to operate it?