Who Makes the Rules?

The liberty principle for this week concerns who makes the laws and who enforces the laws of the United States. This is a constitutional principle as well as one that affects freedom. All Americans should know this, but some do not – including those in Congress.

According to an article at The Daily Signal, Joseph Buff reported on a hearing in the Senate where senators interviewed Markwayne Mullin, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). 

A Senate Appropriations subcommittee interviewed department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. During the hearing, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) accused Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and DHS of violating court orders. He charged, “Every day, this agency is breaking the law at scale and wasting billions of taxpayer dollars. The DHS does not implement the law any longer; it makes up the law.”

Murphy argued that the committee should not choose to fund agencies that allegedly break the law. “We swear an oath when we arrive here to ensure that their money is not used to fund unconstitutional or illegal behavior, the senator said. “Every single day, this agency is violating the Constitution and the law. This cannot continue.

Mullin was sworn into his office less than ninety days ago. He told the senators that he had an opening statement, but he used his time to fire back at Murphy’s attacks. He began by telling Murphy, “We’re doing the job that Congress gave us the authority to do. If you don’t like the laws, you can change them.”

“I do have an opening statement here, but wow. Senator Murphy, the outlandish claim you made there is just flat wrong,” Mullin said.

“What’s unconstitutional that we’re doing? We swore to uphold the Constitution just like you swore to uphold the Constitution,” the secretary added. “We’re simply enforcing the law. Period. Full stop.”

Mullin also accused Murphy of recklessly spreading dangerous rhetoric about DHS and ICE. “When you throw out reckless terms and you start referring to our agents as being dangerous, unconstitutional, and lawless, that’s why our agents’ death threats are up by 8,000%.”

“I know that’s not what you want, but your political theater, that’s what it causes. When you start looking at assaults on our officers, they’re up by 1,300%, Mullin said.

The secretary argued that the federal government needs to prioritize immigration enforcement and continue to fund ICE and U.S. customs and Border Protection.

“If you don’t want customs and Border Patrol, and their job is to control our borders and the customs entry points, then be honest with the American people and say “we want open borders,” but don’t sit there and accuse us of a bunch of stuff that you know isn’t true,” Mullin told Murphy.