Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin discussed election security at the White House complex. The Friday briefing follows President Donald Trump's primetime speech Thursday night, where he revived falsehoods about voter fraud ahead of the November midterms.
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Trump used a primetime address to the nation to elevate his yearslong push to raise doubts about the legitimacy of U.S. elections and dispute his 2020 loss — this time, to justify his push to pass a strict voter ID bill. His allegations of interference and influence didn't include key context. Nor did he produce evidence that votes had been manipulated or that the election outcome had been altered.
DHS secretary pledges to aggressively chase voter fraud cases
Mullin said if anyone votes illegally in the upcoming midterm elections, "we will hunt you down, we will find you and we will prosecute you."
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In a White House briefing doubling down on Trump's primetime election claims, Mullin also threatened fines, penalties or prison time for state election officials who refuse to hand over sensitive voter data to DHS.
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He said states that don't elect to use DHS's recently updated tool for identifying noncitizen voters, will become "a priority" for investigations.
The comments come as a federal judge has blocked the use of DHS's updated system, citing voter privacy and the fact that it can result in the wrongful purging of eligible voters.
Mullin won't comment on ICE shootings and says arrests are up
The Homeland Security secretary said during a news conference that he hadn't heard about allegations of violent behavior against a deportation officer who shot and killed a Colombian man in Maine earlier this week.
Relatives of the officer told The Associated Press he struggled with serious mental health issues, had a history of violent behavior and never should have been given a badge and gun.
Mullin said the shooting was being investigated and he'd allow the investigation to go forward.
"We understand that it's being investigated, and we'll allow the investigation to go through. That's all I'm going to say about that," said Mullin.
He wouldn't comment on whether the officer was on leave but said that was standard practice in the aftermath of any shooting.
DHS secretary says ICE hitting arrest records 'every single day'
Mullin said the department is ramping up enforcement and hitting records for the number of arrests.
"Our arrests are up. We're hitting single day records every single day," Mullin said.
Mullin also said the agency deported 442,637 people in 2025 and so far this year has deported 403,294.
"We're trying to perfect our ability to work with local law enforcement, state law enforcement," he said.
ICE and DHS do not release regular data related to deportations, arrests and detention, leading to criticism that there's no way to verify their work.
Unlike his predecessor Kristi Noem, Mullin has attempted to keep a lower profile for immigration enforcement operations. But the recent shooting deaths of two people who were killed by ICE officers during operations has brought the department back into the spotlight.