DHS secretary admits missteps in billion-dollar ICE warehouse plan

Source: msn/Daily Beast

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Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin threw Kristi Noem under the bus by publicly calling her signature billion-dollar warehouse crusade a mistake in a humiliating testimony. Mullin, who served in Congress before replacing Noem in late March, made the admission while speaking before the House of Representatives on Thursday.

He was pressed on Noem’s decision as Homeland Security secretary in mid-March to purchase 11 warehouses for roughly $1 billion to serve as a sprawling network of detention sites for President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown push. The effort has received major blowback from local communities and officials nationwide. “There’s some that just quite frankly, probably won’t work,” Mullin said. “There are some that we’re trying to make work, but there was some due diligence that maybe wasn’t actually checked off.”

It’s a rare admission of internal oversight from a DHS that rarely acknowledges its failures publicly. Mullen “has struck a cautious tone” toward the scheme since succeeding Noem, who earned the moniker “ICE Barbie” for her camera-ready immigration crackdowns before she was booted by the president in March, according to The Washington Post.

“He instructed staff to review the purchases and slowed the process of issuing contracts for their development,” the newspaper reported. A person briefed on the department’s plans told the Post that the DHS is in the midst of holding talks with government partners about selling or repurposing at least seven of the warehouses bought to serve as migrant detention sites.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/dhs-secretary-admits-missteps-in-billion-dollar-ice-warehouse-plan/ar-AA26CAEf