Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., told Newsmax on Wednesday that Democrats should be thanking President Donald Trump for cracking down on illegal immigration rather than fighting him.
He said that Trump is enforcing laws that past Democrat presidents — including Bill Clinton and Barack Obama — once endorsed.
Mullin told "Carl Higbie FRONTLINE" that the fundamental divide is whether the United States remains, in his words, "a nation of laws or a lawless nation."
He argued that immigrants who enter legally come to escape unstable conditions abroad and seek opportunity, but those who enter illegally "are federal fugitives" who have no incentive to comply with U.S. laws.
"You can say whatever you want," Mullin said. "The Democrats want to make this about immigration, make this about migrants … It has nothing to do with that.
"It has us simply enforcing our nation’s laws so everybody will have the same opportunity to thrive. Period," he said.
Mullin said Trump is the only president taking the steps necessary to remove individuals who violate immigration laws, pointing out that Clinton and Obama spoke in the past about strengthening border enforcement and discouraging illegal entry.
Clinton frequently highlighted border security in the 1990s, and Obama said in 2005 that the U.S. should "not give amnesty to those who have broken the law."
"And guess what?" Mullin said. "The only one doing something about it is President Trump.
"We should be thanking him, not fighting him on this."
Mullin also defended Trump’s expanded operations targeting drug and human-trafficking networks, including interdictions at sea.
Democrats, he argued, are now criticizing Trump for actions aimed at stopping traffickers.
"You see a full-frontal attack on these criminals," Mullin said.
"The president is attacking them in international waters and sinking their boats and keeping the products from coming in," he added.
Mullin cited the more than 66,500 U.S. drug-overdose deaths in 2024, comparing the figure to the approximately 56,000 U.S. service members killed in the Vietnam War, and said Democrats should be supporting efforts to disrupt narcotics pipelines.
He also accused some Democrat lawmakers, including Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., of taking an "anti-America approach," saying Omar opposes the very laws that allowed her family to immigrate and eventually put her in Congress.
"Do you think Omar really loves our country … the country, by the way, that took her in, that gave her an opportunity to actually become a lawmaker, which she could have never even done in her own country?" Mullin asked.
"She doesn't love our country, she wants to change our country, and you're going, OK, well … go back to where you came from, then."
"I have no love lost for you if you want to leave. Zero issue with that," he added.
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