Sen. Markwayne Mullin, the nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security, said he would require judicial warrants for federal immigration agents to enter private homes or businesses, signaling a potential policy shift from his predecessor Kristi Noem.

“We will not enter a home or a place of business without a judicial warrant, unless we’re pursuing the individual that runs into a place of business or a house,” Mullin, R-Okla., said at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday when asked about an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo that allowed for warrantless arrest and entry.

He also told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that he doesn’t plan to send DHS law enforcement to polling places, following President Donald Trump’s call last month to “nationalize” elections.

“The only reason why my officers would be there is if there was a specific threat for them to be there, not for intimidation,” Mullin said.

Mullin’s appearance Wednesday was the first of two this week before the panel chaired by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. Trump tapped Mullin, a close congressional ally of the president, to lead DHS earlier this month after firing Noem, who was mired in controversy.

The hearing got off to a tense start when Paul called Mullin out on comments he had made about Paul. In February, it was reported that Mullin called the Kentucky Republican a “freaking snake” and suggested he understands why a neighbor of Paul’s attacked him in 2017.

“I just wonder if someone who applauds violence against their political opponents is the right person to lead an agency that has struggled to accept limits to the proper use of force,” Paul said.

“Tell me to my face why you think I deserved it,” Paul continued. “And while you’re at it, explain to the American public why they should trust a man with anger issues to set the proper example for ICE and Border Patrol agents.”

Mullin, in response, did not strike a conciliatory tone.

“We just don’t get along. However, sir, that doesn’t keep me at all from doing my job,” Mullin told Paul. “I can have different opinions with everybody in this room, but as secretary of Homeland, I’ll be protecting everybody.”

“The record should show, and I think will show, a lack of contrition, no apology, and no regrets for your support, you completely understand the violence that was perpetrated on me,” Paul said.

Republicans have an 8-7 edge on the committee and Mullin needs a simple majority to advance to the full Senate. Paul told reporters after the hearing that he would not vote for Mullin, according to MS Now. A “no” from Paul complicates his candidacy, though Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., has said he would vote in support of Mullin. The committee is slated to vote on Mullin’s nomination on Thursday.

Mullin is a hard-liner who has endorsed the Trump administration’s immigration policies. He is seeking to lead an agency currently shut down amid Democratic concerns about its immigration enforcement policies. Senate Democrats and the White House are continuing to negotiate a funding agreement for DHS.

A former MMA fighter, rancher and owner of his own plumbing business, Mullin came to the House in 2013 riding an anti-establishment wave. He became a senator in 2023 and has become known on the Hill for building strong relationships with his colleagues on both sides of the aisle.

On Wednesday he was flanked by former Republican and Democratic House colleagues, including former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, the moderate New Jersey Democrat.

Seated directly behind Mullin was Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, the union leader with whom Mullin nearly got into a physical altercation during a Senate hearing in 2023. The pair have since become friends, according to Mullin.

“He is somebody who has the rare gift of bringing people together on both sides of the aisle,” said Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla.

But those strong, bipartisan relationships did not spare Mullin from tough questions from the panel’s Democrats, who have been sharply critical of Trump’s mass deportation policies and liberal deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal immigration agents.

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., the top Democrat on the committee, questioned Mullin about his response to the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, both of whom were killed by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis earlier this year. Before an investigation played out, Mullin called Pretti, a federal employee ICU nurse, a “deranged individual,” echoing claims made by Noem in the immediate aftermath of the killing.

“Could we expect those kinds of quick responses if you are confirmed as secretary? Peters asked.

“Those words probably should have been retracted. I shouldn’t have said that, and as secretary I wouldn’t. The investigation is ongoing,” Mullins said. “There’s sometimes I’m going to make a mistake and I own it. That one, I went out there too fast.”

Peters also grilled Mullin, who has never served in the military, about recent comments he made after the start of the war in Iran.

“War is ugly. It smells bad. And if anybody has ever been there and been able to smell the war that’s happening around you and taste it, and feel it in your nostrils, and hear it, it’s something that you’ll never forget. And it’s ugly,” Mullin told Fox News.

In response to Peters’ questions about his firsthand experience overseas, Mullin referred to “classified” official trips while he was a member of the House.

“In 2015, I was asked to train with a very small contingency and go to a certain area,” Mullin said. “During that time, I was asked to go through, had to meet certain training qualifications,” Mullin said.

“Where did you smell war, sir?” Peters continued.

Mullin said he’s “never spoken specifically” about the details of the trip. Paul and Peters requested a classified briefing following the hearing to get more information about the stint overseas.

Some Democratic critics of DHS have said since Mullin was tapped that a change in leadership would do little to alter policy as long as Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff and homeland security advisor, holds sway. And Mullin did not diverge greatly from the administration when questioned about specific points of immigration policy.

Asked by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., about ICE arrests quotas, Mullin said: “No quota has been set for me sir. … The president of the United States sets the policies and I’ll be working with the president.”