During President Trump’s midterm convention in Dallas, Texas, on Thursday, Fox News host Will Cain interviewed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
When Cain asked Mullin, “What about the existing illegal immigration population that is not a parole violator, or does not have a criminal record. Are they not a priority? Or will they be deported?” Mullin replied, “100 percent a priority.”
Mullin boasted that DHS averages 4.2 arrests per warrant because the individuals the department targets tend to “live with multiple illegals,” many of whom, Mullin said, “we didn’t know they even existed, but we’re still sending them back, too.”
When everyone is a priority, no one is a priority. That means that Mullin and ICE are going to treat a murderer who just got here with the same level of priority as a guy who’s been here for 25 years raising a family and living like a saint.
That’s bad for so many reasons. https://t.co/kZW9EVJTvA
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) September 10, 2026
Immigration attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, responded on social media: “When everyone is a priority, no one is a priority. That means that Mullin and ICE are going to treat a murderer who just got here with the same level of priority as a guy who’s been here for 25 years raising a family and living like a saint. That’s bad for so many reasons.”
When one objector replied to Reichlin-Melnick, “Theres [sic] no excuse for living in the country illegally for 25 years and not pursuing some type of legalization,” the attorney replied, “I wish the law worked the way people like this think it does! But here’s the reality; there is ZERO way for most undocumented immigrants to ‘pursue some type of legalization.’ You can be a total saint and live here for decades productively and still have NO way to get papers.”
I wish the law worked the way people like this think it does! But here’s the reality; there is ZERO way for most undocumented immigrants to “pursue some type of legalization.”
You can be a total saint and live here for decades productively and still have NO way to get papers. https://t.co/IQnfG4OKZz
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) September 11, 2026
Reichlin-Melnick was referring to the fact that most undocumented immigrants have no direct route to legal status, regardless of how long they have lived in the U.S.
As the American Immigration Council explains: “Immigration to the United States on a temporary or permanent basis is generally limited to three different routes: employment, family reunification, or humanitarian protection. Each of these legal avenues is highly regulated and subject to numerical limitations and eligibility requirements. As a result, most undocumented immigrants do not have the necessary family or employment relationships and often cannot access humanitarian protection, such as refugee or asylum status. This means that no matter how long they have been in the United States, most undocumented immigrants have no way of achieving legal status.”