Protesters gathered outside the Washington, D.C., home of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin overnight on November 12 and blared the sounds of crying children whose parents were taken by the deportation operation he oversees.
The demonstration came as Mullin said “deportations will continue” despite the Democrats’ sweeping victory in the 2026 midterm elections.
What the videos show
Multiple videos from the protest show a woman identified as social media user @JessicaAgatha_USA holding her phone to a megaphone. She plays a video of a child weeping after her parents were taken away by ICE agents.
In another clip, the same woman says the protesters want what they call “concentration camps” shut down. She was referring to immigration detention centers.
Protesters shouted taunts through the night and mocked Mullin’s name. One repeated his first name over and over, while another asked why his mother gave him two first names.
Police were present. So was a man in casual attire, who appeared to absorb most of the abuse shouted through the megaphone.
Mixed signals from Trump
Republican commentators have largely acknowledged that ICE overreach was one reason the party fared so badly in the midterms. President Donald Trump has said he thought the crackdown had gone “too far.”
He also promoted Stephen Miller, the architect of the crackdown, to White House Chief of Staff. That left many doubting Trump is serious about reaching a compromise with Democrats on immigration.
In an interview with 60 Minutes, Trump floated offering a path to legal status to people who are in the country illegally, work and do not commit crimes. Mullin answered the idea directly: “Amnesty will NEVER be on the table.”
Democrats press for a vote
After Trump’s remarks, Democrats held a press conference and called for “legal pathways for long-term immigrants.” They want Congress to vote on two bills that would ease the crackdown.
One is the American Dreams and Promises Act, which would open legal paths to green cards for undocumented children brought onto U.S. soil. The other is the bipartisan Dignity Act, which combines border security measures with protections for undocumented immigrants.
Democrats say both are compromises they can pass before their majority is sworn in this January. They describe them as first steps toward broader reform if they win the presidency in 2028.
Separately, the Supreme Court will weigh Trump’s asylum restrictions at the US-Mexico border, and sources told reporters ICE is unlikely to scale back its crackdown, citing Miller’s promotion.