CHIMNEY ROCK, N.C. (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Tuesday toured North Carolina areas devastated by Hurricane Helene in 2024, revealing plans to prioritize relief to disaster-impacted communities on his first official trip since replacing Kristi Noem, whose leadership cast uncertainty over federal disaster response.

While the trip focused on emergency management, Mullin also weighed in on immigration enforcement, a centerpiece policy of the Trump administration, which his department also oversees. He suggested he might halt customs processing at airports serving cities whose local governments resist the administration’s immigration policies, a move that would align with his predecessor’s hardline approach.

At his confirmation hearing last month, Mullin tried to project a softer tone on immigration enforcement, after a backlash over high-profile operations and the deaths of two Americans at the hands of federal officers. Mullin also signaled a different approach to the Federal Emergency Management Agency following criticism of Noem’s policies.

At a roundtable discussion Tuesday, Mullin said FEMA was focused on catching up on past disaster work and clearing a backlog of needs that stacked up during his predecessor’s tenure ahead of the Atlantic hurricane season, which begins June 1.

“Disasters are happening constantly,” Mullin said, adding that he would brief President Donald Trump Tuesday on the 22 still pending major disaster declaration requests from states and tribes across the U.S. “We’re trying to push this stuff forward as fast as possible.”

Mullin also said he “may have identified” a candidate for permanent administrator of FEMA, which is on its third temporary leader since Trump took office, but declined to name them.

Asked if eliminating FEMA — which Trump has threatened to do — was still on the table, Mullin said “reforming FEMA would be a better term.”

Mullin’s visit comes less than a week after he ended Noem’s directive that all DHS expenditures over $100,000 be personally approved by the secretary’s office, a rule that critics said bottlenecked FEMA reimbursements and compromised disaster response and recovery.

Mullin threatens to

remove CBP officers from some airports

While Mullin has already made strides on disaster response, he has yet to set forth a clear vision for immigration enforcement, although he is expected to align with the president’s vision. That was apparent in his comments about removing Customs and Border Protection officers from airports in so-called “sanctuary cities.”

“If they’re not enforcing immigration laws, then why would I be processing immigration in their city?” Mullin said, adding that the idea was still under consideration. He suggested he would raise the idea in his briefing to Trump.

Carolina is still hard-hit

Few disaster-hit areas experienced the impacts of FEMA’s recent tumult as acutely as North Carolina, where about $1.6 billion in FEMA public assistance dollars has been obligated so far and where roughly 2,000 projects are still in some stage of FEMA approval, according to a letter North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein sent Mullin after his swearing in.

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis excoriated Noem for delays in reimbursements to his state just days before her firing, telling her at a Senate hearing she had “failed” at FEMA.

Mullin said at the roundtable that Trump had told him he wanted North Carolina to be his first stop and had told Mullin “people in North Carolina love me.”