WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced Friday that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem will leave the Department of Homeland Security on March 31, 2026, replaced by Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, one of the senators who earlier this year called on the administration to eliminate the CNMI’s visa program for Chinese tourists.
Mullin co-signed a January letter with Senators Rick Scott of Florida and Jim Banks of Indiana urging Noem and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to end the CNMI Economic Vitality and Security Travel Authorization Program, known as EVS-TAP, a sub-program of the Guam-CNMI Visa Waiver Program that allows Chinese nationals to enter the CNMI visa-free. The senators argued the program had created security threats through birth tourism.
The CNMI delegation has been pressing in the opposite direction. Congresswoman Kimberlyn King-Hinds has called on the Department of Transportation to reinstate Annex VI of the U.S.-China Air Transport Agreement to restore direct flights from China, and the delegation has been working to counter what it describes as misinformation about the program circulating in Washington.
Trump announced Noem’s departure on Truth Social, saying she would move to a newly created role as Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas, a security initiative the president said he would announce Saturday in Doral, Florida.
“The current Secretary, Kristi Noem, who has served us well, and has had numerous and spectacular results, especially on the Border, will be moving to be Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas,” Trump wrote.
The timing is consequential for the CNMI. Noem testified before the House Judiciary Committee just one day before her departure was announced, telling lawmakers that the CNMI wants the program restored but must first meet security compliance standards. She had met with Governor David Apatang during his Washington trip last month, and that meeting ran 90 minutes, far beyond the 20 minutes his team had anticipated. The CNMI delegation cited a 0.25 percent overstay rate under EVS-TAP as evidence the program is working.
With Mullin set to take over, it remains unclear whether ongoing negotiations will continue or whether the CNMI will need to make its case from scratch to a DHS secretary who has already taken a public position against the program.
Mullin, 37, is serving his third year in the Senate after a decade in the House of Representatives. Trump described him as a former undefeated professional MMA fighter and noted he is the only Native American currently serving in the Senate. He will not require a new Senate confirmation vote as he is already a sitting senator, though the process for his transition to the cabinet position was not immediately detailed.
