Rep. Mark Green’s sudden retirement from Congress has left a major job opening for his fellow Republicans—replacing the Tennessean as chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security.
Now, with President Donald Trump in office, chairing the committee that deals with immigration issues on a daily basis is an attractive post. On Monday night, the House Republican Steering Committee will elect the next chairman, to replace Green, whose resignation became official Sunday.
The following are the four Republicans vying for the job.
Clay Higgins of Louisiana
Higgins, who currently serves a reserve law enforcement officer, thinks he has the passion it takes to lead the committee.
“I am pursuing the Homeland Security Chair position, and I have been respectfully engaging with colleagues to discuss this effort and earn their support,” he said in a statement.
“My experience as a law enforcement officer, an Army veteran, and nine years as a member of the committee provides deep expertise in the homeland security threat environment. I am fully prepared to continue the committee’s important work and deliver on policies that ensure the safety and security of the American people.”
Higgins, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus and went viral in the 2010s—before his time in Congress—for videos of him warning criminals to surrender to law enforcement.
If Higgins were to chair the committee, he would keep the chairmanship in Freedom Caucus hands after Green’s departure.
Andrew Garbarino of New York
Garbarino, who represents a district around the southern coast of Long Island, has stressed his New York ties as he seeks to chair a committee which began in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack.
“This committee was started after 9/11. I’m from New York. This was focused on counterterrorism, and we have to get back to that,” he told The Hill.
“The committee has a lot of different jurisdictions. Border has been something we’ve been focusing on the last two-and-a-half years. It’s important, and that’s something we had to focus on, and we still have to focus on it, especially with oversight of the money and the authorizations” included in the ‘Big, Beautiful Bill,’” he said.
Most recently, Garbarino was in the spotlight as one of the New York congressmen pressuring Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., to raise the cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions, a top priority for Republicans in high-tax Democrat-run states.
Michael Guest of Mississippi
Guest is a very border-focused representative who already chairs the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement. He also sits on the House Committee on Ethics; meaning, he knows what it is to chair a committee of importance.
Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)
Guest, who has denounced attacks on immigration enforcement officers, would likely keep the committee focused on deportations and securing the southern border.
Carlos Giménez, Fla.
Giménez, who was born in Cuba and represents a Miami-area district, is also vying for the position.
Giménez has ties to House leadership, as he serves as an assistant whip to House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La. That means he likely would have a focus on turning the committee’s work into passable legislation.
Rep. Carlos Jimenez, R-Fla. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)
A passionate anti-communist whose family left Cuba during the Caribbean island nation’s revolution in the 1950s, he strongly opposes the regimes of Cuban dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel and Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro. Additionally, he serves on the House committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
