Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told Fox News on Monday night that the Islamic Center of San Diego, where a shooting left five people dead, could have had stronger protections if his agency had not been shuttered for more than two months during the recent government shutdown.
Speaking with host Sean Hannity, Mullin pointed to FEMA's Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which funds physical security improvements at houses of worship and other nonprofits considered high-risk targets for terrorist attacks. The grants, he said, were frozen while DHS sat idle.
The connection Mullin drew is blunt and worth examining: a 76-day shutdown left religious institutions across the country unable to access federal dollars earmarked for their protection. And on Monday, worshippers at a San Diego mosque paid a price that no after-the-fact investigation can undo.
Two suspects and three others died in the Monday shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego, the Washington Examiner reported. The two suspects were found dead from self-inflicted gunshot wounds in a vehicle near the center.
NBC, as cited by the Examiner, identified the suspects as Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18. The identities of the three other victims were not disclosed in the initial reporting.
The San Diego Police Department said its officers are investigating the attack as a hate crime. No police statements or official comments have linked terrorism as a possible motive, though Mullin told Hannity that the two suspects had "extremist views." He did not elaborate on the evidence behind that characterization.
The FBI is working alongside San Diego law enforcement to investigate the circumstances of the incident. The bureau has opened a tip line, 1-800-CALL-FBI, for anyone with information about the shooting.
Mullin's core argument Monday night was that DHS works routinely with the FBI and the White House to help religious institutions harden their defenses. The 76-day shutdown, which Mullin and the Examiner described as the longest in history, severed that pipeline.
Mullin told Hannity:
"We have FEMA grants that they could use to help protect themselves. Unfortunately, for the last 76 days, we were shut down, so we're just now getting those grants out. Until then, they have to hire their own security."
FEMA's Nonprofit Security Grant Program exists to "promote coordination and collaboration in emergency preparedness activities among public and private community representatives, as well as state and local government agencies." When those grants stop flowing, the mosques, synagogues, and churches that depend on them are left to fend for themselves, or go without.
That is exactly what Mullin described. For 76 days, houses of worship across the country were on their own. The Islamic Center of San Diego was one of them.
The broader question of DHS funding has been a flashpoint in Washington for months. President Trump has pushed Congress hard on legislative priorities, including attaching key provisions to must-pass bills. The shutdown that froze DHS operations is one consequence of the kind of legislative gridlock that leaves agencies dark and Americans exposed.
FBI Director Kash Patel also appeared on Hannity's program Monday and struck a harder tone on the nature of the threat.
"We are not going to tolerate any acts of violence whatsoever, especially terrorist acts of violence based on radical ideology and misplaced faith."
Patel's use of the phrase "terrorist acts of violence" is notable given that San Diego police have not publicly connected the shooting to terrorism. The gap between Patel's language and the local department's hate-crime framing remains unresolved. Whether the FBI's investigation ultimately classifies the attack differently is an open question.
President Trump briefly weighed in, calling the shooting a "terrible situation." Several Republican lawmakers also responded. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott, both South Carolina Republicans, posted on social media condemning violence against places of worship and offering condolences to the victims' families.
The Senate has moved aggressively in recent weeks to confirm Trump's nominees, including officials at DHS and across the national-security apparatus. Mullin himself is now tasked with rebuilding an agency that spent more than two months unable to fulfill one of its most basic missions: helping Americans protect themselves.
Hannity raised the possibility during the interview that the shooting could have been carried out by illegal immigrants. No evidence presented in the reporting supports that theory, and the suspects were identified by name without any immigration-status reference from law enforcement. Hannity also asked Mullin how he plans to keep those attending worship safe going forward.
Mullin's answer circled back to the same point: money. FEMA grants. Security infrastructure. The tools his department was barred from deploying for 76 days.
It is a fair question to ask who bears responsibility for that gap. Congress controls the purse strings. The shutdown was the product of a political standoff that left DHS, and by extension, every nonprofit relying on its security grants, without resources. Mullin did not name specific lawmakers or a specific party, but the implication was clear: the people who allowed DHS to go dark share some measure of accountability for what happened in San Diego.
The details that remain unknown are significant. Investigators have not disclosed who the three victims were. They have not explained what "extremist views" the suspects held, or how authorities arrived at that assessment. The hate-crime investigation is ongoing, and the FBI's parallel inquiry could reshape the public understanding of motive.
What is known is that two teenagers opened fire at a mosque, five people are dead, and the federal agency responsible for helping houses of worship defend against exactly this kind of attack was shuttered when it mattered most. Crisis preparedness is only as good as the institutions behind it, and those institutions were offline.
Mullin said, using the word "fortunately," that DHS is now getting security grants back out the door. The agency is operational again. But the damage from the shutdown is not theoretical, it is measured in the five lives lost at the Islamic Center of San Diego.
The investigation will eventually produce answers about motive, planning, and whether any warning signs were missed. Those answers matter. But they will not change the structural failure that Mullin himself identified on national television: the federal government's own shutdown left a house of worship unprotected.
Republican leaders in Congress have signaled their intent to avoid another prolonged funding lapse. Intra-party discipline on spending fights remains a live issue, and the San Diego shooting gives the debate a human cost that is harder to wave away in the next round of budget negotiations.
Washington loves to talk about protecting Americans. When the grants stop, the buildings go soft, and the shooters show up, talk is what it always was, just talk.
