On March 5, President Trump fired Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, thanked her for her service, and appointed Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin to replace her.
Trump replaces Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security
President Donald Trump replaced Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after she was hounded by lawmakers over a $220 million ad campaign.
President Donald Trump’s reshuffle of top immigration enforcement officials has added to the confusion over his administration’s signature second-term vision, drawing renewed attention to a deportation push that has faced setbacks amid fierce opposition.
On March 5, President Trump fired Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, thanked her for her service, and appointed Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin to replace her.
Noem, who was the face of President Trump’s sweeping and controversial immigration crackdown, became a lightning rod for criticism, with Democrats pushing to impeach her and some prominent Republicans criticizing her leadership weeks before Trump moved to remove her.
Matthew Bartlett, a Republican consultant, said the DHS secretary has become increasingly a political liability for President Trump.
“For a long time, there has been a complete failure of leadership at DHS, and the problem has gotten horribly worse,” Bartlett said.
President Trump is pushing a hard line on immigration enforcement, and Noem sought to fulfill the president’s campaign promise to enact the largest mass deportation program in U.S. history, something Trump Border Secretary Tom Homan promised would bring “shock and awe” in a 2024 post-election interview.
The result has been dramatic scenes in American cities where immigration agents have flooded into communities, sparking anger over their tactics and violent clashes with local officials. The Trump administration has repeatedly taken a tougher stance, deploying the National Guard to support the effort and pursuing a confrontational approach that tests the public’s desire to aggressively target millions of immigrants without legal borders and status.
Nomu has been at the center of this effort, garnering public attention by sparring with local officials and often touring with President Trump the Alligator Alcatraz detention center in Florida and the notorious prison in El Salvador where undocumented immigrants are sent.
But the deportation efforts led by Noem have repeatedly hit roadblocks. Some of Trump’s moves were rejected in court, with judges ruling against deploying the National Guard and the administration withdrawing troops from Chicago, Portland and Los Angeles. Trump also withdrew immigration officials who killed two people in Minneapolis, sparking protests. After Minneapolis, Democrats targeted DHS funding and allowed it to lapse and shut down as they pushed for ICE reform.
Noem was criticized for her response to the Minneapolis operation, but President Trump backed her at the time, saying, “I think she’s doing a very good job. The border is completely secure.”
Meanwhile, the public began to grow dissatisfied with Trump’s immigration policies, as polls showed a majority of Americans disapproved of his performance on issues central to his political identity.
Bartlett said immigration has now become a “strain” for Trump and Noem’s resignation could signal a “course correction.” Some of Mr. Trump’s allies welcomed the move.
Asked whether Noem’s firing signaled a change in the administration’s immigration strategy, the White House referred to social media comments by press secretary Caroline Leavitt.
“President Trump’s immigration policy is to secure our borders and remove criminal illegal aliens from our country, and that will continue without interruption,” he said in comments posted on social media on March 5.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said in a statement about DHS reform that “the time for change has come.”
Noem has faced intense criticism, including from some Republicans, for the way her administration has pursued the deportation drive. She was grilled in two Congressional hearings this week, with North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis accusing her of pursuing “quantity over quality” in pursuing immigration arrests.
“We are an exceptional nation, and one of the reasons we are exceptional is that we expect exceptional leadership. And you have demonstrated anything but that,” Tillis said.
During the hearing, Noem faced questions from lawmakers about a $220 million Department of Homeland Security advertising campaign that featured her prominently. She said Trump had endorsed the campaign, a comment that reportedly upset the president, who later told Reuters he “didn’t know anything about it.” Noem was also asked about DHS’s purchase of luxury jets and other concerns about the agency, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Protection operations.
Democrats have focused on allegations of abuse by immigration officials during Noem’s tenure. Democratic leaders who have fought ICE tactics in their communities were quick to celebrate her removal.
“Kristi Noem, please don’t hit the door while you’re out,” Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said in a video posted to social media. “This is your legacy: corruption and chaos, parents and children tear gassed. Mothers, nurses, American citizens shot in the face.”
Mr. Pritzker clashed with Mr. Noem and Mr. Trump over the ICE operation in Chicago and the administration’s deployment of the National Guard to the city.
Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, said on social media that the DHS secretary had done “a staggering amount of damage.” But Walz continued to express concerns about the agency’s implementation of Trump’s deportation push.
“The fact remains that we need a complete overhaul of DHS,” he said.
