Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem dismissed calls for her resignation or impeachment during an interview Thursday with Fox News host Sean Hannity, saying, “These radicals are attacking me but I’m just doing my job.”
Why it matters
Noem’s remarks come as some Republicans join Democrats in criticizing the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement approach following two deadly shootings in Minneapolis this month involving federal agents.
What to know
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Thursday for Noem to be fired, telling reporters that “she’s got to go,” and adding: “We are dead serious, she needs to be put on ice permanently.”
Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski and Thom Tillis have also urged President Donald Trump to dismiss Noem.
Noem, responding to the pressure, told Hannity: “Well, these radicals are attacking me but I’m just doing my job. I’m following the law, enforcing the laws like President Trump promised that he would do, to keep people safe in this country.”
She added: “We are going to continue to go after these criminals, we are going to remove them before they have the chance to murder more Americans.” Noem also said she was “grateful and honored” to lead DHS during this time.
In an email to Newsweek on Wednesday, the White House pointed to earlier remarks from Trump expressing confidence in Noem. “I think she’s doing a very good job… the border is totally secure. You know, you forget, we had a border that I inherited where millions of people were coming through. Now, we have a border where no one is coming through,” Trump said this week.
He also told reporters Noem would not step down when asked about her status.
Noem walks back early comments on Alex Pretti
Noem has acknowledged that her first public comments about the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis may have been incorrect, saying confusion in the moment contributed to conflicting early accounts.
Earlier, Noem said Pretti had committed an “act of domestic terrorism” against immigration agents. She later told Fox News she was repeating what she believed was accurate information provided to her by U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel at the scene.
“We were being relayed information from on the ground from CBP agents and officers that were there,” Noem said. “We were using the best information we had at the time.”
What people are saying
Democratic Senator John Fetterman wrote on X on Tuesday: “@POTUS @realDonaldTrump: I make a direct appeal to immediately fire @Sec_Noem. Americans have died. She is betraying DHS’s core mission and trashing your border security legacy. DO NOT make the mistake President Biden made for not firing a grossly incompetent DHS Secretary.”
Democratic Rep. Delia C. Ramirez wrote on X last week: “After taking the first step to impeach Kristi Noem in December, I am leading 71 of my colleagues demanding that @JudiciaryGOP start the investigation hearings into her impeachable offenses. Whether by resignation, dismissal, or impeachment, Kristi Noem’s days as a civil officer are numbered. We will make sure of that.”
Tillis told reporters this week: “What she’s done in Minnesota should be disqualifying. She should be out of a job. I mean, really… it’s just amateurish. It’s terrible, it’s making the president look bad on policies that he won on. He won on a strong message about immigration, and now nobody is talking about that. They’re not talking about securing the border, they’re talking about the incompetence of the leader of Homeland Security.”
What happens next
Tom Homan, described by the administration as Trump’s border czar, is now in Minneapolis and reporting directly to the president as protests and political backlash continue over immigration enforcement tactics.
