Calm amid chaos: Noem defies calls to resign, touts border victory as shutdowns, storms and riots swirl
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has been a lightning rod for criticism amid anti-ICE riots that have rocked the country, sparked a government shutdown and left many wondering whether the nation’s eighth DHS secretary would keep her job.
Despite the mounting pressure, Noem appeared calm, collected and confident during a trip this week that included a stop in Mississippi to assess winter storm damage recovery efforts, visits to the southern border in Texas and Arizona as well as the northern border in North Dakota and a barbecue dinner hosted and served by Noem to Border Patrol agents in Arizona.
During the first half of the four-day stint, Congress was still dealing with a partial government shutdown largely over how to fund DHS. The House ultimately reached an agreement, funding the agency through Feb. 13, but Noem's focus remained the same before and after the bill passed, and her schedule was left unchanged.
During an exclusive interview along the border wall in Nogales, Arizona, Noem told Fox News Digital the national security functions of the agency are too vital to be sidelined by a spending fight.
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"Every day [DHS is] finding terrorists and removing them from our country, protecting our cybersecurity systems, our critical infrastructure," Noem told Fox. "Only 11% of the DHS budget is ICE. The rest of it is FEMA, TSA, that runs our security checkpoints at our airports.
"It is also the Coast Guard, which is absolutely critical to our maritime protection and also partnering with the Department of War," Noem added. "We have weapons of mass destruction, science and technology, our national labs.
"We have a lot of responsibilities that we absolutely need to fund in order to do them properly. So, I'm hopeful that Congress will recognize that and pass this bill quickly."
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But the debate over government spending wasn’t about the Coast Guard, FEMA or TSA. It was almost entirely based on one of the 23 agencies Noem oversees, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Specifically, it centered around ICE's actions in Minneapolis, a so-called sanctuary city in which local authorities provide only minimal support to federal officers enforcing immigration laws.
Since the beginning of the year, DHS estimates that Operation Metro Surge has resulted in the apprehension of 4,000 criminal illegal migrants in Minneapolis. The operation was launched mainly due to a fraud scheme that involved members of the Somali community in Minnesota.
The mission then evolved into a heated clash between agitators and federal officers that ultimately left two U.S. citizens dead, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both killed by federal immigration agents.
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Noem quickly labeled both Good and Pretti "domestic terrorists" and said their deaths were due to impeding "law enforcement operations," sparking outrage from Democrats and some Republicans who began to call for her resignation.
Rumors swirled whether Noem would resign or if President Donald Trump would fire her, but the president told reporters shortly after the death of Pretti he had no intention of relieving her from her position as head of DHS.
When Fox News Digital asked Noem what she believed the American people want when it comes to ICE enforcing the law using the same tactics that led to riots, deaths and assaults on both agitators and agents, Noem said, "I think people would want less conflict."
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"[The American people] want to know that we're enforcing our laws and that we are going after dangerous criminals, and they don't want them to be released on the streets to perpetuate more crimes," Noem explained.
At some stops along Noem’s trip, agitators appeared. At a dinner she hosted inside a hotel in Tucson, Arizona, for CBP officers, protesters with drums, megaphones and seemingly pre-made signs gathered at the entrance of the hotel. Every other car traveling by the demonstration honked, though it’s unclear whether they were honking in support or in disagreement with the protesters.
A Quinnipiac University survey taken from Jan. 29 to Feb. 2 showed 58% of those questioned say Noem shouldn’t have her job.
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Fox News Digital spoke with a GOP insider who pointed to Noem’s inexperience on the national stage, saying her time as governor of South Dakota didn’t prepare her for one of the most challenging roles in the presidential cabinet.
Despite the critics, Noem’s record on securing the border has proven successful, according to figures provided by the department and the Trump administration. Trump’s goal to deter illegal migrants from crossing the border, which was Noem’s mandate, has been a priority for the White House.
More illegal migrants crossed the southern border in one average month under former President Biden’s watch than have crossed under Noem’s entire watch, according to DHS.
"We have over 3 million people that have deported, and that includes probably about 700,000 that we have detained and removed," Noem told Fox News Digital Wednesday. "Beyond that, over 2.3 million have self-deported.
"You know, you send the message around the world that America is now going to be enforcing its laws and making sure that if you're in this country illegally, that you should go home, and we've been incentivizing that through a $2,600 payment and a flight," Noem added. "Millions of people have taken us up on that."
Trump defended Noem for a second time during remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday when discussing whether he would relinquish her command at DHS.
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"Why would I do that? We have the strongest border in the history of our country," Trump said. "We have the best crime numbers we've ever had going back to the year 1900. That's 125 years. We have the lowest crime numbers."
Trump also appointed Tom Homan, the former ICE director during Trump’s first term and the executive associate director of Enforcement and Removal Operations under President Barack Obama, to serve as border czar, a role previously held by Kamala Harris.
Some reports painted a picture of an unspoken rivalry between Homan and Noem after Trump’s decision to put Homan in command of the situation in Minneapolis.
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But Noem told Fox News Digital she credited Homan for working to get local leaders in Minneapolis to come to the table and negotiate order in what has been a chaotic scene in the Twin Cities.
"What people need to remember is that Democrat policies were destroying our country," Noem said. "And President Trump came in and said, 'I'm going to protect the American people. It's not going to happen anymore.'
"Since [the Biden administration], thousands of people's lives have been saved just here, just right here on the border, because those migrants are not victimized anymore."