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Kristi Noem, a top official leading President Donald Trump’s immigration efforts, is set to step down from her role as the US Homeland Security Secretary. This significant personnel change has sparked questions about the future of Trump’s immigration policies.
Noem, who previously served as the governor of South Dakota, became a prominent figure in Trump’s cabinet. She gained attention through her social media activity, where she often depicted immigrants in a negative light, focusing on cases involving alleged criminal activities and using inflammatory language.
Critics have accused Noem of demonizing immigrants and pushing an immigration enforcement approach that disproportionately targeted non-criminal, working immigrants and families. This has led to widespread criticism of her methods.
Under Noem’s leadership, the number of deaths in immigration detention facilities reached a 20-year high, alongside significant cuts to staff in oversight offices within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Noem also faced backlash in January after she prematurely labeled two US citizens, who were fatally shot by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, as “domestic terrorists.” Subsequent video evidence contradicted Noem’s and other Trump officials’ claims that Renee Good and Alex Pretti were violent offenders.
The public backlash for deaths led the Trump administration to move to a more targeted approach to immigration enforcement in Minnesota after months of sweeps through US cities that led to violent clashes with residents opposing the crackdown.
Democrats in the US House of Representatives moved to impeach Noem and at least two Republicans in Congress called for her to lose her job after the incidents.
During congressional hearings in March, Democrats and some Republicans criticised Noem for her approach to the immigration crackdown and management of DHS, including concern over a $314 million ad campaign that heavily featured Noem.
Direction of immigration policy
The staffing change raises questions about whether the Trump administration could seek to intensify its mass deportation push or retreat to a more targeted approach.
Under Noem’s leadership, masked immigration agents surged into Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C., scouring neighbourhoods and Home Depot parking lots in search of possible immigration offenders.
Trump announced Markwayne Mullin, a Republican senator from Oklahoma, as the new secretary of homeland security on his social media platform Truth Social.
Noem will serve as “Special envoy for The Shield of the Americas,” Trump said.
The popularity of Trump’s immigration approach fell as agents detained US citizens and tear-gassed streets in an attempt to drive up deportations, which last year fell short of the administration’s goal of 1 million per year.
While Noem served as a prominent proponent of Trump’s agenda, White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, a long-time Trump aide, controls Trump’s immigration policy.
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