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President Donald Trump reiterated his strong support for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem amid speculation that she is being squeezed out of Minneapolis enforcement operations amid Border Czar Tom Homan’s arrival in the state to spearhead operations.
While departing the White House on Tuesday, the president was asked by reporters if Secretary Noem would step down from her position.
“No,” he said simply.
The president also pointed to DHS’s swift action on securing the border in just one year.
“I think she’s doing a very good job…the border is totally secure,” he stated. “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.”
He added, “We had a border that caused all of this problem, Biden caused, and the Democrats, they allowed tens of millions of people to come.”
In Minneapolis, anti-ICE agitators have become a dominant and disruptive force in the streets amid immigration authorities’ operations in the state. Just this week, President Trump announced that he was sending in Border Czar Tom Homan to take over ICE operations and supervise investigations surrounding alleged Minnesota fraud.
Despite speculation, Secretary Noem warmly acknowledged Mr. Homan’s new orders from the president and noted that it was “good news for peace, safety, and accountability in Minneapolis.”
She stated, “I have worked closely with Tom over the last year and he has been a major asset to our team— his experience and insight will help us in our wide-scale fraud investigations, which have robbed Americans, and will help us to remove even more public safety threats and violent criminal illegal aliens off the of [sic] streets of Minneapolis.”
To that end, Democrats have called for Secretary Noem’s removal from DHS following the ICE-related shootings in Minneapolis of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti.
“She’s deeply unqualified; she never should have been confirmed to begin with,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
In a joint statement along with Democrat Minority Whip Katherine Clark (Mass.) and Democrat Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (Calif.), they demanded Noem’s firing, “or we will commence impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives.”
