Democrats have called for the removal of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, saying she has created a confrontational “culture” that has led to growing clashes between immigration authorities and the public that culminated last week in the shooting death of a woman in Minnesota and the wounding of two people in Oregon.
The lawmakers said they would like Ms. Noem to resign or be fired by President Trump, but they are willing to consider impeachment if necessary.
The calls aren’t new. At Ms. Noem’s appearance at a House hearing in December, several Democrats personally told her to resign. Such calls have increased since the fatal shooting Wednesday of Renee Good in Minneapolis by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, followed a day later by the shooting of two people in Oregon by a Border Patrol agent.
Hours after the Minneapolis shooting, Rep. Robin Kelly, Illinois Democrat, announced that she would file articles of impeachment accusing Ms. Noem of obstruction of justice, violation of the public trust and self-dealing.
Others said they would support such efforts but urged Ms. Noem to resign first.
“The killing of Renee Good is not simply the result of one officer’s actions,” said Rep. Bradley Schneider, Illinois Democrat. “As secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem is responsible for setting the standards and oversight that govern ICE operations. She has abjectly failed in that responsibility.”
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Rep. John Larson, Connecticut Democrat, said Ms. Noem needed to resign after “lying” to Americans by labeling Ms. Good a domestic terrorist.
The Department of Homeland Security quickly rejected the calls for Ms. Noem to go.
“How silly during a serious time,” the department said in a statement slamming Ms. Kelly’s impeachment plans.
“As ICE officers are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them, Rep. Kelly is more focused on showmanship and fundraising clicks than actually cleaning up her crime-ridden Chicago district,” the department said. “We hope she would get serious about doing her job to protect American people, which is what this department is doing under Secretary Noem.”
Ms. Noem personally brushed aside the impeachment calls in an interview Sunday with Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” saying she was focused on her job.
“Every single thing that I’ve said has been factual about what’s been going on in Minneapolis, what’s been going on in Minnesota, and with the incident that we had where we had a tragic loss of life.”
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With a House minority, the Democrats are unlikely to gain traction with their impeachment efforts. Still, impeachment could become a campaign issue ahead of November’s midterm elections. If Democrats regain control of the chamber, it could become a reality.
Ms. Noem, a former member of the U.S. House and later governor of South Dakota, has been a prominent figure in the administration’s immigration efforts. She has made a point of swooping in to hot spots to tout Mr. Trump’s goals and her department’s progress toward them.
She was in Minneapolis on Tuesday to discuss the surge in immigration officers. She was in Brownsville, Texas, on the day of the fatal shooting to announce action on border barriers but flew back to Minneapolis to hold a press conference that evening.
On Thursday, she was in New York to highlight immigration enforcement in the city.
In a September YouGov poll, Ms. Noem ranked near the bottom among top Trump aides, with a 33% approval rating, 10 percentage points lower than her disapproval rating.
That was on par with the rating of Vice President J.D. Vance and better than that of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but it trailed the rankings of the secretaries of transportation, Treasury and state.
At the border stop Wednesday, Ms. Noem was asked about the hardest part of her job.
“Nothing’s hard about this job,” she said. “My favorite thing to do is solve problems and meet challenges.”
“I absolutely love it,” she added.
The homeland security secretary’s position is perhaps the toughest job in any administration.
During Mr. Trump’s first term, he ousted Kirstjen Nielsen amid frustration with her handling of the job. Federal judges later ruled that his appointment of Chad Wolf as acting secretary was illegal.
President Biden’s pick, Alejandro Mayorkas, became the first sitting Cabinet official in history to be impeached in 2024 over Republican frustrations with the unprecedented border chaos. The Senate, then under Democratic control, dismissed the impeachment without holding a trial.
Ms. Kelly’s articles of impeachment will accuse Ms. Noem of obstructing congressional oversight and illegally withholding money allocated by Congress, violating the public trust by directing “unconstitutional actions” and self-dealing for having “steered federal dollars to associates.”
• Seth McLaughlin contributed to this report.
