Kristi Noem Reassigned as Markwayne Mullin Confirmed as DHS Secretary

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem receives a tour of the Terrorist Confinement Center CECOT with the Minister of Justice and Public Security Gustavo Villatoro in Tecoluca, El Salvador, March 26, 2025. (DHS photo by Tia Dufour). Courtesy of DHSGov, via Wikimedia Commons.

After months of calling for Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to be removed from her position, the American people’s demands were finally heeded. On March 5, 2026, President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that Noem would be reassigned to a newly-created role as Special Envoy for The Shield of The Americas and named Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin as the new secretary.

The decision came a day after Noem testified before both the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, during which she faced harsh questioning regarding her management of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and excessive spending. Noem was asked multiple questions about the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were shot by ICE agents in Minneapolis. Their deaths sparked nationwide backlash, and Noem’s unempathetic response to them led even Republican officials to begin calling for her removal.

When Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar asked Noem what she would say to Alex Pretti’s parents after treating their bereaved son as a domestic terrorist, Noem refused to apologize, stating, “I did not call him a domestic terrorist, I said it appeared to be an incident of.”

However, her exact phrasing at said press conference was that Pretti “committed an act of domestic terrorism. That’s the facts.”

Noem’s management of ICE has attracted massive criticism, making her increasingly unpopular. Throughout the past year, ICE agents have been deployed to streets, workplaces, and schools — often while unidentified and masked. ProPublica found that, as of October 2025,  over 170 U.S. citizens had been detained. Veteran Purple Heart recipient Sae Joon Park was sent back to Korea in June, a country he hadn’t been to since he was seven years old.

Another story that has stuck with the media is that of five-year-old Liam Ramos, who was detained by ICE agents on his way home from school in late January 2026. Liam’s family, whose asylum application was pending, was legally in the country.

Noem reportedly pushed ICE agents to make 3,000 arrests per day beginning in May 2025 and sought to increase the number of ICE agents to about 22,000 by early 2026 — far exceeding Donald Trump’s initial goal of 10,000 agents. Critics and immigration policy analysts have raised concerns that this expansion is driving the rise in alleged illegitimate detainments. The rapid growth has also prompted questions about the integrity of ICE agents’ recruitment process.

Records obtained by the Washington Post show the training hours required to become an agent have been significantly reduced since last year, with subjects such as firearms training, fitness training, driving tests, and training on skills specific to immigration enforcement and deportation operations falling by the wayside. Reports also reveal that new recruits often begin training before their background check is completed.

Republican Senator Thom Tillis, a supporter of Trump’s deportation policies who described himself as “unapologetically pro-law enforcement,” spent his ten minutes at Noem’s hearing heatedly expressing his disappointment with her secretary’s performance.

“We want 1,000 a day, 6,000 a day, 9,000 a day, because numbers matter, right?” Tillis said, referring to Noem’s push for arrest quotas. “No, they don’t matter. Quality matters. Not quantity, quality. And what we’ve seen is a disaster. Under your leadership, Miss Noem, a disaster.”

In order to streamline deportations, ICE has built a vast data “dragnet” by investing heavily in surveillance technologies and partnering with companies like Palantir and AT&T to pull together personal data to track and target people for immigration arrests.

Trump seemed to be well aware of Noem and ICE’s unpopularity, softening his tone in the weeks following the Minneapolis shootings. In an interview with NBC News, he admitted that he was “not happy” with the shootings of Pretti and Good and said ICE enforcement “could use a softer touch.”

Trump also confirmed the decision to pull 700 ICE agents out of Minneapolis was his, not Noem’s, signaling a growing willingness to distance himself from her more aggressive tactics and continued defense of the shootings.

Trump is no stranger to the importance of public image, and considering the backlash Noem’s ICE operations had drawn — including from his supporters — it likely played a part in his decision to remove her. However, another issue emerged during the hearings that may have been the tipping point.

In 2025, Noem starred in a $220 million ad campaign aimed at promoting America’s hardline stance on illegal immigration.

“You crossed the border illegally? We’ll find you. Break our laws? We’ll punish you,” Noem says in the commercial, clad in a cowboy hat and sitting horseback on Mt. Rushmore.

The campaign’s production, which cost more than the average Hollywood film, was tied to Strategy Group, a firm with close personal ties to Noem, which served as an undocumented subcontractor for Safe America Media Group, a murky Delaware LLC created just days before the $143 million ad deal.

Democrats and Republicans alike did not hesitate to jump on Noem for this once the information became public, with Republican Sen. John Kennedy asking the former DHS Secretary whether “the president approved ahead of time [her] spending $220 million running TV ads.” Noem affirmed that yes, Trump knew she was going to do this.

Trump, who has focused much of his presidency on eliminating “waste, fraud, and abuse,” reportedly expressed frustration with Noem’s response, stating, “I spent less money than that to become president. I didn’t know about it.”

Now, Democrats have referred Noem to the Department of Justice for a perjury hearing, claiming that she lied under oath at these hearings.

The ad campaign wasn’t Noem’s only instance of wasteful spending. In October 2025, she purchased two luxury private jets costing over $172 million to be “utilized for executive air travel and deportations.” The funding came from the over $25 billion allocated to the U.S. Coast Guard in the Big Beautiful Bill. In response, Democratic congressional leaders sent a letter to Noem expressing their concerns about Noem’s “judgment, leadership priorities, and responsibility as a steward of taxpayer dollars.” The letter went unanswered.

Since Noem’s confirmation a year ago, chaos and controversy have defined the Department of Homeland Security. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, Noem’s replacement for Secretary of Homeland Security, took a more measured tone during his March 18 confirmation hearing. He expressed regret over his own past remarks regarding Alex Pretti, in which he called him “deranged” and suggested requiring judicial warrants for ICE searches. He also attempted to distinguish himself from Noem by emphasizing a lower-profile leadership style.

Meanwhile, the DHS has been partially shut down since mid-February as Congress remains deadlocked over immigration policy. The funding lapse has disrupted operations, especially in air travel, where TSA staffing shortages have led to long delays and reduced efficiency.

While the future of the DHS remains uncertain, it is worth noting that Kristi Noem’s firing offers a clear example of democratic accountability, a principle that has grown increasingly scarce in recent years. Public dissatisfaction with her leadership did not go unnoticed, and collective pressure ultimately led to her removal. As Common Cause put it, “In ousting Noem, we’re reminded that our voices still matter – that when we speak forcefully and stand up for what is right, the administration has no choice but to hear us.”