Noem’s Problems Go Beyond The Ice Shootings In Minneapolis

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is trying to navigate the ongoing furor over ICE unleashed after immigration officers shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. But the embattled Noem faces a litany of other dysfunctions in her department that also imperil her tenure.

President Donald Trump has insisted Noem will not lose her job. But her handling of other things under her agency’s sprawling remit – from disaster relief to the gutting of the nation’s cybersecurity agency – is increasingly alienating Republicans at a time when she needs them most.

“You've got to get adults in the room,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), said in an interview. “Get people in there who actually have the kind of experience you need to run large, complex organizations. And there's a lot, by the way, in this Cabinet that do that. It's just not her.”

Tillis has been a vocal critic of DHS as of late, not to mention Trump more broadly – but other Republicans have floated the idea of ousting Noem, too.

“A lot of people question her ability to lead this agency, particularly after what has happened,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) told CNN this week. “I think that all options need to be on the table to find the best person, if there's somebody better.”

But Trump has repeatedly broadcast his support for her. The latest declaration came Thursday morning at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, where he again said he had no plans to remove her. And DHS on Wednesday shared poll numbers from Republican-leaning firm Harper Polling showing that 81 percent of Trump supporters approve of Noem’s performance in office.

But frustrations with how the agency is functioning continue to mount. Some of the most public critiques outside of ICE operations have related to Noem’s leadership of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Tillis, who has called for her resignation or removal from office, devoted much of a speech on the Senate floor last week to Noem’s leadership of FEMA.

“The data clearly shows that something is seriously wrong here,” Tillis said, pointing to a chart indicating that the federal government’s responses to hurricanes Helene, Matthew and Florence. “Under Secretary Noem’s lack of leadership, FEMA has invented an entirely new set of bureaucracies, the likes of which I’ve never seen.”

One of the sources of frustration for Tillis and other Republicans is the requirement that Noem personally approve any spending over $100,000 from DHS’ coffers, which has held up requests for FEMA assistance from lawmakers and state officials.

Last year, Sens. Tillis and Ted Burr (R-N.C.) put a hold on Sean Plankey’s nomination to be director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, which is under DHS, because they were upset with Noem for what they considered FEMA’s inadequate response to Hurricane Helene, which killed some 250 people and wreaked almost $80 billion in damage to North Carolina.

Then there are tensions over the future of CISA under Noem’s leadership, which continue to boil over.

Acting CISA chief Madhu Gottumukkala has generated a whirlwind of bad headlines in recent months, including allegations he dumped sensitive information into ChatGPT and failed an unsanctioned polygraph test during his security clearance process. (DHS has said Gottujukkala did not fail a sanctioned polygraph test, and that Gottumukkala “was granted permission to use ChatGPT with DHS controls in place” and that its use was “short term and limited.”)

Gottumukkala, previously South Dakota’s cyber chief, was Noem’s handpicked choice to be the nation’s deputy cyber chief and followed Noem to Washington.

“Morale is low, people are looking for glimmers of hope, they are trying to find something positive, because it does feel like every time you move forward, you get kicked in the stomach,” said one former official who recently left CISA, granted anonymity given fears of reprisals from DHS leadership. “You’re there because you want to contribute to a greater good, and it’s hard to do that right now because everything is seen through a political lens."

In December, the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee held a series of private meetings with senior DHS officials including Acting Assistant Secretary Tom Bourne, to discuss lawmakers’ concerns about the dismantling of the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office, according to three people familiar with the meetings, granted anonymity to discuss them candidly.

Republicans have also ripped Noem for what they describe as insufficient transparency with Congress. House Homeland Security Committee Chair Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) took Noem to task in December during an annual hearing where top officials discuss “worldwide threats to the homeland” for what he called difficulty in securing DHS officials’ testimony before the committee.

Garbarino also criticized Noem last month for requiring that lawmakers provide at least seven days' notice before they can visit an ICE facility in their district.

Noem left that hearing early to chair a FEMA review meeting that was cancelled that same afternoon – prompting Democrats to file a subpoena to compel her to reappear before the panel. Her leaving early also rubbed some Republicans the wrong way.“That is a sign of her arrogance and disrespect,” said one of the people, who is close to the committee’s majority leadership.

Some Republicans have also been frustrated with aspects of the agency’s controversial immigration enforcement programs far from Minnesota. On Wednesday, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) took the rare step of slamming Noem for a decision to turn a warehouse in a small northern Mississippi town into a major ICE detention facility, writing in a letter to the DHS chief that the move “forecloses economic growth opportunities and replaces them with a use that does not generate comparable economic returns or community benefits.”

Some Republicans are holding their fire, though, saying they want to hear from the heads of the nation’s immigration agencies when they testify before Congress next week, along with an appearance Noem has scheduled in March before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“I’m looking forward to the hearings to see what she has to say before I make too many comments on that,” said Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) when asked to comment on Noem’s performance.

House Republican appropriators and their Democratic counterparts are planning to place new conditions on how DHS could move money between accounts by reducing the amount of money the department can transfer and suspending DHS power to shift money if the department doesn’t comply with transparency requirements.

“I know that the secretary doesn’t like that,” said Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.), who chairs the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee. “And it’s like, well, we’ve all got our ‘unlike’ departments. And so welcome to the club.”

Maggie Miller contributed to this report.