WASHINGTON — Kristi Noem may be out as head of the Department of Homeland Security, but Democrats are still demanding a “reckoning.”
Democrats met news of Noem’s ouster Thursday with a cascade of calls for accountability. They ranged from a potential probe into the legality of contracts cut during her tenure to a perjury investigation after her congressional testimony to even a push for impeachment to keep her from holding public office in the future.
Democrats vowed to probe Noem’s time as homeland security secretary if they took back power in the November midterm elections, while at least two congressional candidates called for a future criminal prosecution.
“We need a reckoning with the fact that there were murders that took place under her watch. There was mass violence and violation of people’s civil rights and civil liberties. There’s been intense corruption, and there’s been rampant lying in the courts and disobeying of court orders,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who will be chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee if Democrats win this fall, said in an interview Thursday. His panel has oversight of federal immigration enforcement.
“We need to have a cleaning of house at the Department of Homeland Security,” he added, “and a repudiation of all of these terrible policies of corruption, cover-up, lying and authoritarian violence against citizens and immigrants.”
DHS did not respond to a request for comment.
Rep. Ted Lieu of California, a member of House Democratic leadership who is also on the Judiciary Committee, vowed investigations would come.
“She abused her power. She engaged in corruption. She spent millions of taxpayer funds on a luxury jet fleet with beautiful bedrooms, and her masked federal agents killed Americans,” Lieu, the vice chair of the caucus, told NBC News. “We’ll definitely investigate anyone within DHS who violated criminal law.”
Lieu outlined potential lines of inquiry after Noem’s tumultuous tenure, from the deaths of detainees on her watch to the surveillance of Americans who were observing immigration officers to the controversial purchase of a luxury jet fleet.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told The New York Times that he would call for the Homeland Security subcommittee on investigations to probe whether Noem lied under oath when she answered questions about competitive bidding on contracts. Blumenthal is the subcommittee’s top Democrat.
Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., still wants Noem to be impeached to ensure that she does not hold public office in the future, an aide said.
“We still have to impeach her, Melt ICE, and dismantle DHS,” Ramirez wrote on X. Ramirez met with Noem just last week and demanded her resignation.
Noem led a relentless and often violent deportation campaign in major cities across the country. Tension over the efforts escalated in January after immigration agents shot and killed U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in separate incidents in Minneapolis. Under Noem’s leadership, courts have repeatedly ruled that DHS overstepped its authority and accused it of making false public statements about suspects, then refusing to correct them.
Democrats refused to fund DHS without the administration’s agreeing to restrictions on immigration enforcement, resulting in a partial shutdown, but they have little power to launch new investigations unless they win back the majority in the midterm elections.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that Noem had “served us well” and announced that she would move to a new role called “Envoy for The Shield of the Americas.” He described the position as one that will lead “our new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere.”
An administration official told NBC News that Trump fired Noem after “a culmination of her many unfortunate leadership failures including the fallout in Minnesota, the ad campaign, the allegations of infidelity, the mismanagement of her staff, and her constant feuding with the heads of other agencies.”
In a social media post, Noem celebrated her tenure.
“We have made historic accomplishments at the Department of Homeland Security to make America safe again: we delivered the MOST secure border in American history, 3 million illegal aliens have left the U.S., we have located 145,000 children, FEMA delivered disaster relief at a 100% faster rate, we ushered in the golden age of travel, saved the American taxpayer $13 billion and revitalized the U.S. Coast Guard,” she wrote on X.
