January 28, 2026 07:45 AM UTC

Demand Grows For Noem's Ouster After Minnesota ICE Murders

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Colorado Newsline’s Lindsey Toomer reports, the escalating backlash against the Trump administration after the killing of two American citizens by immigration agents in Minneapolis since the beginning of the year is focusing after the demotion of Border Patrol commander Greg “Mein Greatcoat” Bovino on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who led the administration’s disastrous initial response to both killings with presumptuous allegations about the victims that in both cases proved completely false:

In a press call U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen of Lakewood hosted Tuesday, Democrats from Colorado said the Trump administration has lied repeatedly about what happened to Pretti on Saturday and called for mass reforms of immigration enforcement in the U.S.

“What is happening is not what we were sold by (President) Donald Trump about deporting the most dangerous people,” Pettersen said…

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette of Denver said Noem was never qualified to lead Homeland Security, and her performance is worse than DeGette expected when she was selected and confirmed.

“She’s cruel and she’s lawless. She refused a court order. She violated public trust. She has no regard for human life or dignity,” DeGette said.

NBC News reports that congressional Democrats with the backing of key dissident Republicans are warning that if President Donald Trump doesn’t fire Noem, they will commence impeachment proceedings against her:

“The violence unleashed on the American people by the Department of Homeland Security must end forthwith,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar said in a statement.

“Kristi Noem should be fired immediately, or we will commence impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives,” the statement said.

Echoing Trump’s now-withdrawn threats to Denmark over Greenland, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says,

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way.” [Pols emphasis]

Republican Sens. Thom Tillis and Lisa Murkowski have joined with Democrats to call for Noem’s resignation, and more are expected to jump soon if the administration doesn’t take further action. Bovino’s demotion isn’t considered sufficient after Noem once again botched the response to the killing of an American citizen by instantly casting blame before the facts were known–and once they were, showing indisputably that Noem lied to the American people about these wrongful killings.

Although Noem has been the public face of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign as DHS Secretary, she’s not considered to be the ideological powerhouse behind the administration’s confrontational immigration enforcement policy–or for that matter, their erratic foreign entanglements from Venezuela to Greenland:

“We all know who’s really running things in this White House,” Gallego said in a post on X. “Stephen Miller is the brains behind the most unhinged and depraved policies we’ve seen in generations.”

“Americans are tired of his insane, extremist vision for this country,” he continued. “It’s time for him to go. Trump needs to fire him. Now. No funding DHS with that creep calling the shots.”

Stephen Miller is one of Trump’s longest-serving advisors, and it’s increasingly clear that the worst excesses of the second Trump administration are directly traceable to the megalomaniacal advice Miller is giving Trump. No real change of course may be possible until Miller loses his influence. As Trump searches for the reasons why the public has turned on him according to every available poll, Miller is the one Trump needs to recognize…and probably won’t.

So at least until the next election, Kristi Noem’s retirement to the puppy killing fields of South Dakota may have to suffice in lieu of actual change.