Trump replaces Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem with Sen. Markwayne Mullin amid fallout over immigration crackdown
President Donald Trump said he will replace Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem with Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a major staffing shift that roils the administration’s hardline immigration agenda after a year of public backlash and political blowback.
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In a post on Truth Social, Trump called Mullin, a Republican from Oklahoma, “Highly Respected” and said he will become secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, effective March 31, 2026. Trump said Noem will serve as “Special envoy for The Shield of the Americas.”
Noem, confirmed in January 2025 to lead the 260,000-employee department, has been a central architect and public face of Trump’s immigration crackdown. Her tenure drew intense scrutiny in January after she quickly labeled two U.S. citizens fatally shot by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis as committing “domestic terrorism.” Videos that later surfaced appeared to undercut assertions by Noem and other officials that the victims — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — were violent aggressors. The outcry pushed the administration to shift to a more targeted enforcement approach in Minnesota after months of street clashes tied to sweeping operations in U.S. cities.
The Minneapolis episode triggered a partisan fight on Capitol Hill: House Democrats moved to impeach Noem, and at least two Republicans urged her ouster. At March hearings, Democrats and some Republicans criticized her stewardship of DHS, including a $220 million public-awareness campaign that prominently featured Noem, as well as broader concerns about management and oversight.
Under Noem, masked immigration agents surged into Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C., combing neighborhoods and big-box store parking lots in search of people suspected of immigration violations. Public support for the approach eroded as agents detained U.S. citizens and used tear gas in city streets, even as deportations fell short of the administration’s stated target of 1 million removals annually.
Noem embraced a hard line that mirrored Trump’s rhetoric and priorities. On social media, she referred to immigrants convicted of crimes as “scumbags,” even as arrests of noncriminal immigrants rose. She joined enforcement operations in New York City and toured a maximum-security prison in El Salvador where, she said, Venezuelan immigrants deported by the United States were being held without charges or access to lawyers. She also moved to curtail legal immigration, ending several Temporary Protected Status programs for nationals of Venezuela, Haiti and other countries — decisions now tied up in court — and pressing for tighter vetting. After an Afghan immigrant was accused of attacking National Guard members in Washington, D.C., Noem said she recommended “a full travel ban” on countries she claimed were “flooding” the United States with criminals.
At the same time, the number of migrants caught attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally fell sharply under Trump’s restrictive measures, marking a reversal after elevated flows during former President Joe Biden’s final year in office. Yet critics accused Noem of demonizing immigrants while DHS oversight capacity was cut and deaths in immigration detention rose to a two-decade high.
Mullin’s elevation raises immediate questions about whether the administration will double down on mass deportations or institutionalize the recent pivot to more targeted enforcement. Trump did not detail policy changes in his announcement. For now, the move underscores a broader recalibration of a signature Trump issue — one that has defined his presidency, galvanized his supporters and, increasingly, tested public tolerance as the costs of aggressive enforcement have come into view.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
