Kristi Noem to Be Replaced as DHS Head, Trump Says

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that the secretary for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kristi Noem, would be replaced. Her removal comes two days after she appeared in hearing before the US Congress and was grilled by both Republicans and Democrats.

DHS is the third-largest department in the US government. Its chief responsibility for carrying out Trump's hard-line immigration agenda.

Markwayne Mullin, a senator ‌from Oklahoma, is expected to ‌become the new secretary of the Department of Homeland Security at the end of the ‌month, if confirmed by the Senate.

Noem is the first Cabinet member to be removed since Trump's second term began.

Her tenure overseeing immigration enforcement was widely criticized. In the last months, she was accused of allegedly misappropriating DHS funds for self-promotion and slammed by Democrats for her staunch defense of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) treatment of detained migrants and US citizens, including two who were killed in clashes with federal agents.

Noem to become 'special envoy

In his announcement made on social media, Trump thanked Noem for her service and added that she would serve as a "Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas," a new security initiative he said would focus on the Western Hemisphere.

Noem thanked Trump for the reassignment, saying she looked forward to working with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, saying she would be "working with them closely to dismantle cartels that have poured drugs into our nation and killed our children and grandchildren."

She touted her tenure, saying DHS made "historic acomplishments to make America safe again" and "delivered the most secure border in American history."

Ad campaign controversy

The former governor of the state of South Dakota, Noem was a staunch supporter of Trump who had described the situation at the US-Mexico southern border as a "war zone," prior to her appointment.

As the leader of DHS, Noem had a very public-facing role, at times accompanying agents on immigration raids as cameras recorded. Noem does not have a law enforcement background.

During a visit to the famous CECOT prison in El Salvador, where her department sent people it accused of being gang members, she posed with the shirtless inmates, in an attempt to serve as a warning to undocumented immigrants in the United States.

It was one of the ways in which Noem advertised the department's work, which Trump critics called out as self-promotion, earning her the nickname "ICE Barbie."

The reputation seems to have caught up with Noem. When a Republican senator noted that a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign seemed more for self-promotion than effective enforcement, Noem said it had been approved by Trump. But Trump publicly denied her claim just days before her dismissal.

A tenure marked by mounting criticism

Democrats had long called for Noem to resign for what they saw as harsh and inhumane handling of immigration enforcement. Noem oversaw the removal of temporary protected status from citizens of Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and several other countries, claiming that conditions in those countries were safe for people to return to.

Noem defended ICE in the shooting deaths of two protesters in Minneapolis, going as far as calling the victims "domestic terrorists."

But aside from immigration, Noem also faced bipartisan criticism over the pace of emergency funding approved through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and her agency's response to natural disasters.

Read: US, Venezuela to Restore Diplomatic Ties

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