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Division of Homeland Safety Sec. Kristi Noem has been a lightning rod for criticism amid anti-ICE riots which have rocked the nation, sparked a authorities shutdown and left many questioning whether or not the nation’s eighth DHS secretary would hold her job.
Regardless of the mounting stress, Noem appeared calm, collected, and assured throughout a visit this week that included a cease in Mississippi to evaluate winter storm injury restoration efforts, visits to the southern border in Texas and Arizona in addition to the northern border in North Dakota, and a BBQ dinner hosted and served by Noem herself to Border Patrol brokers in Arizona.
Through the first half of the four-day stint, Congress was nonetheless coping with a partial authorities shutdown largely over the best way to fund DHS. The Home finally reached an settlement, funding the company by means of Feb. 13, however Noem’s focus remained the identical earlier than and after the invoice handed, and her schedule was left unchanged.
Sec. Kristi Noem speaks at a press convention alongside the border wall in Nogales, AZ on Feb. 4. (DHS photograph by Mikaela McGee)
Throughout an unique interview alongside the border wall in Nogales, Ariz., Noem instructed Fox Information Digital that the nationwide safety features of the company are too very important to be sidelined by a spending combat.
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“On daily basis [DHS is] discovering terrorists and eradicating them from our nation, defending our cybersecurity techniques, our crucial infrastructure,” Noem instructed Fox. “Solely 11% of the DHS finances is ICE. The remainder of it’s FEMA, TSA, that runs our safety checkpoints at our airports.”
“Additionally it is the Coast Guard, which is completely crucial to our maritime safety and likewise partnering with the Division of Warfare,” Noem added. “We have now weapons of mass destruction, science and know-how, our nationwide labs.”
“We have now a number of obligations that we completely must fund so as to do them correctly. So I am hopeful that Congress will acknowledge that and cross this invoice rapidly,” Noem mentioned.
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However the debate round authorities spending wasn’t concerning the Coast Guard, FEMA or TSA. It was nearly fully primarily based on one of many 23 businesses which Noem oversees – Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Particularly, it centered round ICE’s actions in Minneapolis, a so-called sanctuary metropolis through which the native authorities present solely minimal help to federal officers imposing immigration legal guidelines.
Federal legislation enforcement brokers detain a demonstrator throughout a raid in south Minneapolis, Minnesota, US, on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. Minnesota officers are suing over the unprecedented surge of US immigration authorities within the state, taking the Trump administration to court docket days after a federal agent shot and killed a Minneapolis girl. (Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photos)
Because the starting of the 12 months, DHS estimates that Operation Metro Surge has resulted within the apprehension of 4,000 legal unlawful migrants in Minneapolis. The operation was launched primarily attributable to a fraud scheme that concerned members of the Somali group in Minnesota.
The mission then advanced right into a heated conflict between agitators and federal officers that finally left two U.S. residents useless, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, each killed by federal immigration brokers.
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Noem rapidly labeled each Good and Pretti as “home terrorists” and mentioned their deaths had been attributable to impeding “legislation enforcement operations,” sparking outrage from Democrats and a few Republicans who started to name for her resignation.
Rumors swirled whether or not Noem would truly resign or if President Donald Trump would hearth hearth her, however the president instructed reporters shortly after the loss of life of Pretti that he had no intention of relieving her from her place as head of DHS.
When Fox Information Digital requested Noem what she believed the American folks need relating to ICE imposing the legislation utilizing the identical techniques that led to riots, deaths and assaults on each agitators and brokers, Noem mentioned “I feel folks would need much less battle.”
President Donald Trump has repeatedly backed DHS chief Noem in public feedback in January. (Jim Watson/Getty Photos)
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“[The American people] wish to know that we’re imposing our legal guidelines and that we’re going after harmful criminals, and so they don’t desire them to be launched on the streets to perpetuate extra crimes,” Noem defined.
At some stops alongside Noem’s journey, agitators appeared. At a dinner she hosted inside a lodge in Tucson, Arizona, for CBP officers, protesters with drums, megaphones and seemingly pre-made indicators gathered on the entrance of the lodge. Each different automotive driving by the demonstration honked, although it’s unclear whether or not they had been honking in help or in disagreement with the protesters.
A Quinnipiac College survey taken from Jan. 29 to Feb. 2 confirmed 58% of these questioned saying that Noem shouldn’t have the job.
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Fox Information Digital spoke with a GOP insider who pointed to Noem’s inexperience on the nationwide stage, saying her time as governor of South Dakota didn’t put together her for some of the difficult roles within the presidential cupboard.
Division of Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem meets with CBP officers at Eagle Cross, Texas, Tuesday, February 3, 2026. Noem assesses the progress been made since she grew to become head of the company a 12 months in the past. (Kat Ramirez for Fox Information Digital)
Regardless of the critics, Noem’s document on securing the border has confirmed profitable, in line with figures offered by the division and the Trump administration. Trump’s aim to discourage unlawful migrants from crossing the border, which was Noem’s mandate, has been a precedence for the White Home.
Extra unlawful migrants crossed the southern border in a single common month below former President Biden’s watch than have crossed below Noem’s total watch, in line with DHS.
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“We have now over three million people who have deported, and that features in all probability about 700,000 that we have now detained and eliminated,” Noem instructed Fox Information Digital on Wednesday. “Past that, over 2.3 million have self-deported.”
“You already know, you ship the message all over the world that America is now going to be imposing its legal guidelines and ensuring that when you’re on this nation illegally, that it is best to go house, and we have been incentivizing that by means of a $2,600 fee and a flight,” Noem added. “Tens of millions of individuals have taken us up on that.”
Trump defended Noem for a second time throughout remarks on the Nationwide Prayer Breakfast on Thursday when discussing if he would relinquish her command at DHS.
Division of Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem (not pictured) shows a momtage of photographs displaying the unlawful border crossing a 12 months in the past as she meets with CBP officers at Eagle Cross, Texas, Tuesday, February 3, 2026. Noem assesses the progress been made since she grew to become head of the company a 12 months in the past. (Kat Ramirez for Fox Information Digital)
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“Why would I try this? We have now the strongest border within the historical past of our nation,” Trump mentioned. “We have now the very best crime numbers we have ever had going again to the 12 months 1900. That is 125 years. We have now the bottom crime numbers.”
Trump additionally appointed Tom Homan, the previous ICE director throughout Trump’s first time period and the manager affiliate director of Enforcement and Elimination Operations below President Barack Obama, to function border czar, a task beforehand held by Kamala Harris.
Some studies painted an image of an unstated rivalry between Homan and Noem following Trump’s choice to place Homan in control of the scenario in Minneapolis.
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However Noem instructed Fox Information Digital she credited Homan for working to get native leaders in Minneapolis to come back to the desk and negotiate order in what has been a chaotic scene within the Twin Cities.
Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem speaks throughout a roundtable within the State Eating Room of the White Home on Wednesday Oct. 8, 2025. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Put up by way of Getty Photos)
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“What folks want to recollect is that Democrat insurance policies had been destroying our nation,” Noem mentioned. “And President Trump got here in and mentioned, I will defend the American folks. It isn’t going to occur anymore. “
“Since [the Biden administration], hundreds of individuals’s lives have been saved simply right here, excellent right here on the border, as a result of these migrants are usually not victimized anymore,” Noem added.
Preston Mizell is a author with Fox Information. Story suggestions will be despatched to Preston.Mizell@fox.com and on X @MizellPreston
