Kristi Noem floats purge of people who don’t support Trump’s agenda

Kristi Noem wants to purge employees from the Department of Homeland Security who are not committed to President Trump’s mission.

After four years of lax immigration enforcement under Joe Biden, the DHS’ priorities have shifted dramatically, with Trump pursuing a historic crackdown on illegal aliens. But not everyone inside the federal government supports Trump’s efforts, Noem noted during a public meeting Wednesday.

With 260,000 employees, DHS is the third-largest Cabinet-level department. It encompasses Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which has been at the forefront of political controversy as the agency responsible for carrying out Trump’s mass deportations.

Noem targets disloyal staff

The DHS’ expansive mandate covers a wide range of responsibilities, including disaster recovery, cybersecurity, counterterrorism and immigration control.

But the sprawling agency didn’t “do much” during the Biden era, Noem said during a meeting with the Homeland Security Advisory Council.

Noem said the lax enforcement policies of her predecessor, Alejandro Mayorkas, set a bad precedent that continues to influence some DHS employees. She asked for advice on firing people “who don’t support what we’re doing.”

“All of you are entrusted to be my advisors, to be the ones who give me advice — not just on the border and immigration, citizenship, visa waiver programs, work programs — but also on FEMA, how we respond to disasters, how we contract, how we get good people that work for us, and how to fire people who don’t like us,” Noem said.

“There’s a lot of really good people here, but there’s people here in this department that don’t support what we’re doing,” she said. “What we have to be aware of is that we’re working with the department that for the last four years hasn’t been required to do much.”

ICE faces obstruction

Meanwhile, immigration enforcement is set for a historic expansion after the passage of Trump’s signature policy bill.

Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” will add $170 billion for immigration enforcement, including $30 billion for ICE’s budget and an additional $45 billion to build new detention centers. ICE’s annual budget is currently about $9 billion.

The dramatic increase in ICE’s budget will aid Trump’s ambitious deportation effort, which has faced public backlash, leading Noem to warn that CNN could face prosecution for promoting an app that lets people share anonymous tips about the locations of ICE agents.

Opposition has also come from inside. Anonymous ICE officials complained to the New York Post that Trump’s daily quota of 3,000 arrests is hurting employees’ morale.

Noem previously said she is administering lie detector tests to find leakers inside DHS who have compromised ICE raids.

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