Today, President Trump announced that he was dismissing his secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kristi Noem. National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) Director of Policy Azadeh Erfani responded with the following statement:
“Kristi Noem was the most recent figurehead, but not the root cause of the myriad problems with DHS and its terrorizing treatment of our communities. Ms. Noem leaves behind a legacy of shameless vilification and dehumanization of immigrants; obstruction and dismantling of investigative and oversight bodies within DHS; overseeing agents responsible for homicides in immigration prisons and shootings on our streets; the traumatization and re-detention of hundreds of children; corruption and self-dealing; and defense of her agency’s systematic violation of First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights.
“Our communities will not be fooled: Noem’s dismissal does not make us safer. While her ouster is certainly a testament to the U.S. public who have mobilized against the wanton violence inflicted by federal agents under her watch, her dismissal alone does not solve the problem. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol officers hired years before Noem’s confirmation are the ones who killed Alex Pretti and Renée Nicole Good in Minneapolis, shot Miramar Martínez in Chicago, and have terrorized countless other cities and neighborhoods. ICE’s deadly and wasteful detention system far preceded her tenure as well, recently breaking decades-long records with 32 people dead in 2025, and nine individuals dead since the start of 2026—including Geraldo Campos Lunas, whose death was ruled a homicide and Emmanuel Damas, an asylum seeker who collapsed to his own death after an untreated toothache. According to data reported by Congress, 17 people died in CBP detention since January 2025. With $150 billion at its fingertips, DHS is poised to continue to devastate Black, Brown, and Indigenous lives regardless of the political shuffling of the day.
“We are grateful for members of Congress who continue to oppose any additional funding for ICE and Border Patrol, and instead have proposed ways to redirect the tens of billions allocated last summer away from these unaccountable agencies toward public needs like Medicaid and housing. NIJC joins the majority of the U.S. public in urging Congress to not provide another dollar for ICE and Border Patrol and to end the agencies’ impunity for the violence they have inflicted on our communities.”