Trump’s firing of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem draws bipartisan support from Washington’s congressional delegation

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s firing of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem drew bipartisan support from Washington state’s congressional delegation on Thursday, as a partial government shutdown of the agency continues amid controversy over its crackdown on immigrants.

Trump announced on his Truth Social platform that Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a Republican from Oklahoma, will take over the position at the end of March, while Noem will be reassigned to a newly created role. Rep. Dan Newhouse, a Republican from Sunnyside who sits on the subcommittee responsible for funding DHS, called Mullin “a great choice” and said he looks forward to working with the new secretary.

“A change in leadership at the Department of Homeland Security was long overdue,” Newhouse wrote on X. “The immediate task at hand is funding the department and its vital counterterrorism, cybersecurity, and border security programs.”

In addition to the agencies responsible for the administration’s aggressive effort to deport immigrants – Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and Customs and Border Protection – DHS includes agencies responsible for emergency management, airport security and other essential functions. After ICE and Border Patrol agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January, Democrats in Congress said they wouldn’t agree to fund DHS until Republicans agree to reform immigration enforcement, including by requiring agents to show their faces.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate committee responsible for government funding, sought to pass a bill by unanimous consent on Thursday that would have funded DHS with the exception of ICE, CBP and the office of the secretary. Republicans blocked that move, which Murray used to make the point that Democrats only oppose funding for the agencies responsible for the immigration crackdown and still intend to block funding until Republicans agree to rein in ICE and Border Patrol agents.

“History will remember Kristi Noem for her corruption and the sheer cruelty & chaos she unleashed on our streets,” Murray wrote on X. “Good riddance, but Congress should not tolerate more of the same from whoever comes next. We need accountability and reform for ICE and Border Patrol.”

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said Noem led the department and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement division “with an unpardonable disregard for American civil liberties, civil rights, local and state governments, and the Constitution.”

“Americans have the right to protest and speak freely and do so without fear of getting shot or being beaten by ICE agents,” Cantwell said, referring to the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by DHS agents in January. “Noem allowed immigration enforcement officials to abuse their power and authority, making America less secure, not more.”

Cantwell is the top Democrat on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which has jurisdiction over the Coast Guard, part of DHS. That agency was at the center of one of several controversies that have surrounded Noem during her tenure, after the Wall Street Journal reported in February that Noem’s top advisor, Corey Lewandowski, fired a Coast Guard pilot for leaving Noem’s blanket on a plane.

“I hope the Coast Guard will now be able to get back to its core mission: serving the American people by revitalizing search and rescue, supporting robust maritime trade, and boosting American fisheries,” Cantwell said.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump and other members of his administration believed that Noem and Lewandowski, who are both married to other people, were having an affair. The two travel in a luxury Boeing 737 MAX jet with a private cabin that DHS has been leasing but was in the process of acquiring for $70 million, the Journal reported.

Noem, who often poses with a gun and in tactical gear, approved spending $200 million in taxpayer dollars to air an ad campaign in which she starred, telling immigrants who are in the country illegally to leave. That spending was one of several decisions – including Noem’s admission that she killed her own dog after failing to train it – that both Republicans and Democrats questioned in tense hearings in the Senate on Tuesday and in the House on Wednesday.

“Across the country, millions of you spoke out against DHS’s reckless dehumanization of our immigrant communities, to protest the murder of American citizens, and to help your neighbors when they were too terrified to leave their homes,” Rep. Emily Randall, D-Bremerton, said in a statement. “Your voices made a difference. Regardless of who leads DHS next under Trump, we have to restructure a department that has completely lost the trust of the American people.”

In his post announcing the move, Trump said Noem will serve as special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, which he said is a new security initiative for the Western Hemisphere he will announce on Saturday. That decision mirrored the demotion of Mike Waltz, Trump’s former national security advisor whom the president appointed as ambassador to the United Nations in May after Waltz accidentally added a journalist to a private group chat in which top administration officials discussed classified military plans.