Noem Out as DHS Secretary; Mullin Steps In

By Ariana Figueroa, States Newsroom

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump Thursday said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will be leaving the post for a job as a special envoy, following an appearance before a U.S. Senate panel this week that provoked bipartisan criticism of her handling of the department that is tasked with fulfilling the administration’s mass deportation campaign. 

Oklahoma GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin will lead the Department of Homeland Security, the president wrote on his social media site, Truth Social.

“I thank Kristi for her service at ‘Homeland,’” Trump wrote. 

In a heated hourslong oversight hearing before senators, Republicans on Tuesday grilled Noem over her handling of the awarding of no-bid contracts to close allies and slow disaster relief response. 

Also cited were multiple video recordings that contradicted her statements that two U.S. citizens killed by her federal immigration officers in Minneapolis were “domestic terrorists.”

Senate Democrats have refused to approve funding for the Department of Homeland Security, now at day 19 of a shutdown, unless certain policy changes are made to immigration enforcement tactics.

Noem, the former governor of South Dakota, will move to a new role as a special envoy for a new “Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere,” Trump said.