President Donald Trump is sending his "border czar" to handle the fallout from another fatal shooting during a Department of Homeland Security operation in Minnesota, and CNN's Harry Enten flagged that as a sign that deeply unpopular Kristi Noem might be ousted as secretary.
A Customs and Border Patrol officer shot and killed 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti over the weekend, less than three weeks after another officer fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good, and Trump announced that Homan would lead the immigration crackdown in the Minneapolis area.
"I'm not reallysurprised that President Trumpis sending Tom Homan in becauseICE, DHS, Kristi Noem have been apolitical disaster, because, justtake a look here," Enten said. "I mean, ICE'snet approval rating during Trump's terms, you go back toterm number one. Look, it wasit's pretty even at zeropoints. You go to June 2025,right, that was when all thatstuff was going on in Los Angeles. They dropped down, lookat this, minus-17 points – way in thebasement. But then after Minneapolis, it's even lower, minus-27 points on the net approvalrating of ICE."
"Of course, thisall being done under Kristi Noem, so know what's going on in Minneapolis is not popular atall," he added. "What's been going onduring this second term underICE, under the Trumpadministration, under Kristi Noem has very much not beenpopular, and it's only gettingmore and more unpopular."
Approval for the agency Noem heads has suffered under her leadership, as well.
"We'll start with ICE and thenwe'll raise it to DHS, and,again, it's just the same exactstory, right?" Enten said. "DHS is doing anexcellent or good job, the Department of Homeland Securityduring Trump's first term, lookwhere it was in late 2017,right? Right about at thispoint, 59 percent. That's pretty gosh-darn good.
"But look at where itis now in Trump term numbertwo. By late last year it wasdown to 42 percent. So this is the samestory that we're seeing. Nomatter which poll question welook at the popularity of ICE, ofDHS has completely fallen underthe second Trump term. Thesecond Trump administration,where what we were seeing during Trump's term number one was,hey, ICE, DHS pretty popular,certainly not unpopular, but allthe actions in Minneapolis, in Los Angeles, in these major American cities have been verymuch rejected by the Americanpeople. It has been a politicaldisaster for the second Trumpadministration."
That's why the president's move to send Homan to Minnesota could be significant.
"I just think there's a realreason for it, and that'sbecause Kristi Noem, simply put,has not been popular, andeverything she's done, for themost part, has not been popular," Enten said. "I mean, just look at her netapproval rating in July of 2025.It was minus-11 points. It'sactually gotten more unpopularnow at minus-16 points. I looked atevery single poll that has beenconducted on Kristi Noem'spopularity, every single one, the net approval rating has beennegative. ICE is negative, DHSis negative. As I said at thetop, this has been anabsolute political disaster forthe president of the United States,it's not much of a surprise tome if he wants to push Noem tothe side."