An ex-attorney appointed by former President Barack Obama says Kristi Noem should have been fired long before now, and one moment was enough to give her the boot.
The Department of Homeland Security head came under fire in recent weeks after a Congressional hearing where she refused to apologize for the rhetoric surrounding the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The two civilians were killed by ICE agents in January, leading to widespread denouncements of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement team.
But Noem, who oversaw operations involving ICE agents in Minneapolis, should have been booted from her position far sooner than she was, according to Joyce Vance.
The former US attorney for the Northern District of Alabama suggested previous instances of Noem's actions in office would have been enough for Trump and his aides to remove her from the DHS in a recent Substack post.
Vance wrote, "Further back, there was the incident with California Senator Alex Padilla last June. Padilla tried to ask Noem a question during a press conference she was holding in his state.
"Agents manhandled him to the ground and zip-tied him, as he audibly identified himself. Noem said afterwards on Fox News that Padilla lunged toward the podium where she was speaking and failed to say who he was.
"That’s a lie too, as video from multiple angles showed. Instead of apologizing, she used an official DHS social media account to criticize the Senator.
Vance flagged another moment, as well.
"This pose in front of CECOT prisoners. Sickening. Unfit to be a cabinet secretary." Noem has since been made special envoy for the Shield of Americas.
Vance went on to summarize the work Noem had done during her tenure as DHS head, adding, "Under Noem’s leadership, ICE denied members of Congress access to the facilities they held detained people in, in an effort to prevent them from engaging in oversight, which Congress is entitled by law to do, some would say obligated, given the allegations of rampant abuses.
"And just in case you thought FEMA couldn’t sink any lower than it did following Hurricane Katrina, Noem 'accomplished' that too, tying up payments that, not to put too fine of a point on it, are American taxpayer funds earmarked for Americans going through catastrophic emergencies."
