Caribbean immigration advocates and legislators on Thursday, Mar. 5, welcomed the firing of United States Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
On Thursday, President Donald J. Trump announced that Noem will be leaving the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) at the end of this month.
Trump said Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin will replace Noem.
The announcement came just days after Noem testified in multiple congressional hearings regarding her handling of the Trump administration’s immigration agenda and federal immigration operations, including what critics descried as “the reckless murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good” at the hands of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis.
“Kristi Noem’s tenure was defined by controversy, questionable judgment, that led to the deployment of undertrained agents into local communities and the expansion of inhumane practices that devastated families across our country,” Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO, New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), told Caribbean Life.
NYIC is an umbrella policy and advocacy organization that represents over 200 immigrant and refugee rights groups throughout New York.
Awawdeh said that, under Noem’s leadership, “DHS doubled down on an agenda that prioritized militarized operations designed to meet Trump’s arbitrary deportation quotas rather than prioritize the safety of the American people.
“While her departure may close one turbulent chapter, it neither repairs the damage done nor guarantees a more law-abiding and humane DHS going forward,” he said. “Removing one official will not be enough if the same dangerous policies and culture of impunity remain in place.
“The facts are clear: nearly two-thirds of Americans say ICE has gone too far in its immigration crackdown,” Awawdeh added. “It’s time to abolish ICE, reappropriate and claw back US$170 billion from DHS and ensure all our government agencies are held accountable, transparent, and are fully compliant with our country’s laws.”
Caribbean-American Democratic Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, said that “Noem’s firing should have come sooner.”
Clarke, who represents the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn and chairs the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), said that “CBC has made clear for weeks that Secretary Noem needed to be removed or impeached.
“Under her leadership, the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been out of control and operating with impunity,” she told Caribbean Life. “We have seen our communities terrorized and brutalized, innocent Americans killed in cold blood by masked ICE agents who believe they are above the law, and blatant corruption in plain sight.”
But Clarke said Noem is “far from the only person responsible for the depraved immigration policies and practices of the Trump administration.
“A personnel change with no commitment to drastic and meaningful change is just optics,” she said. “No matter who leads the agency, the Trump administration must reverse their policies and rhetoric from the top.”
At a minimum, the congresswoman said ICE, US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agency, and all DHS agencies and officers “must conduct themselves with the same expectations and guardrails that exist for every other law enforcement agency in the country.
“We are going to continue pushing for true accountability for Kristi Noem and DHS until they are brought to justice for their abuses of power and until this culture of impunity within the Trump administration is brought to an end,” Clarke said.
“Our communities deserve safety, transparency, and a federal government that respects the rule of law — not one that operates above it,” she added.
Harlem Democratic Congressman Adriano Espaillat, the first Dominican Republic-American to serve in the US House of Representatives, also told Caribbean Life that Noem’s removal is “long overdue.”
“Kristi Noem demonstrated from the very beginning that she was not up to the responsibility of leading the Department of Homeland Security,” said Espaillat, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), and serves as a Senior Whip of the Democratic Caucus.
“For more than a month, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus has called for her removal, raising serious concerns about her leadership, the erosion of due process, and a pattern of abuses carried out under her watch,” he added. “That it took President Trump more than a year to reach this conclusion is itself an indictment of the administration’s judgment and priorities.
“The American people and members of Congress were sounding the alarm long before the White House chose to act,” Espaillat continued. “The president’s reported plan to replace Secretary Noem with Senator Markwayne Mullin also raises serious questions about the direction and seriousness of leadership at the Department of Homeland Security.
“The American people deserve steady, responsible leadership at an agency tasked with protecting our nation while upholding the Constitution and the rule of law,” he said. “Still, today’s development is an important step forward. The removal of Secretary Noem is a direct result of sustained oversight, public accountability, and the voices of Americans across the country who refused to stay silent in the face of corruption, cruelty, and incompetence.”
The congressman said Noem’s firing is also “a victory for those who worked tirelessly to expose these failures.
“But, most of all, it is a victory for the American people, who made clear that enough was enough and that no public official is above accountability,” Espaillat said.
The US House of Representatives’ Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that, “from day one of her tenure as the so-called Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem has proven to be a deeply unqualified, unhinged, out-of-control, pathological liar who repeatedly abused her power.
“She was a complete and total disaster,” said Jeffries, whose 8th Congressional District in New York encompasses parts of Brooklyn and Queens. “We made clear weeks ago that Kristi Noem must be fired or she would face impeachment. Her well-deserved termination is long overdue, consistent with what we have demanded.
“Under her watch, taxpayer dollars have been weaponized by DHS to kill American citizens, brutalize communities and violently target law-abiding immigrant families, all while she paraded around in a luxury jet and wasted public funds to glorify her ICE Barbie self-image,” he added. “We will hold her accountable for every single dollar that was corruptly spent at DHS.”
But Jeffries said Noem’s removal is “only the first step towards reforming the lawless Trump DHS.
“A change in personnel is not sufficient,” he said. “House Democrats will continue to demand bold, meaningful and transformational changes until ICE, CBP and all DHS agencies and officers conduct themselves in a manner consistent with every law enforcement agency in the country.
“The American people deserve nothing less,” Jeffries continued.