Role: U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security (January 25, 2025 – March 2026, fired by Trump); former South Dakota Governor (2019–2025)

Successor: Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), confirmed as DHS Secretary. Mullin’s DHS has actively purged all traces of Noem from the department. Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar (Navy veteran, former mayor of Los Alamitos, CA) served as interim between Noem’s firing and Mullin’s confirmation.

Party / Affiliation: Republican

Status: As of May 2026 — Former DHS Secretary, fired by Trump; replaced by Mullin; no criminal charges filed; multiple civil lawsuits pending; under federal ethics investigation for undisclosed income and self-dealing contracts

Priority: P0

Tracked Activities: Disinformation (false “domestic terrorist” and “brandishing” claims about killed U.S. citizens), self-dealing (secret personal payments, $220M no-bid ad contract to ally’s firm), inhumane detention conditions (women shackled while miscarrying, Alligator Alcatraz), obstruction of oversight (watchdog dismantlement, 7-day congressional visit requirement), and democratic backsliding (killing U.S. citizens during immigration enforcement)

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Background

Career

Kristi Noem served as South Dakota’s 33rd Governor (2019–2025) and first female governor, winning re-election in 2022. She previously served as South Dakota’s U.S. House Representative. Trump nominated her for DHS Secretary in November 2024; the Senate confirmed her 59-34 on January 25, 2025.

Removal

Trump fired Noem in February–March 2026 following the killings of two U.S. citizens during her Operation Metro Surge enforcement operations in Minneapolis and subsequent political fallout. A Quinnipiac poll found that more than half of voters thought Noem should be removed; Trump’s own immigration approval rating dropped from 44% to 38% during the controversy. Her removal was framed by the White House not as accountability for citizen deaths but because the operations were deemed “poorly executed and politically problematic.” Mullin’s DHS subsequently moved to remove all traces of her from the department.

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Documented Actions

1. Self-Dealing and Corruption — Personal Enrichment from Public Role

A. Secret personal payments from political donations (ProPublica, June 30, 2025): While serving as South Dakota Governor, Noem secretly directed 10% of donations — approximately $80,000 — from the dark money nonprofit “American Resolve Policy Fund” into her personal Delaware LLC, Ashwood Strategies. She then failed to disclose this income on her federal ethics forms when joining Trump’s cabinet, despite being legally required to do so. She listed the LLC but deliberately omitted the payment. Federal ethics experts told ProPublica this was a likely violation of disclosure requirements. The American Resolve Policy Fund describes itself as “fighting to preserve America for the next generation” — there is little public evidence it served any purpose beyond promoting Noem’s political brand and compensating her personally.

B. $220 million DHS ad contract scandal (ProPublica/South Dakota Searchlight, November 2025): Shortly after becoming DHS Secretary, Noem’s department awarded a $220 million taxpayer-funded advertising campaign — invoking a border “emergency” to bypass competitive bidding requirements. The contracts flowed in significant part to the Strategy Group, a firm with direct personal and political ties to Noem:

• The Strategy Group’s CEO is married to Tricia McLaughlin, Noem’s own chief DHS spokesperson
• Corey Lewandowski, Noem’s top adviser at DHS, had extensive prior working relationships with the firm
• No competitive bidding process was conducted; the emergency designation was used to circumvent federal procurement rules
• Senators Gallego, Kim, Blumenthal, and Peters called for a formal investigation (November 20, 2025)
• At her March 3, 2026 Senate Judiciary hearing, senators pressed Noem directly on the Strategy Group payments; the firm only released a disclosure statement that same day, claiming it received $226,137 — a figure that government contracting experts noted was implausibly low given the scope of the work

C. South Dakota governor-era corruption:

• Spent over $60,000 decorating the governor’s mansion with luxury items including saunas and chandeliers
• Billed $640,000+ in state-funded travel, including trips to Paris, Canada, and Texas
• Flew on state-owned aircraft for political campaign events — referred to the state attorney general by an ethics board
• South Dakota ethics board found she “may have engaged in misconduct”

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2. Killings of U.S. Citizens and the Disinformation Response — Operation Metro Surge

Operation Metro Surge ran officially from December 4, 2025 through February 12, 2026, targeting the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area. It was organized by Noem, Gregory Bovino (Border Control Commander, until January 26), and Tom Homan (January 26 onward). Congressional concern was already documented before the killings — a December 12, 2025 letter to Noem and ICE expressed “deep concern” about the operation.

Killing of Renée Nicole Good — January 7, 2026: An ICE officer shot and killed Renée Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother and U.S. citizen, during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis. Noem’s initial public response claimed the officer was hit by a car before firing. The ICE officer was placed on three-day administrative leave — standard protocol. Noem confirmed the conduct was under internal review. Her statements that Good was a threat were disputed by bystander accounts, and the White House later described the operations as “poorly executed.”

Killing of Alex Pretti — January 24, 2026: A Border Patrol agent and CBP officer shot Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and ICU nurse at a VA hospital, who died from his wounds. Bystanders recorded the incident from multiple angles.

Noem’s disinformation response — coordinated with Miller (see Miller profile) — included:

• Noem held a press conference displaying a photograph of a pistol on a screen, implying Pretti was armed and threatening
• Noem stated Pretti “had a weapon on him and multiple dozens of rounds of ammunition… brandishing like that, and impeding their operations”
• When directly asked by reporters whether Pretti was brandishing the weapon, Noem refused to answer — sidestepping the question repeatedly
• Noem stated she doesn’t know of “any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign” — framing all armed observers as threats
• FactCheck.org documented that video evidence was “at odds with DHS’s initial claims”: one video “shows officers approaching Pretti instead of the other way around” and “shows he didn’t have a gun in his hand, only a phone” — though a gun was visible in his waistband, he was not brandishing it
• CNN analysis: footage from “multiple angles appears at odds with the DHS’s initial claims about the lead up to officers firing”

Noem defended calling both Good and Pretti “domestic terrorists” at the March 3, 2026 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing — weeks after their deaths and after video evidence contradicted the “brandishing” claim.

JD Vance’s “absolute immunity” false claim: VP Vance separately claimed the ICE officer who killed Renée Good was “protected by absolute immunity.” CNN and legal experts immediately debunked this — no such immunity exists for agents who use excessive or unjustified force. No legal basis for this claim was presented.

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3. Alligator Alcatraz: Championed as a “Model” for National Expansion

Rather than treating Alligator Alcatraz — the Everglades detention camp with documented torture conditions — as an emergency requiring remediation, Noem publicly endorsed it as a model:

• August 4, 2025 (CBS News): Noem stated Alligator Alcatraz “will serve as a model for ICE state-run detention centers,” saying she hoped to “launch a handful of similar detention centers in multiple airports and jails across the country”
• A bicameral congressional oversight letter dated August 20, 2025 — addressed to Noem, ICE, the DHS IG, and FEMA — demanded answers on conditions at the facility
• Conditions Noem was overseeing and endorsing as a “model” at the time included: torture-level detention conditions, fecal matter in sleeping areas, one meal per day, maggot-infested food, 32 people per cage, lights on 24 hours, cameras above toilets (Amnesty International, December 2025)
• As of April 2026, two-thirds of the ~1,400 detainees were classified as noncriminal; DACA recipients were among those held

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4. Detention Deaths, Women Shackled While Miscarrying, and Oversight Obstruction

53 deaths on Noem’s watch: A congressional letter dated January 22, 2026 — addressed directly to Noem — documented that 53 people had died in ICE or CBP custody “on your watch”, stating: “DHS’s callous disregard for human life was made apparent by the heinous killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis.” Signatories demanded Noem take immediate action to prevent preventable deaths.

Women shackled while miscarrying: A February 13, 2026 congressional letter documented that women in ICE custody were shackled while miscarrying. The South Louisiana ICE Processing Center alone had been the site of four miscarriages. Noem’s DHS was simultaneously restricting congressional access to these facilities (see below).

Obstruction of oversight — watchdog dismantlement and 7-day rule:

• Noem’s DHS dismantled the independent watchdog teams responsible for monitoring detention conditions in real time; a federal lawsuit was filed by the Robert and Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center, the Southern Border Communities Coalition, and the Urban Justice Center
• DHS instituted a rule requiring Members of Congress to provide seven days advance notice before visiting detention facilities — a court filing characterized as “unlawful” obstruction of congressional oversight
• The DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties — which had documented abuses, excessive force, and sexual assault in ICE facilities — was effectively shuttered, with more than 500 open investigations abandoned
• A Guardian investigation found internal court documents revealed the “gutting of DHS oversight” was “incredibly dangerous”

Immigration enforcement without medical care: ICE reportedly failed to pay third-party medical providers for detainee care under Noem’s leadership. Congressional letters documented widespread and systemic failures: ICE medical staff delayed treatment, failed to manage medications, failed to provide mental health care, contributing to deaths by suicide (three of six January 2026 deaths were suicides).

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5. Border Militarization and No-Bid Contracts

• Operation River Wall (October 2025): Noem approved $4.5 billion in contracts for 230 miles of border infrastructure
• DHS claimed an 89.6% decrease in Del Rio Sector encounters — though experts noted it was unclear whether numbers reflected deterrence or rerouting of migration patterns
• The $220M advertising campaign (see Section 1) was formally a “border security” communication effort invoking emergency procurement rules

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Pattern Analysis

Shoot First, Label Terrorists Later

Noem’s labeling of American citizens killed by federal agents as “domestic terrorists” — without evidence, without trial, and after their deaths — represents a documented and dangerous pattern: retroactive justification of lethal force. This inverts due process: instead of proving someone is a threat before using deadly force, the use of deadly force becomes proof that they were a threat. Combined with the refusal to answer whether Pretti was actually brandishing a weapon — after video showed he was not — this constitutes a systematic campaign to discredit killed U.S. citizens to protect federal agents from accountability.

Self-Enrichment as a Pattern

From South Dakota to DHS, the documented record shows a consistent pattern of treating public office as a vehicle for personal financial benefit: secret payments to a personal LLC, luxury mansion renovations on the public dime, state aircraft for political events, and a $220M federal contract pipeline to allies and their spouses. The consistency across years and jurisdictions is more probative than any single incident.

Removed for Politics, Not for Deaths

Trump removed Noem not because 53 people died in ICE custody, not because women were shackled while miscarrying, not because two U.S. citizens were killed and defamed. He removed her because the operations were “poorly executed and politically problematic.” This framing makes explicit that the administration’s objection was to the PR consequences, not to the underlying conduct.

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Accountability Status

Current status: Fired March 2026; replaced by Sen. Markwayne Mullin. As of May 2026, no criminal charges filed; multiple civil suits and federal ethics investigations ongoing.

Legal exposure:

Category	Exposure
Federal ethics violations	Failure to disclose $80,000 payment from American Resolve Policy Fund to personal LLC on federal disclosure forms; experts assess likely violation of federal ethics disclosure requirements
Procurement fraud / self-dealing	$220M DHS ad contract awarded via emergency no-bid process to firm run by spouse of Noem’s own DHS spokesperson; potential violation of federal procurement regulations and anti-nepotism/self-dealing standards
Defamation of dead (civil)	Publicly labeling Renée Good and Alex Pretti as “domestic terrorists” without evidentiary basis after their deaths; families have standing for civil defamation claims
42 U.S.C. § 1983 / wrongful death	Civil liability as DHS Secretary for deaths of Good and Pretti arising from enforcement operations under her command; supervisory liability where excessive force policies are foreseeable cause of constitutional violations
Eighth Amendment / deliberate indifference	Detention conditions at Alligator Alcatraz and other facilities (torture finding by Amnesty International; women shackled while miscarrying) while Noem publicly endorsed the facility as a “model” for national expansion
Obstruction of congressional oversight	Seven-day advance notice rule for congressional detention visits; dismantlement of watchdog teams; lawsuit filed by RFK Human Rights Center
South Dakota ethics	Ethics board finding of potential “misconduct”; state aircraft for political events referred to attorney general

Active litigation:

• Wrongful death suits by families of Renée Good and Alex Pretti
• RFK Human Rights Center / Southern Border Communities Coalition / Urban Justice Center v. DHS (watchdog dismantlement)
• Multiple Flores settlement enforcement proceedings (family detention conditions)

Congressional oversight:

• Senate Judiciary Committee hearing — March 3, 2026 (Noem testified; senators pressed on Strategy Group payments)
• House Judiciary Committee hearing — March 4, 2026 (Noem testified)
• Congressional letter re: 53 ICE/CBP deaths (January 22, 2026)
• Congressional letter re: women shackled while miscarrying (February 13, 2026)
• Congressional letter re: Operation Metro Surge abuses (December 12, 2025)
• Bicameral Alligator Alcatraz oversight letter (August 20, 2025)
• Senators Gallego, Kim, Blumenthal, Peters — investigation demand re $220M contract (November 20, 2025)

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Truth and Reconciliation Considerations

Investigation priorities

1. Killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti — full accountability chain:

Obtain all body camera footage, after-action reports, use-of-force authorizations, and communications from Operation Metro Surge. Establish the complete chain of command: from Miller’s quota directives to Noem’s operational orders to Bovino’s and Homan’s field commands to the individual agents who fired. For each killing, determine: (a) whether the operational rules of engagement authorized the force used, (b) whether the agents followed those rules, (c) whether Noem was informed of facts contradicting the “brandishing” and “domestic terrorist” narratives before making public statements, and (d) whether the subsequent disinformation campaign was coordinated between Noem, Miller, and the White House communications office

1. The “domestic terrorist” labeling — evidentiary basis and coordination:

Obtain all internal DHS communications from January 7–31, 2026 regarding the characterization of Good and Pretti as “domestic terrorists.” Establish: (a) whether any evidentiary basis was presented before that characterization was approved; (b) who in the White House (Miller, Trump, others) approved or directed the messaging; (c) whether the same “domestic terrorist” characterization was applied to any other individuals killed or injured during DHS operations, and whether any such designation was predicated on protest activity protected by the First Amendment

1. The Pretti “brandishing” disinformation — who knew what and when:

FactCheck.org and CNN documented that video evidence contradicted DHS’s “brandishing” claims before Noem repeated them publicly on January 25, 2026. Establish whether Noem had reviewed the video evidence before her press conference; establish who wrote the press statement that displayed a photograph of a pistol implying Pretti was armed and threatening; establish whether Noem’s refusal to answer the direct “brandishing” question was legally advised — i.e., whether she knew the answer was no

1. $220 million no-bid contract — procurement fraud investigation:

Obtain all procurement records, emergency declarations, and communications regarding the DHS $220M advertising campaign. Establish: (a) whether the “border emergency” justification for bypassing competitive bidding was legally valid or manufactured for the purpose of directing contracts to allies; (b) the full scope of money that flowed to the Strategy Group and what the firm actually delivered; (c) whether Noem had any role in selecting the Strategy Group given her personal and political ties to its principal relationships; (d) whether Lewandowski, as her top DHS adviser, facilitated the contract to a firm he had prior business relationships with — a potential Antideficiency Act and anti-nepotism violation

1. Secret $80,000 payment — federal disclosure investigation:

Obtain all records of payments from American Resolve Policy Fund to Ashwood Strategies LLC; establish the timeline of payments relative to Noem’s public role promoting the fund’s mission; determine whether the omission from federal ethics disclosure forms was deliberate; refer findings to the Office of Government Ethics and Department of Justice for potential criminal referral under false statements statutes (18 U.S.C. § 1001)

1. 53 detention deaths — Noem’s knowledge and response:

Using the congressional record (the January 22, 2026 letter documenting 53 deaths), establish when Noem first received data on the rising detention death rate; what internal communications she sent in response; whether she took any action to improve medical care or staffing; and whether ICE’s failure to pay third-party medical providers — a documented contributing factor to deaths — was a decision Noem approved or was aware of and chose not to remedy

1. Women shackled while miscarrying — chain of custody and authorization:

The shackling of women during miscarriages at ICE facilities — documented in the February 13, 2026 congressional letter — requires a specific investigation: obtain all restraint policies applicable to detained pregnant women; establish whether those policies were changed under Noem’s tenure; determine whether field reports of miscarriages while shackled reached Noem’s office and what action was taken; document the four miscarriages at South Louisiana ICE Processing Center by name (with appropriate privacy protections) for the public record

1. Alligator Alcatraz — from “torture” to “model” — internal knowledge:

Noem publicly called Alligator Alcatraz a “model” for national expansion on August 4, 2025. The Amnesty International report documenting torture conditions was published in December 2025. The bicameral oversight letter was sent to Noem in August 2025. Establish: (a) what internal DHS conditions reports Noem received about the Everglades facility before calling it a “model”; (b) whether the Amnesty International torture findings were communicated to Noem before her testimony; (c) whether her description of the facility as a “model” was made knowing of the documented conditions — which would establish deliberate indifference or worse

1. Watchdog dismantlement — obstruction of oversight:

Obtain all internal DHS memoranda authorizing the dismantlement of independent watchdog teams and the institution of the seven-day advance notice rule for congressional visits. Establish whether these decisions were made in anticipation of congressional oversight following the detention death record and citizen killings — i.e., whether the watchdog dismantlement was designed to prevent accountability documentation of ongoing abuses. Preserve all records before Mullin’s DHS completes its purge of Noem-era materials

1. South Dakota ethics record — pattern evidence:

Obtain the full South Dakota ethics board record on Noem’s governor-era misconduct; the state attorney general’s referral on aircraft use; and financial records of the $60,000 mansion renovation and $640,000 travel billing. These records are relevant to the federal pattern-of-self-dealing analysis and should be preserved as evidence in any federal ethics or procurement fraud investigation

Testimony value

Noem is a critical witness on multiple distinct tracks. Her testimony would address:

• The kill chain for Good and Pretti: What use-of-force authorizations she issued for Operation Metro Surge; what she was told about the circumstances of each shooting before making public statements; whether she reviewed video evidence before the press conference displaying Pretti’s photograph alongside a gun image; why she refused to answer the direct “brandishing” question
• The disinformation chain: Whether the “domestic terrorist” and “assassin” characterizations were coordinated with Miller and the White House before public release; what she meant by “everything I’ve done, I’ve done at the direction of the president and Stephen” (per Axios reporting); whether she issued or approved those characterizations independently or under direction
• The $220M contract: Whether she was aware of the Strategy Group’s ties to McLaughlin and Lewandowski when the contract was awarded; whether any competitive bids were considered; what she understood the emergency procurement justification to mean legally
• The $80,000 payment: Whether the omission from federal ethics disclosure was intentional; what she understood to be her disclosure obligations; whether she received legal advice before filing incomplete forms
• Detention conditions: When she first received mortality data showing 2025 as the deadliest ICE custody year in decades; what she understood the causes to be; why she chose to call Alligator Alcatraz a “model” given the conditions already being reported; what action she took when informed of women miscarrying while shackled
• Oversight obstruction: Whether the watchdog dismantlement and seven-day visit rule were intended to limit congressional documentation of detention abuses; who directed those policy changes and when

Institutional reform

• Independent civilian use-of-force review board: Establish a statutory independent board with subpoena authority to investigate all cases where federal immigration agents kill or seriously injure U.S. citizens; remove DHS from self-investigation; mandate public reporting within 60 days of any fatal incident

• Prohibition on post-mortem “terrorist” labeling: Federal officials are prohibited from labeling deceased individuals as “domestic terrorists” or any equivalent national security designation without independent evidence review; any such designation must be predicated on a specific charged offense, not post-hoc justification of lethal force; families must have legal standing to challenge designations of deceased family members

• Mandatory weapons/body camera evidence review before public statements: DHS and DOJ must review all available video evidence before making any public statement about the circumstances of a citizen’s death during federal enforcement operations; knowingly false public statements about the circumstances of a citizen’s death by federal officials should be treated as obstruction and referred for criminal review

• Procurement reform — emergency no-bid prohibition for communications contracts: Communications and advertising contracts cannot be awarded under “emergency” procurement rules; all DHS contracts above $1M must go through competitive bidding regardless of any declared emergency; DHS employees are prohibited from awarding contracts to firms in which they or their immediate subordinates have personal, financial, or prior professional relationships without explicit OGE clearance

• Detention standards with criminal enforcement: Establish minimum detention standards as a statutory floor (not just regulatory guidelines) with criminal penalties for deliberate disregard; specifically prohibit restraining pregnant detainees or individuals experiencing medical emergencies; establish mandatory medical staffing-to-detainee ratios

• Restoration of independent oversight with congressional access: Restore and strengthen the DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties; repeal the seven-day advance notice rule for congressional visits to detention facilities; mandate unannounced inspection authority for GAO and DHS IG; require preservation of all case files on abandoned open investigations

• Federal ethics disclosure enforcement: Require DHS Secretary nominees to provide complete financial disclosure including all LLC payments and political fund relationships; establish criminal referral protocol for material omissions; OGE must independently verify disclosure accuracy against tax records before confirmation

• Accountability for the “absolute immunity” false claim: JD Vance’s claim that the ICE officer who killed Renée Good was “protected by absolute immunity” — immediately debunked by constitutional scholars — should be referred to the Senate for censure; the propagation of false legal immunity claims by senior officials emboldens agents to use excessive force with perceived impunity

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Cross-References

Related Skills

• first-amendment-legal-expert — Retaliation via “domestic terrorist” labeling
• fourth-amendment-legal-expert — Excessive force, unreasonable seizure
• fifth-amendment-legal-expert — Due process, deprivation of life
• public-corruption-ombudsman — Retribution, democratic backsliding

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Investigative trail pointers (public records)

Education only — verify independently. Absence of hits is not proof.

Channel	Starting points
Federal courts	CourtListener / PACER party and attorney searches (spelling variants)
Campaign finance	FEC + OpenSecrets for committees and donors tied to documented roles
Corporate / LLC	State secretary of state; OpenCorporates for cross-border shells from reporting
Sanctions / PEP	OpenSanctions when international business context is already sourced
Contracts / grants	USAspending.gov for named entities from investigations

Use public-records-research-specialist, corporate-intelligence-investigator, and public-corruption-ombudsman evidence tiers.

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Factual correction requests: If you believe information in this profile is incorrect, please contact factcheck@patriot.university with your name (optional), the specific claim, and any supporting documentation. We review all submissions and correct verified errors promptly.

For Trump Supporters: Questions Worth Considering

Noem was fired by Trump in March 2026 after two U.S. citizens — Renée Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother, and Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and VA hospital ICU nurse — were killed in immigration enforcement operations she organized in Minneapolis. Following the killings, Noem held a press conference showing a photograph of a pistol, implying Pretti was armed and threatening. When reporters directly asked whether Pretti was “brandishing” the weapon, Noem refused to answer. FactCheck.org documented that video evidence was “at odds with DHS’s initial claims”: Pretti was not shown brandishing a weapon; he had a phone in his hand. Noem was also under federal ethics investigation for undisclosed income and for directing $80,000 in political donations to her personal LLC, and a $220 million no-bid DHS advertising contract flowed to a firm with direct personal ties to her office. Trump’s own administration described her operations as “poorly executed and politically problematic.”

Here’s a question worth sitting with: Renée Nicole Good and Alex Pretti were U.S. citizens. They were killed in immigration enforcement operations on U.S. soil. Noem’s public response after the killings was to hold a press conference displaying a photograph of a pistol — implying Pretti was armed and threatening — and then to refuse to directly answer whether he was actually brandishing that weapon when reporters asked. Video documented by FactCheck.org contradicted the implication. Trump’s own White House called the operations “poorly executed.” Noem was fired. The specific question: when a government official uses a press conference to imply a killed U.S. citizen was threatening — and then refuses to confirm the implication when directly asked — what is that official’s relationship to the truth, and what accountability standard should apply?

A second question about the financial conduct: Noem secretly directed 10% of political donations — approximately $80,000 — into her personal LLC and failed to disclose this on mandatory federal ethics forms. A $220 million no-bid DHS advertising contract went to a firm whose CEO was married to Noem’s own DHS chief spokesperson, and Noem’s top adviser had extensive prior ties to the same firm. Federal ethics experts told ProPublica the undisclosed payment was likely a legal violation. These are documented facts, not allegations. If you apply the same standard to Republican officials that you would apply to Democratic ones — what accountability standard would you use for a senior official who secretly directed political donations to her own company, failed to disclose it on federal forms, and oversaw a $220 million no-bid contract to a firm with direct personal ties to her own office?

Sources

1. CBS News, “Inside the decision to remove Kristi Noem as DHS secretary,” February 2026
2. NPR, “Trump fires Noem, names Mullin as DHS secretary,” 2026
3. BBC News, “Kristi Noem ousted as Homeland Security boss after scrutiny over deportation drive,” 2026
4. Government Executive, “Noem fired from DHS amid agency shutdown, Trump taps Mullin as successor,” 2026
5. ICE Barbie’s Humiliation Sealed in Sweeping Purge — Mullin’s DHS purging all traces of Noem, 2026
6. ProPublica — “Kristi Noem Secretly Took a Cut of Political Donations,” June 30, 2025 (Elliott, Kaplan, Mierjeski) — $80,000 Ashwood Strategies payment, omitted disclosure
7. ProPublica/South Dakota Searchlight — “Firm tied to Kristi Noem secretly got money from $220 million DHS ad contracts,” November 14, 2025 — Strategy Group, Tricia McLaughlin, Lewandowski
8. Update notation, March 4, 2026 — Strategy Group released statement claiming $226,137 total payment after Senate hearing
9. Senators Gallego, Kim, Blumenthal, Peters — letter calling for $220M contract investigation, November 20, 2025
10. South Dakota ethics board — finding of potential “misconduct”; state aircraft referral to attorney general
11. PBS/AP — “$60,000 mansion decorations, $640,000 travel” corruption reporting
12. Operation Metro Surge — Wikipedia — dates (December 4, 2025 – February 12, 2026), commanders (Noem, Bovino, Homan)
13. Congressional letter to Noem/Lyons re: Operation Metro Surge concerns, December 12, 2025
14. Killing of Renée Good — Wikipedia — January 7, 2026 timeline and sourcing
15. CNN Politics — “What Trump officials claimed about Alex Pretti — and what the evidence actually shows,” January 2026
16. FactCheck.org — “Video Analyses at Odds with DHS Statements on Minneapolis Shooting” — “at odds with DHS’s initial claims”
17. HuffPost — “Kristi Noem Refuses to Answer Whether ICE Disarmed Alex Pretti Before Fatally Shooting Him”
18. Congressional letter to Noem re: Operation Metro Surge (January 28, 2026) — Good killed January 7; Pretti killed January 24
19. NPR, “Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testifies before Senate Judiciary Committee,” March 3, 2026
20. CNN — JD Vance “absolute immunity” claim debunked by experts
21. CBS News — “Kristi Noem says ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ to be model for ICE state-run detention centers,” August 4, 2025
22. Bicameral Alligator Alcatraz oversight letter to Noem, ICE, DHS IG, FEMA — August 20, 2025
23. Amnesty International — “Torture and Enforced Disappearances in the Sunshine State,” December 2025 — conditions at Alligator Alcatraz and Krome
24. Congressional letter to Noem — “53 people have died in ICE or CBP custody on your watch,” January 22, 2026
25. Congressional letter to Noem re: women shackled while miscarrying; 4 miscarriages at South Louisiana ICE facility, February 13, 2026
26. Congressional letter to Noem re: detention medical standards failures; ICE failed to pay third-party providers, January 28, 2026
27. The Guardian — “Court records reveal gutting of DHS oversight: ‘Incredibly dangerous'” — RFK Human Rights Center lawsuit
28. CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) — “When DHS operates without oversight, democracy itself is at risk”
29. Brennan Center — “Family Detention Under the Second Trump Administration” — 500+ abandoned investigations; oversight offices shuttered
30. Quinnipiac poll — more than half of voters thought Noem should be removed; Trump immigration approval dropped 44% → 38%
31. DHS press release — “Secretary Noem… Major Border Security Gains,” February 4, 2026 — Operation River Wall, $4.5B contracts, Del Rio statistics

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Last Updated: May 18, 2026 Priority Tier: P0 Profile Status: Historical — fired March 2026; replaced by Markwayne Mullin