Kristi Noem has to go

Once installed as DHS secretary, Noem became the face of the administration’s aggressive immigration efforts. An early success was securing the southern border, as promised, leading to the lowest number of illegal border crossings from Mexico in 50 years.

But once that milestone was achieved, Noem often became more of the news than the news itself. There she was at the southern border on horseback, complete with a cowboy hat riding alongside Border Patrol agents. Or holding a news conference in front of a massive cell of inmates at El Salvador’s notorious Terrorist Confinement Center.

She was roasted after inadvertently pointing an M4 rifle at an ICE agent’s head while she wore her own ICE uniform in a YouTube video. And she even had her purse stolen at dinner as her Secret Service detail stood guard.

Did I mention Noem oversees the Secret Service as DHS secretary?

She also oversees ICE and Border Patrol operations and has been front and center as thousands of federal agents have deployed into American cities. Many of those encounters and apprehensions have become violent, even with U.S. citizens, as masked agents outnumber the local police forces trying to deal with it all.

Noem’s low point, and the department’s true crisis of credibility, has come during what her department dubbed the “Worst-of-the-Worst” operations in Minneapolis.

The operation gets its name from Trump’s campaign promise to rid the country of what he called “the worst of the worst” undocumented immigrants, those with long criminal histories who should not be in the country in the first place.

But the operation has too frequently swept up legal immigrants, undocumented immigrants and naturalized citizens alike, in their homes, at work, picking their kids up at school, and otherwise not being the worst of the worst.

In the last month, federal officers have shot and killed two U.S. citizens in high-profile incidents. In both cases, Noem flouted longstanding law enforcement protocols and quickly announced that it was the Minneapolis residents, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were responsible for their own fatal shootings, not the immigration agents involved.

In a news conference, Noem described Good, a mother of three, as “an anti-ICE rioter” who had “weaponized her vehicle against law enforcement.”

Even though videos from the scene showed Good turning her vehicle away from one officer while another stepped in front of it, Noem said Good left the officer who shot her no choice but to “save his own life and the lives of his fellow officers.” In reality, videos show one agent calling Good an expletive as she is shot in the face and chest at point-blank range.

Likewise, in the hours after Pretti was killed, Noem called the Veterans Affairs nurse a “domestic terrorist” and said agents fired defensive shots after he “brandished” a weapon.

In reality, videos from the scene showed Pretti, who was armed, holding his phone in one hand as he used the other to help a woman who had been shoved to the ground. After agents disarmed Pretti in a scrum, he was shot on the ground 10 times.

As for Pretti’s gun, which he had a license to carry, Noem said, “I don’t know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign.”

FBI Director Kash Patel echoed that sentiment hours later.

“You cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It’s that simple. You don’t have a right to break the law,” Patel said.

In fact, Pretti was breaking no law by carrying his gun. It was his Second Amendment right to do it.

Noem’s repeated willingness to make false statements about American citizens, including false assertions about their constitutional rights, should alarm us all, especially people who support Trump.

Having the trust of the American people is essential for the DHS role, most especially because immigration enforcement is just one function of the sprawling department that Noem is in charge of.

Along with leading the Trump administration’s immigration efforts, she also oversees the response to domestic terror attacks and natural disasters. Noem is even responsible for the office of Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction.

The secretary has one of the most critical jobs in the administration. If she can’t tell the truth about Americans, to Americans, and protect their constitutional rights while she does it, she should not have the job at all.