WASHINGTON – Democrats in the House of Representatives are escalating their push to impeach Kristi Noem, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, over the agency’s deadly crackdown in Minnesota.
Since Democrats don’t control the House, they can’t control impeachment proceedings, but House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday they would begin to lay the groundwork for impeaching Noem if President Donald Trump doesn’t fire her.
“We have to build the case so that we can convince a handful of Republicans, as we have done on other issues, that the time is now to hold the Department of Homeland Security accountable for their behavior,” Jeffries said on MS NOW.
Under Noem’s leadership, immigration enforcement agents swarmed Minneapolis this month, provoking angry protests and killing two American citizens in separate incidents captured on camera from multiple angles.
Even before a Border Patrol agent killed Alex Pretti on Saturday, a Democratic impeachment resolution against Noem had more than 100 cosponsors. Noem falsely claimed that Pretti brandished a weapon at federal agents and “attacked” them. Videos showed Pretti holding up his phone camera before agents tackled him to the ground and shot him repeatedly.
Several Republicans have openly questioned the Trump administration’s heavy-handed tactics in Minnesota, but none have said they’d support impeaching Noem. Still, Democrats’ comments on Tuesday suggest they sense Noem is in trouble.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, which is the most common venue for impeachment proceedings, said Tuesday that if committee chair Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) didn’t support an impeachment inquiry, then Raskin would work across committees with other top Democrats to develop the case against Noem.
A spokesperson for Jordan declined to comment.
The comments from Jeffries and Raskin, who are not cosponsors of the existing impeachment resolution, indicate they favored a thorough investigation rather than a snap impeachment vote against Noem, which any member of the House can trigger.
“We must build on this resolution, through fact-finding, public hearings, and committee reports detailing all of Secretary Noem’s potential high crimes and misdemeanors and take our case to the American people,” Raskin said. “This process — which the House has followed in every successful impeachment — will afford us the best opportunity to build the most fitting and powerful case for impeachment and removal for office. “
In February 2024, the House adopted an impeachment resolution against then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for having supposedly allowed millions of illegal immigrants into the country through his own unlawful conduct. The Senate later dispensed with the resolution, which would likely be the outcome if the House impeached Noem. It takes 67 votes for the Senate to convict and remove from office someone who’s been impeached by the House.
President Trump said Tuesday he has no plans to get rid of Noem, but the administration has nevertheless shifted its approach in Minnesota by relieving a prominent Border Patrol commander from duty there and sending in Tom Homan, the White House border czar. The administration has flooded Minnesota with federal agents supposedly in response to welfare fraud by people of Somali descent.
