U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at One World Trade Center in New York City, U.S., January 8, 2026. REUTERS/David 'Dee' Delgado
Outgoing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is embroiled in a scandal involving public contracts for the millions she spent on ads for recruitment videos for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It has now been revealed that the staffer whom Noem tapped to her former political director, Madison Sheahan, to handle funding.
NBC News reported on Thursday that the sum she managed was $100 million, but Washington Examiner reporter Anna Giaritelli noted on Friday that they "did some digging" and found that Sheahan oversaw the entire budget of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
"The random helper was Madison Sheahan, a 2019 Ohio State University graduate who worked as Noem's political director when she was South Dakota governor. Sheahan was roughly 23-25 years old at the time. Last year, at the approximate age of 28 (give or take a year) and with no immigration law experience, Sheahan was tapped by Kristi Noem to oversee ICE's $9 billion budget," wrote Giaritelli.
She was responding to a comment from the Daily Wire's Luke Rosiak, who discovered that Sheahan didn't handle just one $100 million contract. She ordered that a second contract be given to the same firms.
"The contracts scandal at DHS is extremely bad, possibly criminal," wrote Rosiak on X.
"Noem claimed that 'career officials' somehow picked three firms connected to her politically as the only ones who should be able to bid on the $200M ads, just like 'career officials' kept [Corey] Lewandowski's time to make sure he didn't work more than 130 days per year, which would violate [Special Government Employees] SGE rules," he added.
Sheahan is now running for Congress in Ohio.
There have been huge conflicts at the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General. The IG, appointed by President Donald Trump, wrote a letter saying that leaders under Noem "systematically obstructed" his inquiries, including a "specific pending criminal investigation."
"Does anybody have any idea how bad it has to be for the OIG in this agency to come out and do this publicly?" asked Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. “That is stonewalling, that’s a failure of leadership, and that is why I’ve called for your resignation."
With Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) taking over the department, the IG will have a new opportunity to investigate any allegedly questionable behavior under Noem's leadership.