Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem is seeking to dismiss employees who don’t “like” the agency.
During a public session on Wednesday at the DHS headquarters, Noem announced that she was relying on her advisers for guidance on how to dismiss employees who “don’t like us," per a report from Bloomberg.
According to the secretary, many within the department “don’t support what we are doing."
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Noem described the DHS workforce under previous leadership as a group that “hasn’t been required to do much,” attributing the department’s underperformance to former Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whom she accused of instructing staff “not to do a lot.”
Her remarks come amid a broader initiative by the Trump administration to overhaul the DHS and address what supporters describe as bureaucratic inertia.
Noem said the Trump administration's policies are making a difference at the DHS. “Things are turning around. It shows that if people are allowed to do their jobs, they take an oath and they’re wanting to be involved in what we’re doing here,” she said.
She also encouraged the Homeland Security Advisory Council to advise her on inventive ways to exercise department powers that “have never been utilized before,” though she did not offer details, per the report.
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Reacting to the news, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, wrote on the social platform X: "Expertise? Ethics? Experience? Who needs any that when the only qualification necessary for working in the government is loyalty to Trump?"
"Kristi Noem has come out as full Gestapo," wrote another X user.
"Nothing says national security like firing by vibes," said an X account.