The Trump administration has booted Gregory Bovino as head of the immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota, but Democrats are aiming higher: They want Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem toppled.
Democrats on Capitol Hill are rallying to impeach Ms. Noem but say they prefer she go on her own or be fired by President Trump. Some activists have demanded that Democrats refuse to approve new funding for the Homeland Security Department until Ms. Noem leaves.
Inside the department, some names were circulating as potential replacements. One source said former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and former Rep. Jason Chaffetz were mentioned.
House Democratic leaders said Ms. Noem will face impeachment proceedings unless Mr. Trump fires her.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” said Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his top lieutenants.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer called Ms. Noem “a liar,” “vicious” and “incompetent.”
“Donald Trump must fire her at once before another American is killed under her watch,” he said.
Mr. Trump told reporters Tuesday that Ms. Noem wasn’t going to step down.
“No,” he said flatly in response to a reporter’s question.
He went on to defend her performance in securing the border, which he said has been overlooked.
“I think she’s doing a very good job,” the president said.
Sen. John Fetterman, Pennsylvania Democrat and an important bellwether for his party’s more moderate wing, appealed directly to Mr. Trump on social media to fire the secretary.
“She is betraying DHS’s core mission and trashing your border security legacy,” Mr. Fetterman said. “DO NOT make the mistake President Biden made by not firing a grossly incompetent DHS Secretary.”
That was a reference to Alejandro Mayorkas. Mr. Biden stuck with his homeland security secretary, even as he oversaw the worst border chaos in modern American history.
Mr. Mayorkas was impeached by the Republican-led House, becoming the first sitting Cabinet secretary in history to face that ignominy. The Senate, then under Democratic control, dismissed the case without a trial.
Democrats remain in the House minority but now have momentum. Three-quarters of Democrats have signed on to articles of impeachment sponsored by Rep. Robin Kelly, Illinois Democrat.
“Kristi Noem has blood on her hands,” Ms. Kelly said Tuesday.
Angst among Republicans has also been growing, with calls for a rethink at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That could make an impeachment vote tricky for Republicans with an eye on the November elections and worried about the growing incidents of violence between protesters and Homeland Security Department personnel in U.S. cities.
That includes three shootings and two dead U.S. citizens this month in Minneapolis alone.
The first, Renee Good, was fatally shot after partially blocking a street and ignoring ICE officers’ commands to get out of her SUV and then lurching the vehicle forward toward an officer who was videoing her with his phone. That officer drew his gun and opened fire as he was struck by the SUV.
Then, on Saturday, a Border Patrol agent assigned to conduct domestic enforcement in Minnesota fatally shot Alex Pretti. The circumstances of that shooting have been heatedly debated.
Although blame is still being assigned, one early casualty is Chief Bovino, a senior Border Patrol official who had been acting as commander-at-large and led the enforcement surges in Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans and Minneapolis.
He was pulled out of Minnesota, and the Homeland Security Department was to begin removing some of its agents and officers on the ground.
Mr. Trump, in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, called Chief Bovino a “pretty ‘out-there’ kind of guy.”
“In some cases, that’s good. Maybe it wasn’t good here,” he said.
He rejected the characterization that he was retreating in Minnesota.
“I don’t think it’s a pullback — it’s a little bit of a change,” he said.
A government attorney told a court Monday that 3,000 additional Homeland Security Department personnel had been assigned to Minnesota, the largest enforcement surge in history.
“This doesn’t end with Greg Bovino,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said.
Mr. Walz credited the looming withdrawal of federal personnel to “massive organized nonviolent resistance” by his residents.
White House border czar Tom Homan, a former acting director at ICE, has been deployed to Minnesota to oversee the endgame.
Mr. Homan and Mr. Walz met Tuesday morning.
Dissatisfaction with the Department of Homeland Security also extends to judges.
Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz, who oversees the federal courts in Minnesota, issued a scathing order this week accusing ICE of failing to release immigrants whom judges had ordered be set free.
He said the cases are in the “dozens” and his “patience is at an end.”
In a ruling in the case of one migrant still in custody, he ordered acting ICE Director Todd Lyons to either orchestrate the release or appear personally at a hearing this week and explain the problem.
The latest Minnesota shooting has also imperiled the spending bill for the Homeland Security Department. It cleared the House last week, but Senate Democrats are using it as a bargaining chip.
The bill, which also includes funding for other departments and agencies, must pass by midnight Friday, or else a partial shutdown will commence.
Democrats have signaled that they will derail the bill until changes are made to limit ICE’s activities.
Outside groups, meanwhile, have tied Ms. Noem’s fate to that of the bill.
“Until Noem is gone, not another penny for ICE,” declared the left-leaning activists at Common Cause.
• Jeff Mordock contributed to this report.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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