Philly lawmaker makes the case for impeaching DHS Secretary Kristi Noem

Democrats are becoming more vocal about their support for impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem following the deaths of two citizens in Minneapolis at the hands of ICE.

One Philadelphia area lawmaker is making the case for impeaching US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem after federal agents shot and killed two Minneapolis residents during immigration raids over the past month. 

“ I am hereby calling upon President Trump to fire Kristi Noem if she doesn’t have the dignity and good sense to resign,” US House Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Philadelphia) said during a press conference on Thursday.

“All of this has happened under her watch. She must resign or be fired. If neither of those things happen, then Congress should take forward steps to impeach her and convict her in the Senate so we can remove her from office. The removal of Noem will not automatically solve the entire problem, but it’ll be a good start.”

Movement toward impeaching Noem among US House Democrats shifted dramatically after federal officials shot and killed Alex Pretti, an ICE nurse at the Minneapolis VA, last weekend.

US House Rep. Summer Lee (D-Allegheny) was the first Pennsylvania Democrat in Congress to sign onto US House Rep. Robin Kelly’s (D-Illinois) articles of impeachment against Noem when they were introduced earlier this month, and since then, all seven Democratic House members from the commonwealth have signed onto Noem’s impeachment. 

Nationally, over 150 congressional Democrats have signed onto the impeachment resolution, and since it is a privileged resolution, they will be able to force a vote without the support of US House leadership. 

“ We have now, three different times in the last several months, been able to force votes because we have had a few Republicans join with us,” Boyle said. “We saw that on the Epstein files and we’ve seen it on a few other matters as well. There are enough Republicans who have now spoken out about Noem and what has happened in Minnesota this past weekend.”

Democrats are looking to impeach Noem because DHS has blocked members of Congress from visiting detainment facilities, withheld Congressionally-approved disaster relief funding, denied Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees due process, and awarded over $200 million in contracts to a firm controlled by her top spokesperson’s husband. 

Boyle, who signed onto the impeachment articles prior to Pretti’s death last Saturday, feared that another shooting during an immigration protest was possible, motivating him to support Noem’s ouster. 

 ”What we have seen on the streets of Minneapolis cannot continue to happen. We are being ripped apart as a country. These tactics that we are seeing on the streets of Minneapolis must not be replicated either here in Philadelphia or anywhere else through our country,” Boyle said.

He added, “ I feared that what we saw this weekend was distinctly possible and was saddened obviously to be proven correct. I’m very worried that such a thing could happen again without either reforms within DHS or a different policy coming from the secretary all the way down.”