Kristi Noem’s ouster isn’t moving Democrats off their Homeland Security funding demands

“The rot is deep” inside the agency, said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) departs the U.S. Capitol, on March 5, 2026. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

Kristi Noem, the face of the administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement agenda, has been ousted as secretary of Homeland Security — but it’s not changing the calculus for Democrats when it comes to the agency shutdown.

The news that President Donald Trump was firing Noem and nominating Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) in her place broke as senators filed into the chamber to vote on advancing legislation that would reopen DHS — the GOP’s latest bid to pressure Democrats into dropping their demands for more guardrails on Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol.

That procedural vote still failed, 51-45.

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