House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) directed some heated remarks at a Trump administration Cabinet official whose department has been dominating headlines in recent weeks.
“What is clear is that Kristi Noem is completely and totally unqualified. She should have never been confirmed by Senate Republicans,” Jeffries said of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary during a Monday press conference. “It’s disgraceful that she’s there. She should be run out of town as soon as possible.”
Criticism against Noem, DHS, and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has intensified on the left in the wake of a deadly ICE-involved shooting in Minneapolis last week.
An ICE agent shot and killed a US citizen, 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, who allegedly presented a threat to ICE agents as they attempted to conduct enforcement operations. Partisan fissures have since erupted over which side was acting improperly when the deadly incident occurred.
“Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, they’re totally out of control. And the American people want these extremists to be reined in,” Jeffries said on Monday.
He said Good “should be alive today” and accused both Noem and the ICE agent who shot Good of a “depraved indifference toward human life.”
A DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital in response, “How silly during a serious time. As ICE officers are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them, Rep. Jeffries is more focused on showmanship and sewing division than cleaning up his crime-ridden New York district.”
“Rep Jeffries has the power to make change as the Minority leader and we hope he would get serious about doing his job to protect American people, which is what this Department is doing under Secretary Noem. We won’t hold our breath,” they said.
Video of last week’s incident appears to show Good’s car making contact with the ICE agent who shot her before he opened fire. Arguments have since raged over whether she was deliberately getting in the way or even weaponizing her car, or whether she was trying to drive away.
Federal officials like Noem have defended the agent as acting in self-defense while accusing Good of trying to actively impede ICE activity in the Democrat-controlled city.
Democrats, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have accused ICE and Republican officials of stoking fear and tension in the city while demanding the federal government cease current operations there immediately.
Now Democrats in Congress have been threatening to withhold support from funding DHS unless significant reforms are made — a threat Jeffries alluded to during his press conference.
“What’s in front of us right now is a spending bill that will go either one of two ways. Either Republicans will continue their my-way-or-the-highway approach as it relates to the Homeland Security bill — and if that happens, then it’s going to be on them to figure out a path forward,” Jeffries began.
“Alternatively, particularly in the face of the tragedy…there’s some commonsense measures that need to be put in place so that ICE can conduct itself in a manner that is at least consistent with every other law enforcement agency in the United States of America, at the state, local and federal level.”
The deadline to finish federal funding and avert a partial government shutdown is at the end of day on Jan. 30.
Fox News Digital reached out to DHS for a response.
