Kristi Noem

Secretary of Homeland Security - Defendant in four parallel TPS litigations across multiple circuits; lower courts have found her actions exceeded statutory authority and potentially reflected racial animus; Supreme Court has granted stays allowing terminations to proceed in all cases

Venezuela first received Temporary Protected Status in 2021, shielding hundreds of thousands of its nationals from deportation. In January 2025, newly appointed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem moved to terminate that protection within days of taking office—an action that two federal courts have now ruled exceeded her statutory authority. On February 3, 2026, a federal judge in Washington, D.C. issued a parallel ruling blocking Noem's termination of Haitian TPS using nearly identical legal reasoning, finding 'substantial' likelihood the decision was motivated by 'hostility to nonwhite immigrants.' The pattern has since expanded: in December 2025, another federal judge blocked terminations for Honduras, Nepal, and Nicaragua on similar grounds, and in November 2025, a New York judge halted the Syria termination. Yet despite these rulings, the Supreme Court has repeatedly stayed lower court orders, allowing terminations to proceed while litigation continues.

Updated 2 days ago

Secretary of Homeland Security - Leading federal response, announced emergency suspensions, facing calls for resignation

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) partial shutdown that began at 12:01 a.m. on February 14, 2026, has entered its second week after Congress recessed without passing funding legislation. The standoff stems from Democratic demands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) restrictions following fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis last month. Most of DHS's 272,000 employees—including 61,000 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners—continue working without pay, with new emergency measures suspending trusted traveler programs amid rising staffing strains.

Updated 6 days ago

Secretary of Homeland Security - Facing calls for resignation or impeachment

From December 4, 2025, to February 12, 2026, Minneapolis became the testing ground for the largest federal immigration enforcement operation in American history. Operation Metro Surge deployed 2,000 agents to the Twin Cities, resulting in over 4,000 arrests—and the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal officers. On February 12, White House border czar Tom Homan announced the operation's conclusion, declaring Minnesota 'now less of a sanctuary state.'

Updated Feb 12

Secretary of Homeland Security - Facing impeachment supported by 162+ House Democrats; moderate Senator Rosen joined impeachment call; Trump says she's doing 'very good job'

States continue challenging federal immigration enforcement on multiple fronts as the legal battle expands beyond state governments to schools and civil rights organizations. U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez denied Minnesota's request for a temporary restraining order against Operation Metro Surge on February 2, 2026, citing insufficient proof of constitutional violations despite acknowledging evidence of racial profiling and excessive force. On February 4, a coalition of Minnesota school districts and educators filed a separate federal lawsuit seeking to block ICE enforcement within 1,000 feet of schools, citing traumatized students, lockdowns, and a 22% spike in daily absences following the January 7 killing of Renee Good. The crisis has escalated with two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens—Renee Good on January 7 and Alex Pretti on January 24—prompting the DOJ Civil Rights Division to open a formal investigation into Pretti's death on January 30, now led by the FBI.

Updated Feb 11

Secretary of Homeland Security - Facing calls to resign; scheduled to testify before Senate in March

A brief three-day partial government shutdown ended February 3 when the House passed the Senate's split funding package 217-214 and President Trump signed it into law, providing full-year appropriations for five agencies through September while extending Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding via a two-week continuing resolution through February 13. The shutdown stemmed from Senate Democrats blocking a $1.2 trillion spending package on January 29 after two fatal shootings by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis within three weeks, prompting President Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to negotiate the funding split.

Updated Feb 5

Secretary of Homeland Security - Facing impeachment efforts after Minneapolis shooting

An ICE agent shot Renee Nicole Good through her car window on a Minneapolis street January 7, killing the 37-year-old mother instantly. Federal officials claimed self-defense, saying Good weaponized her Honda Pilot to ram agents. But video shows something different: a woman slowly backing up and pulling forward, trying to leave, before an officer fires three shots into her head. "Having seen the video myself, that is bullshit," said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. The shooter: Jonathan Ross, a 43-year-old deportation officer who was dragged fifty yards by a vehicle he tried to forcibly enter just six months earlier. Seventeen days later, on January 24, Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and legal gun owner. Video shows Pretti filming agents with his phone, getting pepper-sprayed, wrestled to the ground by six agents, then shot at least ten times. DHS claimed he was armed and violent. Video evidence again contradicts the official account. At least six federal prosecutors resigned in protest over how investigations were being handled—pressure to investigate victims' families rather than the shooters. On January 24, FBI agent Tracee Mergen, supervisor of the Public Corruption Squad in Minneapolis, resigned over pressure to "reclassify/discontinue the investigation" into Good's killing and focus instead on her widow Becca. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara noted that two of the city's three homicides in 2026 were committed by federal agents.

Updated Feb 5

Secretary of Homeland Security - Leading visa and enrollment restrictions against Harvard

Harvard has received billions in federal research funding for decades without major controversy. Now President Trump is demanding the university pay $1 billion to the government—five times what he sought months earlier—after a year of escalating threats, frozen grants, and failed negotiations. The university has refused to capitulate, and a federal judge has ruled the funding freeze unconstitutional.

Updated Feb 4

Secretary of Homeland Security - Lead defendant in multiple lawsuits; facing impeachment articles from Minnesota lawmakers; White House distancing from her inflammatory statements about Pretti

The Department of Homeland Security deployed 3,000 federal agents to Minneapolis in what it calls the largest immigration enforcement operation in U.S. history. Two months in, two U.S. citizens are dead—Renee Good, 37, shot January 7, and Alexander Pretti, 37, an ICU nurse shot January 24—both killed after DHS claims of self-defense that witness videos contradict. Within 72 hours of Pretti's death, President Trump removed Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino and dispatched Border Czar Tom Homan to take direct control. Homan arrived January 27, met with Governor Walz and Mayor Frey, and announced January 29 that federal withdrawal depends on state cooperation—specifically access to undocumented immigrants in jails and prisons. Bovino departed Minnesota January 28. On January 30, activists executed a 'National Shutdown'—a nationwide day of no work, no school, no shopping—protesting the operation, with hundreds of Minnesota businesses closing and student walkouts across all 50 states. That same day, Attorney General Keith Ellison publicly denied Homan's claims that they had reached any agreement on jail access, calling Homan's statements misleading. Hours later, the Justice Department announced a federal civil rights investigation into Pretti's death, though Trump undercut the gesture by calling Pretti an 'agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist' in a 1:26 a.m. social media post after video emerged of an earlier confrontation with agents.

Updated Jan 31

Secretary of Homeland Security - Facing impeachment articles with 142 House Democratic co-sponsors and ultimatum from Jeffries

Three Minnesota congresswomen walked into a Minneapolis ICE detention center on January 10, were allowed entry, then were ordered out minutes later. They'd come to inspect conditions after an ICE agent shot 37-year-old U.S. citizen Renee Good in the head three days earlier during what the Trump administration called the largest immigration enforcement operation ever. DHS cited a seven-day notice rule that a federal judge had already blocked as illegal—a policy DHS Secretary Kristi Noem secretly signed the day after Good's killing. When Democrats sought emergency court intervention, Judge Jia Cobb refused to block the policy on January 20, ruling on procedural grounds while explicitly declining to find the policy lawful.

Updated Jan 30

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security - Named co-defendant in AAUP v. Rubio; accused by federal judge of conspiring to violate First Amendment

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 gave the Secretary of State power to deport noncitizens whose presence threatens U.S. foreign policy. For seven decades, that authority gathered dust. Then, on March 8, 2025, ICE agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil—a Columbia graduate student and green card holder—from his university apartment, invoking the Cold War-era statute to target him for his role negotiating on behalf of pro-Palestinian protesters.

Updated Jan 30

Secretary of Homeland Security - Serving since January 25, 2025

The U.S. has barred immigrants based on economic status since 1882. On January 21, 2026, the State Department suspended immigrant visa processing for 75 countries—more than a third of the world's nations—citing concerns that applicants might someday use public benefits. The pause affects green card applicants from Afghanistan to Uruguay, including spouses and children of U.S. citizens, with no announced end date. The suspension came one month after the administration paused the Diversity Visa lottery entirely following a campus shooting, leaving over 125,000 DV-2026 winners in limbo.

Updated Jan 23

Homeland Security Secretary - Defending agent, blocking state investigation

ICE agent Jonathan Ross fired three shots in 700 milliseconds, killing 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in her car on a Minneapolis street. Good was a U.S. citizen, a mother of three, standing with her wife to support neighbors during Trump's self-proclaimed "largest immigration operation ever"—2,000 federal agents deployed to Minnesota. Federal officials claim she tried to run over Ross. Minneapolis officials who reviewed video footage called that story "bullshit." Within a week, the Trump administration announced deployment of 1,000 additional federal officers to Minnesota, prompting the state and its two largest cities to file federal lawsuits challenging the enforcement surge.

Updated Jan 13

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security - Leading on-the-ground fraud investigation in Minneapolis

On January 5, 2026, Governor Tim Walz became the highest-profile political casualty of Minnesota's welfare fraud crisis, announcing he would drop his bid for a third term. The stunning reversal came just two days before a contentious January 7 House Oversight Committee hearing where Republican state lawmakers testified that Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison ignored rampant fraud and silenced whistleblowers. Within 24 hours of that hearing, the Trump administration dramatically escalated its response: on January 6, HHS froze $10 billion in child care and family assistance funding to five Democratic states—California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York—citing fraud concerns but providing no evidence of wrongdoing outside Minnesota. A coalition of the five states sued immediately, and on January 9, U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian granted a temporary restraining order blocking the freeze for 14 days. Hours later, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced USDA would suspend an additional $129 million in federal awards to Minnesota, prompting Ellison to vow 'I'll see you in court.'

Updated Jan 10

Secretary of Homeland Security - Leading Trump's immigration crackdown as 8th DHS Secretary

A Trump-era rule takes effect December 31, 2025, allowing immigration officials to deny asylum to anyone deemed a security threat because of communicable diseases during public health emergencies. Originally published in December 2020 and scheduled to go live three weeks later, the rule was delayed five times by Biden's DHS but never killed. Now it becomes law under Trump's second term, despite no active pandemic.

Updated Dec 31, 2025

Secretary of Homeland Security - Overseeing enforcement operations including 168,000+ arrests in 2025

Trump signed his first travel ban seven days into his presidency, blocking entry from seven Muslim-majority countries and igniting protests at airports nationwide. Courts blocked it within a week. Eight years later, after Supreme Court victories, a Biden reversal, and a return to power, Trump's December 2025 expansion restricts entry from 39 countries—affecting one in eight people worldwide and eliminating exemptions that previously protected immediate family members of U.S. citizens.

Updated Dec 28, 2025

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security - Public face of tanker actions; posted boarding footage and warned shippers

The U.S. Coast Guard is now chasing a third Venezuela-linked tanker in international waters near Venezuela—under a judicial seizure order. Two other tankers have already been stopped in the past 11 days, including one dramatic helicopter boarding that the administration amplified on social media.

Updated Dec 21, 2025

Secretary of Homeland Security - Overseeing categorical parole rollbacks under Trump’s second term

DHS just turned a promised “legal pathway” into a ticking clock. A Federal Register notice published December 15, 2025 terminates every Family Reunification Parole program tied to seven countries—and tells people already here that their parole will end on January 14, 2026.

Updated Dec 15, 2025

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security - Named defendant; DHS charged with implementing the policy

The Trump administration didn’t just tighten H‑1B visas. It put a $100,000 toll booth on “new” petitions—and dared employers to pay up. Now twenty states are trying to blow up that toll booth in federal court, calling it an illegal end-run around Congress.

Updated Dec 13, 2025

Secretary of Homeland Security - Defending Trump’s aggressive immigration raids amid mounting court challenges

Federal agents flooded the Chicago area under “Operation Midway Blitz,” arresting thousands in a sweeping immigration crackdown. A little-known consent decree from an earlier ICE raid suddenly roared back to life, and a Chicago judge ordered hundreds of detainees released — until a divided appeals court slammed on the brakes.

Updated Dec 12, 2025

Secretary of Homeland Security - Defending harsh immigration tactics and military-heavy enforcement

Donald Trump has quietly turned long stretches of the southern border into de facto military bases. Under a new system of National Defense Areas, soldiers can stop migrants, hold them, and help prosecutors charge them as trespassers on military land.

Updated Dec 11, 2025

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security - Backing Gold Card as a security‑vetted fast track while running Trump’s deportation machine.

Donald Trump is now literally selling a fast track to America. His new Trump Gold Card program lets wealthy foreigners buy expedited U.S. residency for a $1 million “gift” to the government, on top of a $15,000 processing fee, with a corporate option costing $2 million per sponsored worker.

Updated Dec 11, 2025