Donald Trump’s second presidential administration has stormed into Washington like a Category 5 hurricane, dismantling the bureaucratic rot left by Joe Biden and previous presidents at an astonishing pace.
Among the high-profile disruptors in Trump’s Cabinet, few have made a more dramatic impact than Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
The damage inflicted on America’s borders and law enforcement agencies during the Biden years is severe, and fixing it will not be easy.
Since taking office on January 25, Noem has been everywhere. She has joined Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on arrest operations in New York, inspected DHS security measures in New Orleans ahead of the Super Bowl, and accompanied Border Patrol agents in Texas — both by helicopter and on horseback.
Kristi Noem’s border visits are more than just photo ops — they mark a long-overdue corrective to the disastrous tenure of her predecessor, Alejandro Mayorkas.
Under Mayorkas’ “leadership,” more than 10 million illegal aliens entered the United States. When the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that DHS could not mass parole illegal aliens into the country, he expanded the practice anyway. Since fiscal year 2021, authorities have caught 362 individuals on the terrorist watchlist illegally crossing the Southwest border. That figure is just one piece of the overwhelming evidence showing how Mayorkas and Biden enabled an unprecedented border crisis.
The consequences of Mayorkas’ mismanagement have been severe, but his gaslighting only deepened the public’s frustration. Throughout the Biden administration, Americans watched him testify before Congress and speak to friendly corporate media outlets, repeatedly insisting that the southern border was secure — despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Instead of enforcing immigration laws, Mayorkas actively encouraged illegal crossings. His DHS even introduced the CBP One phone app, which Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and others described as a “concierge service for illegal immigrants.”
Mayorkas’ tenure also devastated the agencies under his command. With Border Patrol effectively transformed from a law enforcement agency into a welcoming committee for illegal aliens, more than 4,000 agents left the department since October 2020. Retirement rates more than doubled compared to the previous two administrations. Morale plummeted not just within the Border Patrol but also at ICE and other agencies under DHS.
Against this backdrop, Noem’s ride with the Del Rio horse patrol unit in Texas carried particular significance. In 2021, five members of the unit saw their reputations destroyed when the government’s highest officials and the media falsely accused them of wrongdoing over a misinterpreted photograph.
During a chaotic scene involving Haitian migrants, mounted agents were photographed with their horses’ reins flying through the air. Anti-border activists assumed the worst, immediately accusing the agents of whipping migrants.
Mayorkas, who initially defended the agents, quickly reversed course, declaring himself “horrified” by the images and vowing swift punishment. Biden, ignoring due process and the presumption of innocence, proclaimed, “It’s outrageous. I promise you those people will pay.”
The accusation against the Del Rio horse patrol had one major flaw: The photographer who captured the image stated that no whipping had occurred. Furthermore, Border Patrol does not issue whips to mounted agents.
Rather than admit their mistake, Mayorkas and Biden allowed the accused agents to endure months of public scorn, their reputations unjustly tarnished. A nearly 10-month inquiry confirmed that the agents had not whipped migrants, yet they still faced internal disciplinary action.
In a quiet acknowledgment of the injustice, DHS last year discreetly awarded a service medal to one of the mounted agents — a meager attempt at redemption but far from the public apology the patrol deserved. It remains one of the most shameful episodes in the department’s history.
During her Texas visit, Noem rode horseback with some of the falsely accused agents, signaling a commitment to repairing the relationship between DHS leadership and frontline personnel.
“The last leadership team at DHS, and Mayorkas, he rode over them,” Noem told Fox News’ Lawrence Jones. “I think it’s important today that they know I ride with them.”
The damage inflicted on America’s borders and law enforcement agencies during the Biden years is severe, and fixing it will not be easy. But Noem’s energy, leadership, and management style suggest she is up to the task.
President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on Wednesday that the administration had terminated a Temporary Protected Status extension for Venezuelan nationals.
TPS shields foreign nationals from deportation based on temporary conditions — such as armed conflicts and natural disasters — in their country of origin. Under TPS, eligible foreign nationals cannot be deported and can obtain employment and travel authorization.
'Before he left town, Mayorkas signed an order that said for 18 months they were going to extend this protection to people.'
Former President Joe Biden’s administration provided TPS to migrants from a number of nations, including Venezuela, Afghanistan, Haiti, and Honduras.
With just 10 days left in Biden’s presidency, former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced an 18-month extension to TPS for Ukraine, Sudan, El Salvador, and Venezuela.
The last-minute extension would have granted Venezuelan nationals deportation protections until October 2026.
Mayorkas contended that the extension was necessary due to “conditions in Venezuela,” stating that the country has experienced food insecurity, a lack of access to basic services, a health crisis, political repression, and criminal activity.
However, on Tuesday, Noem vacated Mayorkas’ notice for Venezuela. The existing extensions are slated to expire in April and September.
Noem stated that the DHS is required to decide at regular intervals whether to extend protections. She argued that Mayorkas’ last-minute extension was announced too early “given the exceedingly brief period” since the initial issue date.
The New York Times reported that Noem’s decision could impact more than 600,000 Venezuelan nationals currently residing in the U.S.
A DHS official told the Times that Mayorkas’ extension appeared to be an effort to tie the Trump administration’s hands.
Noem must decide by Saturday whether she would like to issue her own TPS extension. If she does not decide by then, TPS for Venezuelans will be extended for another six months.
Noem told Fox News, “Before he left town, Mayorkas signed an order that said for 18 months they were going to extend this protection to people that are on temporary protected status, which meant that they were going to be able to stay here and violate our laws for another 18 months.”
“We stopped that,” she declared.
The influx of Venezuelan nationals arriving in the U.S. has brought with it the violent transnational gang Tren de Aragua. The notorious group has been linked to crimes across the nation, including apartment takeovers in Colorado. The Trump administration has pledged to prioritize removing these dangerous offenders from the streets.
Noem joined Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on their first raids in New York City, where officers captured a TDA gang leader who was captured on surveillance video storming through an Aurora, Colorado, apartment complex in August with other armed men.
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The anti-American leftists in this country have lost their minds. Joe Biden is selling off the bollard fencing material that has been sitting in storage locations along the border since he halted border fence construction nearly four years ago. Did I mention that he is selling it at a tiny fraction of its cost and its value?
Perhaps Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas truly hate America so much that they want to inflict as much pain as possible before they leave office. I’m hoping that there is justice for people who have wreaked havoc on America and have done so purposefully.
The left is content with the nearly seven million illegal aliens paroled into America under Joe Biden.
The San Diego County, California’s board of supervisors wasn’t satisfied living in the most dangerous sanctuary state in the country. They decided that they wanted to be a “super sanctuary city.” The board is thrilled that murderers, rapists, and other mayhem makers will be released into the San Diego area.
Supervisor Jim Desmond, the only sane member of the board, explained what San Diego residents can expect. “Under this policy, law enforcement is prohibited from notifying ICE about individuals in custody, who have committed violent and heinous crimes, including rape and stalking, assault and battery, burglary, child abuse, and more,” he said.
Reports are clear that the Biden regime released thousands of crime-committing illegal aliens during Biden’s four-year tenure. That apparently is not enough in San Diego.
All this while, cartel activity south of the border is on the rise. As Ben Bergquam reports, stores are proliferating along the border, financed by Mexican cartels, that cater specifically to illegal aliens. The rush to get here before January 20, 2025, the day of President Trump’s inauguration, is on.
My border sources also tell me that because the deadline is looming just about a month away, prices charged by the cartels that control our southern border are soaring. Not too many weeks back, I met several illegal aliens crossing the border. They each told me that the fee to the cartel for their illegal border crossing was $5,000. I am now hearing the price is $10,000 per person.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs has vowed to block President Trump’s proposed mass deportations. She has forgotten that Trump won Arizona convincingly by campaigning on his border security proposal. (By the way, so did almost every Republican in the state.) But Hobbs is joined by the radical mayor of Tucson in vowing to take in and shelter untold hordes of illegal aliens from deportation.
They, like Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and other radical Democrats, are out of step with history. These leftists are unhinged.
The left is content with the nearly seven million illegal aliens paroled into America under Joe Biden. The gathering of peoples from all over the world has undermined our culture, our economy, and even our political system. Nations throughout the world recognize these obvious results from mass migration.
The reality is most Americans want our border security problem solved, and concomitantly, the elite authoritarians on the left, suffering from Trump derangement syndrome, want a continuation of the disastrous Biden-era policies. In short, people on the left have lost their minds. We need to make America sane again.
The Supreme Court issued an order on Monday agreeing that the Trump administration had the constitutional authority to remove the Biden-era temporary protections for hundreds of thousands of migrants who were allowed to remain in the country under the previous administration. The court placed a hold on a lower court order that blocked Department of Homeland Security […]
Whenever Democrats wonder to themselves why their party is so unpopular with voters, they should immediately read the hysterical piece written this week by chief Washington Post nag Monica Hesse. Hesse, the Post’s “gender” columnist, wrote Thursday on Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s recent visit to the “CECOT” confinement center in El Salvador. The whole […]
'This has got to be the darkest chapter, I think, in DHS’s short history,' Sen. Josh Hawley said.
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