How Kristi Noem transformed immigration enforcement

After both Renée Good and Alex Pretti were shot and killed by Department of Homeland Security officers in Minneapolis this month, the story from the agency’s secretary, Kristi L. Noem, was that these individuals’ intentions represented acts of domestic terrorism. Confirmed as DHS secretary a year ago under President Trump, Noem has been one of the most visible defenders of Trump’s immigration agenda, executing a sprawling deportation campaign and backing the increasingly aggressive tactics of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Customs and Border Patrol agents, which fall under her purview. Over several months, ICE and CBP officers have been fanning out across Democratic-run cities — entering neighborhoods and homes to make arrests, aggressively spraying protesters with tear gas, and even detaining U.S. citizens. Federal officers have been involved in 16 shootings since July and have killed three people, including two U.S. citizens. Yet this sweeping immigration agenda and the consequent actions by federal officers were not part of the original mission of DHS. Today, immigration reporter Marianne Levine discusses how former South Dakota governor Kristi Noem has transformed DHS and what that could mean for its future. Today’s show was produced by Sabby Robinson with help from Rennie Svirnovskiy. It was edited by Dennis Funk and mixed by Sam Bair.

You can listen to How Kristi Noem transformed immigration enforcement online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

How Kristi Noem transformed immigration enforcement is an episode from Post Reports by The Washington Post.

This episode is 24:42 long.

This episode was published on Jan 27, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Post Reports when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.