Kristi Noem looks to purge DHS staff that 'don't support' deportation policy

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is looking to purge DHS staff that don’t support President Donald Trump’s deportation policies.

Speaking Wednesday at the first meeting of the Homeland Security Advisory Council under the Trump administration, Noem openly discussed with DHS leadership on what avenues were available for firing staff she considered undesirable.

Noem said she spends a lot of time in her role heading the agency “surrounded by bureaucrats,” Bloomberg reported, and openly asked “how to fire people who don’t like us,” and how to purge those who “don’t support what we’re doing.” She also suggested her agency was overstaffed as much of the workforce hadn’t “been required to do much” under the previous administration.

Noem did, however, say at the meeting that things among the workforce were improving.

“Things are turning around,” Noem said. “It shows that if people are allowed to do their jobs, they take an oath and they’re wanting to be involved in what we’re doing here.”

In the past, Noem has made no secret about her efforts to reorganize the agency, expressing support back in March for eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, which operates under DHS. She would later walk back those claims, however, characterizing her comments instead as a desire to ‘reorientate’ FEMA, while still calling the agency dysfunctional.

A key Trump ally, Noem leads DHS with a number of other Trump loyalists on the Homeland Security Advisory Council, including South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and others.