Newly installed Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin isn’t just inviting his predecessor Kristi Noem’s critics back into the fold—he’s also pushing her allies out the door as part of his effort to rehabilitate his embattled department’s image.
President Donald Trump fired Noem, 54, in March following public outcry over her department’s violent immigration raids, which resulted in the killings of American citizens Nicole Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and concerns about financial mismanagement.
She was quickly replaced by Mullin, 48, a former senator from Oklahoma who has been tasked with lowering the department’s profile and avoiding any scandals between now and the November midterms, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Mullin has since reversed a number of Noem’s policies and has begun purging department leaders who were close to her, sources told the Journal.
He removed the chief of staff at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the deputy director of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and a Border Patrol chief who was closely aligned with Noem and her de facto chief of staff, Corey Lewandowski.
Noem’s acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Karen Evans, was also quietly removed after less than six months on the job, Politico reported this week.
She was the third person to hold the job since May 2025, when Trump’s first pick to lead FEMA, Cameron Hamilton, was fired and polygraphed by Noem and Lewandowski.
This week, Trump nominated Hamilton to return to his previous role, and the former Navy SEAL has already begun advising Mullin, sources told the Journal.
In the meantime, Mullin has also brought back employees put on administrative leave by Noem and Lewandowski, and has rehired dozens of employees whose contracts were abruptly canceled.
Those include at least 15 of the 192 current and former staffers who signed last year’s “Katrina Declaration” letter to Congress.
A day after warning that the Trump administration was undoing emergency response systems put in place after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the signatories were put on indefinite leave.
A DHS spokesperson told the Journal that personnel changes are “part of any transition.” The Daily Beast has also reached out for comment.
As part of his departmental overhaul, Mullin has also lifted a Noem-era policy that the secretary must sign off on all purchases of $100,000 or more, and has also encouraged staff to cooperate with the agency’s inspector general, which has launched several probes into department activity under Noem.
MAGA Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina has also demanded a congressional investigation into Lewandowski, a part-time special government employee who was accused of wielding outsized power within the department—and of having an affair with Noem.
Both Noem and Lewandowski, who are married to other people, have denied being romantically involved.
After Noem was fired, her husband Bryon was revealed to have paid sex workers tens of thousands of dollars to indulge his crossdressing “bimbo” fetish.
