Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s top ally is stepping down as second-in-command at Immigration and Customs Enforcement as the agency faces a series of scandals and dwindling public support.
Madison Sheahan, 28, the deputy director of ICE, announced Thursday that she’s ditching the agency to launch a congressional campaign in Ohio.
In a statement to the Daily Beast, Noem gushed that “Madison Sheahan is a work horse, strong executor, and terrific leader,” saying she will be “a great defender of freedom when she goes to Congress.”
However, one DHS insider told the Beast of Sheahan’s congressional hopes: “If she’s gonna shake a lot of hands, she needs to learn not to crush them.”
Sheahan was parachuted into the No. 2 job at ICE in March 2025 as Trump, 79, overhauled the agency’s leadership and demanded a vast surge in arrests and deportations. Before that, she ran the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and previously worked as a political aide to Noem in South Dakota.
Some ICE veterans were furious that a 28-year-old with limited law-enforcement experience was suddenly their boss, CBS reported.
In a farewell message to staff which she posted on X, Sheahan claimed she had “strengthened” ICE and “restored its purpose,” telling colleagues, “It has been the honor of my life to serve my country with all of you.”
She added: “I want to thank President Trump and Secretary Noem for their leadership and for their steadfast commitment to our agency.”
Her departure comes at a moment of maximum chaos for Noem and Trump. Minneapolis is still reeling after ICE agent Jonathan Ross, 43, shot and killed unarmed mom Renee Nicole Good, 37, as she attempted to drive away from a Jan. 7 immigration protest, and a second ICE-involved shooting on Wednesday left a Venezuelan man hospitalized with a leg wound.
Federal agents have since flooded the city, firing tear gas and pepper balls at demonstrators as protests spread nationwide over Good’s killing.
On Thursday morning, Trump went nuclear on Truth Social, threatening martial law if Minnesota leaders do not rein in what he called “professional agitators and insurrectionists.”
Outgoing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, 61, hit back, urging residents to film everything federal agents do.
“Armed, masked, undertrained ICE agents are going door-to-door, ordering people to point out where their neighbors of color live,” he said, calling the raids “a campaign of organized brutality against the people of Minnesota by our own federal government.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, 44, said he had “seen conduct from ICE that is disgusting and intolerable” and blamed Trump for the unrest.
At the White House, communications director Steven Cheung poured fuel on the fire. He posted a photo of Walz holding a shovel and raged on X: “Thugs assault a law enforcement officer with a shovel after a traffic stop in Minneapolis of an illegal alien RELEASED BY BIDEN. Perhaps they took some inspiration from Loser Tim Walz continually going after officers day in and day out.”
Sheahan has been at the center of Trump and Noem’s frantic enforcement and recruitment drive, which has been lambasted as a “s--tshow,” with insiders telling the Beast of widespread dysfunction behind the scenes.
She now plans to run for Congress in Ohio, the state where she grew up.
In an X account dedicated to that ambition, she posted a slick promo video with the caption: “I’m Madison Sheahan. I’m a Trump conservative running for Congress to protect American jobs, American paychecks, and American values. No Excuses. Let’s get it done.”
But, as cities like Minneapolis complain of an “occupation” by thousands of federal officers, the abrupt exit of Noem’s protégé leaves a gaping hole at the top of an already strained agency.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
