Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives are threatening to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem if Donald Trump does not remove her from her position.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” they said in a press statement.
The truth is that the easy way is unlikely, and the hard way is next to impossible.
Trump has said he stands by Noem – and he is typically reluctant to fire senior officials under pressure from critics. Meanwhile, Democrats are a minority in the House, albeit only narrowly. Unless they can convince at least a handful of Republicans to side with them, an impeachment vote will fail. And even if they succeed, there aren’t nearly enough votes in the Senate to convict and remove Noem.
This is, then, a performative move for House Democrats – a way to generate media attention and, perhaps, force Republicans to go on record in support of Noem, whose claims that Alex Pretti “attacked” immigration officers and was “brandishing” a firearm prior to his death were quickly disproven by video evidence.
Noem, as head of the Department of Homeland Security, is in part responsible for immigration enforcement policies that public-opinion polls indicate are becoming increasingly unpopular.
Those policies, of course, ultimately come from Trump and senior White House staff like Stephen Miller. But with the White House distancing itself from Noem and removing the Minnesota enforcement operations from her direct oversight, Democrats may sense that she is particularly vulnerable.
