Democratic lawmakers to file articles of impeachment against Kristi Noem

Democratic representative Robin Kelly on Wednesday plans to formally introduce articles of impeachment against Donald Trump’s homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, following the fatal shooting of a US citizen by an immigration agent in Minneapolis last week.

The new push comes amid mounting national outrage over the death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, at the wheel of her car on a residential street, by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer.

While Noem and the Trump administration have characterized the incident as an act of “domestic terrorism” by a “professional agitator”, video evidence and local officials have sharply contested that narrative. The Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey, described the shooting as a reckless use of power and demanded the agency leave the city. The administration has responded by sending more federal agents, as tensions between officers and residents escalate.

Kelly, an Illinois Democrat, will be joined by Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Maxine Dexter of Oregon – progressive representatives from states where federal agents have shot residents in recent days – in filing three articles of impeachment against Noem.

“How silly during a serious time. As ICE officers are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them, Rep. Kelly is more focused on showmanship and fundraising clicks than actually cleaning up her crime-ridden Chicago district,” said a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson. “We hope she would get serious about doing her job to protect American people, which is what this Department is doing under Secretary Noem.”

Late last year, the representative Delia Ramirez, a fellow Illinois Democrat, moved to impeach Noem, amid an immigration crackdown in Chicago.

They accuse the secretary of willfully obstructing congressional oversight by withholding appropriated funds and repeatedly blocking lawmakers from entering DHS facilities. It further alleges a violation of public trust through the use of “warrantless arrests” and the use of “violence against US citizens and lawful individuals”. It also charges Noem with self-dealing for “inappropriately” using taxpayer dollars to fund an ad campaign for ICE recruitment, and awarding the $200m recruitment contract to a firm run by the husband of senior DHS official and chief spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.

Despite rising fury among Democrats over the administration’s increasingly violent enforcement tactics, the party is at odds over how to respond. House Democratic leaders have not endorsed Kelly’s impeachment effort, which is unlikely to succeed in the Republican-controlled House. Other Democrats have called for using an upcoming government funding deadline to try to rein in ICE and slash funding to the agency.

“We haven’t ruled anything in and we haven’t ruled anything out. Everything is on the table from the standpoint of complete and total accountability,” the Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on Monday. Noem, Jeffries added, was “completely and totally unqualified” and should be “run out of town as soon as possible” but he questioned whether impeachment was “the best way to accomplish that objective”.

In 2024, House Republicans impeached Joe Biden’s secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas, breaking precedent and pushing through charges that even some in their own party warned were political in nature. The Senate dismissed the charges on the basis that they did not”allege conduct that rises to the level of a high crime or misdemeanor”.

Impeachment requires a majority vote in the House to approve the charges, and a two-thirds majority in the Senate to convict and remove an official from office.