WASHINGTON — Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem should be held accountable over a fierce immigration crackdown that has killed two citizens in Minneapolis and that she should resign.
“She has — through her words, and I think in her actions — she's taken a direction that has not been helpful to the situation, and I don't think that it helps the country,” Murkowski told reporters.
She said Noem has an obligation to maintain control of what the agencies in her jurisdiction are doing. Instead, Murkowski said, Noem has inflamed tensions. She noted that almost immediately after Border Patrol agents shot and killed nurse Alex Pretti, Noem claimed, without evidence, that Pretti was a “domestic terrorist.”
Murkowski spoke to reporters on her way to a Senate vote as lawmakers returned to the Capitol from a week away. She called it a good sign that the administration has removed top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino from Minneapolis. But, she said, accountability rests with Noem.
Reporters pressed her on whether Noem should resign.
“I voted for her,” Murkowski said, referring to Noem’s Senate confirmation. “I think the President needs to look at who he has in place as a secretary of Homeland Security. I would not support her again, and I think it probably is time for her to step down.”
Murkowski was among the first Republicans in Congress to openly criticize the tactics of the immigration enforcement operation after agents killed Pretti. The group of GOP critics remains small.
But minutes before Murkowski spoke, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., also castigated Noem. He said the enforcement operations need to focus on the serious criminals President Trump promised to target and not pursue nonviolent people.
“I think that what she's done in Minnesota should be disqualifying. She should be out of a job,” Tillis said of Noem. “And I mean, really, it's just amateurish. It's terrible. It's making the president look bad on policies that he won on.”
Tillis is retiring from the Senate after his term ends in a year. He’s become one of the more outspoken Republicans in Congress when it comes to criticizing and voting against the Trump administration.
Unlike Murkowski and Tillis, Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, didn’t issue a social statement or a press release this weekend to condemn Pretti’s death or call for reform.
His office provided a statement to reporters on request. Sen. Sullivan “strongly supports our law enforcement and their ability to do their jobs,” it says, while calling any loss of life tragic. It also says he hopes that “the temperature in Minnesota on both sides can be lowered.”
On his way to the Senate chamber to vote Tuesday, Sullivan held his phone to his ear as he walked through a crowd of reporters, fending off approaches.
