Trump’s Firing of Noem Signals Need for New Vision on Immigration

For the first time in his second term, President Donald Trump dismissed a cabinet secretary last week, Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Kristi Noem. At the same time, DHS is entering its fourth week of a funding shutdown, with Congress refusing to sign off on an annual budget for the agency without serious reform of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol. Trump’s nominee to replace Noem as DHS secretary, Senator Markwayne Mullin, also already faces fierce skepticism. ICE and Border Patrol have taken serious political damage, thanks to public outrage, concern from across the political spectrum, and the courage of hundreds of people ready to record federal agents’ actions on their cell phones.

A new chapter on immigration is on the horizon. Policymakers have the opportunity to put forward a new, affirmative vision of immigration management — a new system that offers freedom, fairness and dignity to millions of Americans-in-waiting, in place of the terror and chaos that was just on display in Minneapolis. Instead of the administration’s threats to our democracy and most cherished rights, this new system offers a path to solve some of our nation’s thorniest problems, ranging from housing accessibility to quality healthcare.

This shift won’t come from the Trump administration. Even with Noem demoted, along with her enforcer-in-chief from Border Patrol Greg Bovino, the Trump administration is still stocked with ideologues, such as Stephen Miller, intent on carrying out their vision of an America where 100 million of our neighbors are deported. They have the money and resources to do it — more than $150 billion in One Big Beautiful Bill Act funding from Congress.

ICE is still moving to detain thousands of people in converted warehouses across the nation, even as people are dying in custody at record speed. At least three people have died in ICE custody in the first week of March 2026, alone. ICE is also enlisting thousands of state and local police into a national deportation policing force: Where highway exits are immigration checkpoints, traffic stoplights are potential deportation initiation zones, and concert venue bag inspections are citizenship documentation checks. This plan is already at play in places like Florida.

Polls show that the public wants an orderly system, not a secret police-style ICE. Members of both political parties have recently said that they want an immigration system that helps American workforces thrive. Nearly a quarter century has passed since DHS was created in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks. The dangers to democracy that this sprawling agency poses have never been clearer. Despite heavy funding, DHS spectacularly fails to deliver a working immigration system.

The public does not want this Stephen Miller-driven, white supremacist fever dream. It will continue to cost lives, hurt families, leave children alone and devastated, and tear at the seams of American communities. Congress and policymakers at the state and local level will need to continue to do all they can to check these abuses.

But the moment calls for more than saying no. Lawmakers at the federal, state and local level also need to put forward a powerful counter-vision of a better way forward. Here is the affirmative vision for immigration we propose:

• We need an immigration management system based on our nation’s shared values of freedom, a fair chance, and the dignity of workers and families.

• Immigration management means a straightforward, dignified legal process — with clear rules to qualify for citizenship and other legal protections—that gives a path out of the shadows to the millions of people living and working in this country, who are American in every way except on paper.

• A functioning immigration system should help improve housing, healthcare, education, public safety, and access to good jobs for everyone in the country. The federal government should coordinate with state and local governments to grant work permits to address workforce needs, support American communities with large immigrant and refugee populations so that there are adequate resources for all residents, and revive our best traditions of welcoming new Americans as contributors to innovation and community revitalization.

• Our federal immigration agencies should be oriented toward management, fairness and efficiency, not chaos and violence. Federal immigration officers should never be turned against American cities, deployed against peaceful protestors, used to intimidate the public, or resemble a paramilitary force at the president’s disposal to wield against his political opponents.

Now is the time for policymakers and advocates to put forward this kind of affirmative vision. We will have a better chance of winning protections and accountability measures to mitigate the damage inflicted by the Trump administration’s continued deportation plans, if we can tell this larger story of change. It’s already happening in some states. From coast to coast and north to south, state legislatures are enacting a wave of measures to protect communities from federal abuse: in Oregon, Maryland, New Mexico, to name a few. Opponents of these measures often cast millions of immigrants as a threat by focusing on the horrific crimes committed by perpetrators who are non-citizens. They seek to take the high ground on public safety and order, even as masked federal agents beat, drag, and illegally detain people on American streets at a previously unfathomable scale.

The best counter to their cynical vilification of immigrants is our plan for a better immigration system that works for all. We need to keep sharing our vision for a united America — where people have the freedom and opportunity to work together, side by side, to solve the nation’s problems, and move forward as a country. That’s the new chapter we need — and it’s time to start writing it.