Tillis pushes Noem to resign over handling of Minneapolis anti-ICE protests: 'Failure of leadership'

North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis called on Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign Tuesday during a tense hearing related to her handling of immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis.

Noem testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday as part of the committee's oversight of the Department of Homeland Security, but it comes amid heightened tension regarding the department's handling of anti-ICE protests in Minnesota in January where two people were killed by federal officers.  

Tillis highlighted a report from the DHS Inspector General that indicated 10 incidents where Noem allegedly stonewalled internal investigations. He also threatened to block President Donald Trump’s nominees until he gets answers to questions about ICE operations in Charlotte, according to NBC News.

“That’s a failure of leadership and that is why I’ve called for your resignation,” Tillis told Noem. “If I don’t get an answer to these questions, if I don’t get an answer that you’ve had a month to respond to, and the remaining ones, as of today, I’ll be informing leadership that I’m putting a hold on any en bloc nominations until I get a response.”

The senator also slammed the secretary for a portion of her 2024 book "No Going Back," which detailed her decision to shoot her dog, Cricket, for misbehaving.

“The passage where you talk about killing a dog that was 14 months old — I train dogs. Alright? And you are a farmer, you should know better," he said. "You should know that if you’re going out to a hunting lodge and you’re putting pheasants out and you’re putting dogs out, you don’t take a puppy out there. A 14-month-old dog is basically a teenager in dog years.

“You decided to kill that dog because you had not invested the appropriate time in training," he continued. "And then you have the audacity to go into a book and say it’s a leadership lesson about tough choices?”

“But my point is, those are bad decisions made in the heat of the moment — not unlike what happened up in Minneapolis,” the senator added. “We’re an exceptional nation, and one of the reasons we’re exceptional is we expect exceptional leadership, and you’ve demonstrated anything but that.”

Despite Tillis' pushback on the secretary, other Republicans helped her focus on her accomplishments at the helm of DHS, where she touted her success at securing the southern border and bringing down illegal immigration numbers.

“That’s just an extraordinary record,” Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley said of Noem's deportation rates. “A complete turnaround from the utter chaos and disaster we saw at the border under your predecessor."

Noem is now expected to testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.