Will Democrats impeach Kristi Noem?

The violence and protests in Minneapolis have left Democrats conflicted about how to respond. Some left-of-center activists want to abolish ICE, while some centrists are resisting. Another intra-party debate: whether or not to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The move to impeach Noem is gaining Democratic support at a “rapid clip,” said Axios, but “not all the party’s lawmakers are happy about it.” Centrists warn the effort is a “waste of the party’s time and energy.” A move against Noem “could be a distraction” from the Democrats’ affordability messaging, said Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.). Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), who introduced articles of impeachment on Wednesday, disagrees. People in Minnesota “can’t do their jobs because they’re snatching them off the streets,” she said.

A similar conflict is playing out over the future of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Some Democrats running for Congress in deep-blue districts are calling to “abolish ICE” following Renee Good’s shooting death at the hands of an ICE agent, said The New York Times, but it’s a “slogan that many Democrats had hoped to retire.” The agency is “an absolute problem,” said Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.). But Americans prefer a “slimmed-down ICE that is truly focused on security.” Micah Lasher, who is running for Congress in Manhattan, differs. ICE is the “embodiment of a thugocracy,” he said.

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What did the commentators say?

Republicans control Congress, so the impeachment push can easily be “dismissed as purely performative,” said Jan-Werner Müller at The Guardian. But such naysaying is too easy. Democrats need to start somewhere in signaling that Noem’s “actions have consequences.” Putting Noem’s actions under a microscope would also help the party break through the fog of multiple Trump administration scandals and outrages. Impeachment, after all, can “concentrate minds and slow down political time.” Impeachment would be an act of “good opposition” that forces members of Congress to “go on the record as to whether they support killings with impunity.”

Trying to abolish ICE would be “emotionally satisfying, politically lethal,” said Sarah Pierce and Lanae Erickson at Third Way. Calls to end the immigration agency are reminiscent of the “defund the police” slogans that emerged during the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. That did not work out so well for Democrats. When the debate among Democrats is about “polarizing slogans that read as anti-law or anti-safety, space for practical reform disappears.”

What next?

The chaos in Minnesota is taking a toll on Noem’s national standing: Her approval rating slipped to 36% in the most recent Quinnipiac poll, said The Hill. Americans have also “soured” on ICE in the aftermath of Good’s shooting death. Most voters “say the shots should not have been fired by the ICE agent,” said analyst Tim Malloy, while just a third “believe the shooting was justified.”

Despite those numbers, Republicans “see defending the ICE shooting as good politics,” said Ed Kilgore at New York. Defending the agency is “comfortable ground” for the GOP, while Democrats do more “wrangling about how they talk about immigration and policing.”