Kirsti Noem told FEMA agents they weren’t allowed to say “ice” during last month’s winter storm, as she sought distance from her disastrous immigration crackdown in Minnesota.
Noem demanded FEMA deliver a robust response to the freezing conditions that blanketed much of the country in January, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. She allegedly hoped it would generate some favorable press for her, despite having been an outspoken advocate for drastically downsizing the agency until then.
Noem was looking for ways to showcase her leadership beyond immigration enforcement, sources told the Journal in a far-reaching expose on the department.
The crackdown had become increasingly unpopular, raised fears over due process and malpractice, and led to the deaths of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37.
The scandal in the north became a flashpoint in President Donald Trump’s broader deportation push, leading to the firing of Noem’s “commander at large,” Gregory Bovino, and mounting scrutiny of her job.
FEMA employees were shocked when Noem arrived at their headquarters in Washington, D.C., on January 23, sources told the Journal, for her first in-person briefing with the agency since taking office more than a year earlier. The outlet reports, citing sources, that she had previously taken a hands-off approach to all storms.
ICE Barbie, so called by the Daily Beast for her penchant for cosplaying as a member of whatever agency she is attending, had also spent much of the previous 12 months trying to make states pick up the slack for disaster response, the Journal reports.
Her scheme sought to shrink FEMA and shift responsibility to more local governments, but when the storm approached, agents were allegedly suddenly told to assist states and ask them what they needed.
The ploy had previously involved withholding disaster funds from the needy, but in January, $2.2 billion was swiftly released to support the storm response nationwide.
FEMA staff told the newspaper that, as part of her newfound appreciation for federal disaster response, the word “ice” was to be excluded from any public messaging.
Following the shooting of Pretti at the hands of ICE agents, Noem tried to keep her press briefing on-message: the storm.
She carried out the briefing from FEMA’s headquarters, surrounded by carefully arranged emergency response equipment, from where she labelled the slain ICU nurse a “domestic terrorist.”
“Violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and to perpetuate violence. That is the definition of domestic terrorism,” she said.
A DHS spokeswoman told the Journal that FEMA was now faster at responding to help states and survivors, using accurate weather descriptors to communicate with clarity.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for further comment.
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