While sitting in my GOVT3610 Fables of Capitalism class, I heard a buzz — a recognizable buzz to those like myself, who are glued to their phone — it was a New York Times “Breaking News” banner. With the recent U.S. involvement in Venezuela and Iran, I was getting more daily breaking news notifications than hours of sleep at night. But this one read something different: “Trump Ousts Noem as Homeland Security Secretary.”
An audible gasp left my mouth, turning the heads of a few peers around me. I quickly tapped the notification and lasered through the words, absorbing as much as I could, while my professor explained the prelim structure in the background.
I left the lecture with two conclusions: The Trump administration is bleeding out and I may fail this exam.
Kristi Noem was cold and reckless in delivering her agenda as the face of the administration's deportation program. On March 3, she was grilled at a Senate Judiciary hearing for the fall-out of the Minneapolis protests and the halt to DHS funding. Both Republican and Democrat senators joined efforts in condemning Noem for misspending hundreds of millions of dollars in an ad-campaign. The hearing barely scraped the surface of injustices perpetrated by the former secretary.
I first remember my disdain for her in June 2025. I was interning in the Senate; logging the cases of Connecticut constituents worried for their healthcare, SNAP benefits, housing and so much more. It was around that same time California Sen. Alex Padilla (D) was thrown to the ground and detained at a conference given by former Secretary Noem. Being in the very building Senator Padilla worked in, with the surrounding TVs broadcasting the No Kings and Anti-ICE protests, made the courage of Senator Padilla that much more sensational. It made the chants of the protestors on 101 Freeway in Los Angeles and South Waterfront in Portland that much clearer — they transcended the TV screens and burned a fire within the hearts of Americans.
Noem violated crucial judicial processes intended to secure Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights. Instead, Immigration and Customs Enforcement warrantlessly broke and entered homes and upended due process when arresting and prosecuting immigration cases. She pushed constitutional limits and weaponized them against defenseless minorities.
When held responsible for the deaths of two U.S. citizens during the Minneapolis protests, Noem responded by saying the victims were “domestic terrorists.” Lawmakers and local officials, through video evidence, rendered the escalation unnecessary and an extreme exercise of power.
My mother is an immigrant who moved to the U.S. when she was 24 years old from Spain. Without a lick of English and with a marketing degree taught in Spanish, she scaled the ranks of corporate America and raised two kids — against all odds facing an immigrant woman. In 2019, she joined the millions of Hispanics whose citizenship weaves the cultural DNA that defines the United States’ exceptionalism.
I remember the cultural stigma and small details prone to her green-card bureaucracy: waiting as my mother was questioned in a room by TSA agents because her last name flagged systems, the stares we would get from Virginians in stores when she spoke Spanish to me and my sister. Thankfully, my mother is oblivious to the opinions of others and secure enough in her ‘Sofia Vergara’ accent, that none of this ever bothered her. But it bothered me.
It bothered me because I understood my privilege. My family is white, well provided for and my mother was able to seek the legal track to citizenship. This drastically opposes the lives of those targeted by this administration. It opposes those who have worked 10 times harder than my mother or father to attain half as much. These barriers aren’t by chance, they’re manufactured. And they are enforced by people like Kristi Noem.
During the Judiciary hearing leading to her removal, Noem was most intensely questioned over $220 million dollars spent on an ad-campaign in which she appeared to be the face of the deportation agenda. Upon further questioning, she claimed President Trump had approved her pompous campaign. Trump later denied involvement in green-lighting Noem’s decision. Her egregious propaganda was criticized bipartisanly, notably Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy (R) directed significant scrutiny of Noem’s misuse of taxpayer funds.
This breaking news stands for much more than Trump firing another cabinet secretary gone rogue. It shows that the barrages the administration has built to protect themselves from constitutional principles and accountability from the American people, are failing. They are failing to uphold the poorly insulated walls of hate and disorder they so sloppily scaffolded.
In a country with surging gas prices and plummeting stock markets, amid an unjustified, congressionally unapproved war that has killed 13 U.S. service members, we have a president deflecting his involvement with Jeffrey Epstein while facing two dozen state lawsuits over tariff retributions. Amid an authoritarian deportation agenda that has left multiple peaceful protesters dead and a conservative-majority Supreme Court losing patience with a reckless public servant, thousands of people have marched in the streets chanting for Trump’s impeachment.
Former Secretary Noem's firing reflects much more than an incompetent puppet failing to perform the duties of Heinrich Himmler; it reveals an administration finally facing the reality of immense disapproval and loss of power. Donald Trump will continue to do whatever he deems necessary to consolidate power at the expense of every immigrant, mother, child and taxpayer of this country. As midterm elections creep in, and states continue to flip blue, he will lose his bloody red trifecta and be ousted from the Oval.
This is not certain, but most pressingly possible. I await the day my phone buzzes with the breaking news title reading: “Donald Trump Impeached as President of the United States of America.”
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Adrian Belmonte '28 is an Opinion Columnist studying Government in the College of Arts & Sciences. Hailing from D.C. and Spain, his fortnightly column Saved By The Bel has a voice as cosmopolitan as it is candid. Belmonte takes on politics and media with clarity and a touch of wit. He can be reached at abelmonte@cornellsun.com.
