Kristi Noem Has $60 Billion at Her Disposal

[justaprogressive]

Since Kristi Noem became the secretary of homeland security, the Trump administration has been trying to expand the Department of Homeland Security and its powers. It’s something people like Ahilan Arulanantham are trying to fight. A law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, he’s currently suing the Trump administration, fighting its efforts to remove temporary protected status from a bunch of Venezuelan and Haitian migrants.

As he explains, there has always been a kind of gap between what the department was created to do, back in 2002, and what it actually does. Post–9/11, DHS was formed, ostensibly, to bring different governmental agencies under one umbrella and make counterterrorism coordination easier. But it’s not doing that now.

“DHS’s actual resource usage has been overwhelmingly about just targeting undocumented people and also people convicted of ordinary crimes who happen to be noncitizens,” Arulanantham said.

On a recent episode of What Next, host Mary Harris spoke to Arulanantham about how DHS became one of the most powerful agencies at Trump’s disposal. This transcript has been edited and condensed for clarity.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/06/kristi-noem-ice-dhs-budget-trump-power.html

[GopherGal]

1. A Freakin' baseball cap? With a freakin' smiley face?

If they're going to give Zelenskyy heat about not wearing suit, why is Krusti dressing like a teenage insta influencer?