约翰·米勒分析
2小时前
发布于2026年3月7日，美国东部时间上午5:00
克里斯蒂·诺姆的政府专机于周三降落在纳什维尔，那里有一支车队在等候。
15分钟后，这支SUV车队驶入纳什维尔君悦大酒店的装卸区，但国土安全部部长仍待在车内，透过深色玻璃向外。
等待迎接她的大城市警察工会领袖被告知她正在接重要电话。大约10分钟后，诺姆现身，沿着迷宫般的走廊走向一个房间，那里聚集着这些领袖和执法官员。
“她和我们合影了。她很亲切，面带微笑，”前纽约警察局局长肯尼斯·科里说。“你绝对想不到她在车里刚被总统解雇。”
当警察领袖们在市长会议宴会厅就座时，乡村歌手李·格林伍德（Lee Greenwood）带来了意外表演。格林伍德是特朗普的宠儿，因其演唱《上帝保佑美国》（这首歌曲是MAGA运动和特朗普集会的非官方国歌）。
扬声器里传出音乐，格林伍德举起麦克风。
“如果明天我毕生为之奋斗的一切都消失了……”
诺姆在侧台等待，听着格林伍德演唱这些歌词，房间里的人们手机上开始弹出消息：沮丧的特朗普已经解雇了她。
市长会议是一年一度的活动，今年由纽约警察局警长协会和西雅图警察工会赞助。这次会议让来自全国各地的警察工会负责人与执法部门高管和像诺姆这样的联邦官员进行对话。今年，“庇护城市”以及警察在移民执法中的角色是主要议题。
这些关于诺姆行踪的叙述来自参加会议的多名当地执法官员，他们向美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）透露。
当诺姆走上讲台时，她可能意识到房间里所有人都知道她已被解雇，于是她在演讲开始时提及特朗普的国情咨文，并描述了国土安全部的使命。
“我们的职责是保护美国公民，他们根据宪法和法律应该优先得到保护，尤其是优先于来自其他国家的人，”她说。
纽约警察局警长协会主席文森特·瓦莱隆说，诺姆没有表现出任何不妥迹象。
“她在演讲中始终专注，回答了多个问题，并就我们如何共同努力给出了深思熟虑的回答，”瓦莱隆说。“不管你对政治有什么看法，但她始终保持镇定，维持了会场的秩序。”
诺姆任内国土安全部资源重心转移
诺姆于2025年1月25日经参议院确认出任国土安全部部长，她承诺“每天都致力于确保所有美国人的安全。我的首要任务之一是实现总统特朗普从美国人民那里获得的确保南部边境安全并修复破碎移民体系的 mandate（使命）。”
尽管在诺姆领导下，国土安全部在加强边境安全和大幅减少非法越境方面获得好评，但美国城市中的移民执法迅速成为政治导火索。国土安全部将资源从恐怖主义案件、人口贩卖调查和特勤局任务中转移出来，转而将大量资源集中在主要属于民事移民执法的事务上。
国土安全部吹嘘针对“最恶劣的罪犯”，但多项研究发现，被拘留者中只有一小部分有暴力犯罪定罪记录。这些执法行动引发了全国范围内的抗议。最近的两个热点事件是1月份明尼阿波利斯的对峙，移民执法人员在几天内相继开枪打死了抗议者雷尼·古德和亚历克斯·普雷蒂，两人都是美国公民。
国土安全部是一个庞大的部门，管辖着20多个知名机构——包括运输安全管理局（TSA）、美国海岸警卫队以及当然的移民和海关执法局（ICE）——拥有超过25万员工，预算超过1000亿美元。诺姆在短暂的任期内因削弱国土安全部的核心能力而受到严厉批评。
诺姆大幅削减了网络安全和基础设施安全局（负责保护美国免受网络攻击的部门），解雇了联邦紧急事务管理局（FEMA）数百名员工，并提议将情报与分析办公室的人员从1000人削减至275人。部分削减最终有所减少，但很明显，重心已从反恐或救灾转向移民执法。
前国土安全部官员告诉CNN，这些削减之后是所谓的“政治迫害”，包括对可能与媒体交谈的员工进行测谎检查。官员们集体表示，士气恶化导致“人才流失”，许多有经验的专业人士离开了国土安全部。
诺姆对国土安全部资源向移民执法转移的做法坚定不移，毫无歉意。她为向“庇护城市”派遣大量国土安全部特工进行辩护，因为这些城市的民主党市长所在的地方法律或政策禁止警察参与民事移民执法。特朗普为她的领导辩护，总统副幕僚长斯蒂芬·米勒继续每周向国土安全部施压，要求增加拘留人数，多名国土安全部官员表示。
在古德和普雷蒂被杀后，白宫对她的支持开始出现裂痕。但最终，导致她在国土安全部任期结束的政治“毒箭”可能与该机构的运作方式无关，甚至与她对特工杀害两名美国公民的冷漠辩护无关。诺姆的垮台可能源于对最重要的人的根本性误解——这个人的支持才真正重要。
诺姆发起的2.2亿美元广告活动引起了国会的注意，国会希望了解更多关于该交易的情况：谁批准了这笔费用，谁获得了报酬。《调查性报道新闻机构》（ProPublica）去年报道称，这笔丰厚广告分包合同的接收方是一名前国土安全部发言人的丈夫。
诺姆是电视广告的明星。她在屏幕上戴着牛仔帽骑马，描述国土安全部在她领导下所做的重要工作。广告中，诺姆受到国土安全部官员和孩子们在小径上的迎接。一个广告结尾是部长骑在马上，身后是拉什莫尔山。
本周，诺姆在国会宣誓作证，被问及特朗普是否知道这些电视广告及其成本。诺姆表示特朗普知道。总统迅速否认。一位前国土安全部高级官员总结道：“你可以让政府难堪，但这不会让你被解雇。但你让总统难堪，那会让你被解雇。”
周四在纳什维尔，诺姆坚持完成了演讲并回答了问题。新泽西州纽瓦克市警察上尉约翰·克里斯托三世（John Chrystal III）——其部门高级官员协会主席——在诺姆演讲结束后问道，特朗普政府将如何调和联邦政策与禁止警察向国土安全部分享通缉犯罪的无证移民信息的州政策。
诺姆表示，她仍致力于抵制阻碍国土安全部获取信息的州法律，并承诺与州领导人沟通合作。
“哦，对了，你信教吗？”克里斯托在诺姆发言结束后问道。“因为你是我所有祈祷的答案。”
“是的，先生，”诺姆笑着说。“谁能想到呢？”
房间里爆发出笑声和掌声。
约翰·米勒是CNN首席执法与情报分析师，2009-2010年曾担任国家情报局副局长助理。
Kristi Noem prioritized immigration over everything else in homeland security’s large portfolio. That wasn’t her downfall
Analysis by John Miller
2 hr ago
PUBLISHED Mar 7, 2026, 5:00 AM ET
Kristi Noem’s government jet touched down Wednesday in Nashville, where a motorcade awaited.
Fifteen minutes later, the fleet of SUVs pulled into the loading dock of the Grand Hyatt Nashville, but the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security remained inside, behind the tinted glass.
Big city police union leaders who waited to greet her were told she was on an important call. Around 10 minutes later, Noem emerged and walked down the maze of hallways that lead to a room where those leaders and law enforcement officials had gathered.
“She was taking pictures with us. She was personable and smiling,” said Kenneth Corey, former NYPD chief of department. “You’d have no idea she had just been fired by the president while she was in the car.”
As the police leaders took their seats in the ballroom of the Major Cities Conference, there was a surprise performance by Lee Greenwood, the country singer and Trump favorite for his “God Bless the USA,” the unofficial anthem of MAGA and Trump rallies.
The music blared from the speakers and Greenwood raised his mic.
“If tomorrow all the things were gone that I’d worked for all my life… ”
As Noem waited in the wings, hearing Greenwood sing these words, the bulletins began to flash across the phones in the room that a frustrated Trump had fired her.
The Major Cities Conference is an annual event, sponsored this year by the NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association and the Seattle Police Officers Guild. The meeting brings police union heads from across the country into dialogue with law enforcement executives and federal officials like Noem. This year, sanctuary cities, and the role of police in immigration enforcement was a main topic.
These accounts of Noem’s movements were told to CNN by multiple local law enforcement officials who attended the conference.
As Noem took the stage, likely realizing everyone in the room knew she had been fired, she began her speech by referring to Trump’s State of the Union address and she describing the mission of DHS.
“It’s to fulfill our duty to protect American citizens, that they should come first under our Constitution and our laws and they should be prioritized, and especially over other people who are from other countries,” she said.
Noem never showed a sign there was anything amiss, said Vincent Vallelong, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association.
“She stayed focused during the speech, took a number of questions and gave thoughtful answers on how we can all work together,” Vallelong said. “Say what you want about politics, but she kept it together and kept the room together.”
DHS resources shifted in her tenure
Noem was confirmed by the Senate as DHS secretary on January 25, 2025, pledging to “work every day to keep all Americans safe and secure. One of my top priorities is achieving President Trump’s mandate from the American people to secure our southern border and fix our broken immigration system.”
While DHS earned high marks under Noem for improving border security and significantly reducing illegal crossings, the immigration enforcement in US cities quickly became a political lightning rod. DHS diverted resources from terrorism cases, human trafficking investigations and Secret Service missions to focus massive resources on what was mostly civil immigration enforcement.
DHS touted targeting the “worst of the worst” but multiple studies found only a small percentage of those rounded up had a conviction for a violent crime. The enforcement sweeps led to protests across the country. Two recent flashpoints were the January confrontations in Minneapolis that ended in fatal shootings by immigration enforcement agents of Renee Good and Alex Pretti within days of each other. Both were protesters and both were American citizens.
DHS is a massive department that houses over 20 high-profile agencies – including the TSA, the US Coast Guard and, of course, ICE – and has more than a quarter million employees and a budget of over $100 billion. Noem faced heavy criticism for eroding the core capabilities of DHS during her short-lived tenure.
Noem gutted Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the unit focused on protecting the US from cyberattacks, oversaw the dismissal of hundreds of staff from the disaster relief agency FEMA, and proposed reducing the Office of Intelligence and and Analysis staff from 1,000 to 275. Some of the cuts ultimately were reduced but it was clear the focus was immigration enforcement over counterterrorism or disaster relief.
Former DHS officials told CNN the cuts were followed by what they described as “witch hunts” that involved polygraph examinations for staffers who might be talking to the press. Collectively, the officials said, deteriorating morale drove a “brain drain” that caused many experienced professionals to leave DHS.
Noem remained steadfast and unapologetic about the shifts in DHS resources toward immigration enforcement. She defended the flooding of DHS agents into “sanctuary cities” with Democratic mayors because local law or policy barred police engaging in civil immigration enforcement. Trump defended her leadership and Stephen Miller, the president’s deputy chief of staff, continued to pressure DHS weekly for more numbers of people to be rounded up, according to multiple DHS officials.
The first cracks in White House support began to show after the killings of Good and Pretti, whom Noem described as domestic terrorists. But in the end, the political poison dart that ended her reign at DHS may not have had anything to do with how the agency was being run or even her insensitive defense of the killing of two US citizens by her agents. Noem’s downfall may have been a fundamental misunderstanding of what’s most important to the only person whose support mattered.
A $220 million ad campaign launched by Noem drew the attention of Congress, which wanted to hear more about that deal, who approved the cost and who got paid. ProPublica reported last year that the recipient of the lucrative advertising subcontract was the husband of a former DHS spokesperson.
Noem was the star of the TV ads. She was on the screen wearing her cowboy hat and riding a horse while describing the important work DHS was doing under her leadership. The ad showed Noem being greeted by DHS officers and children along the trail. One ad ends with the secretary atop her horse looking over a ridge with Mount Rushmore behind her.
This week, Noem testified under oath before Congress and was asked if Trump had known about the TV ads and what they cost. Noem said Trump did know. The president quickly said he did not. One former DHS senior executive summed it up this way: “You can embarrass the administration. That’s not going to get you fired. But you embarrass the president, that will get you fired.”
In Nashville Thursday, Noem soldiered through her speech and then took questions. Newark, New Jersey, police Capt. John Chrystal III, president of his department’s Superior Officers’ Association, asked Noem how the Trump administration would reconcile federal policies with state policies that bar police from sharing information with DHS about undocumented immigrants wanted for crimes.
Noem said she remained committed to pushing back on state laws blocking DHS access and was committed to talking with state leaders on working together.
“Oh, by the way, are you religious?” Chrystal asked after Noem finished speaking. “Because you’re the answer to all my prayers.”
“I am, sir,” Noem said, giggling. “Who knew?”
The room fell into laughter and applause.
John Miller is the Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst for CNN and served as Deputy Assistant Director of National Intelligence in 2009-2010.
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