March 31 is Kristi Noem’s last day at DHS. She and her unofficial chief of staff, Corey Lewandowski, are gone. During Noem’s March 3 Senate oversight hearing, the one that seems to have led Donald Trump to fire her, North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis questioned Noem about a letter from the DHS Inspector General. Tillis said the letter alleged that during her tenure, DHS leadership had “either misled investigators or prohibited certain inquiries” in 10 instances. “Does anybody have any idea how bad it has to be for the OIG in this agency to come out and do this publicly?” Tillis said. He called for her resignation. Late last week, there was reporting that the DHS Inspector General has launched what’s being characterized as “a sprawling investigation into how contracts have been solicited and handled.” The reporting specifically identifies “the involvement” of Noem and Lewandowski as part of the investigation—virtually unprecedented for this administration. How bad must it be? The reports about Noem’s behavior are outrageous: the pilot firing because he lost her blankie, the money Lewandowski allegedly solicited from companies that wanted to do business with the government, her glossy ads on horseback. But none of that is as bad as what the administration wants you to forget about. With Noem gone, the administration is primed to put Minneapolis behind it. Not one word about Renee Good or Alex Pretti or what should be ongoing investigation into responsibility for their deaths. The administration is pretending it never happened, none of it. We must not let Trump get away with it. Noem is gone, and with her, Lewandowski. Gregory Bovino, the pit bull who was the commander-at-large of the Border Patrol from October 2025 to January 2026, told people he is retiring at the end of March. Following Renee Good’s death at the hands of agents who worked for her, Noem called Good a domestic terrorist and suggested she was at fault in her own death. She called Alex Pretti a terrorist too, and when given the opportunity to retract those comments while testifying in the Senate, declined to do so. She didn’t wait for investigation in either instance; she jumped straight to blaming the victim. Bovino, just hours after Pretti’s death, told reporters that his officers had acted consistently with their training when they shot Pretti, characterizing them as “following their training when faced with an armed suspect who wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.’” None of it was true. But the administration wants to forget that happened, too. It turned out that while Good and Pretti’s shooting deaths stood out because they happened so publicly, DHS lied about other incidents where people were killed or wounded. The New York Times reported that there were “16 shootings by on-duty federal immigration agents patrolling in U.S. cities and towns over the past year, including those that took the lives of Minnesota protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti.” Cases were brought against some of the individuals—more victim blaming—but they had to be dropped for a lack of evidence. Only the agents who shot Pretti are said to currently face investigation. I try to say their names every day, Renee Good and Alex Pretti. We owe it to them not to forget and not to let the country forget. We need to tell the other stories from Minneapolis too. On January 14, 2026, an ICE agent shot a Venezuelan man, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, in the leg in Minneapolis. The story was that the shooting happened after the man attempted to come at the agent with a shovel and broom handle, along with two other men. DHS sent out an indignant press release.
But DHS’s claim that there was a 3-on-1 “ambush” was contradicted by video evidence. The headline became “ICE agents may have lied.” ICE’s Director was forced to concede the story wasn’t true.
Here’s what happened: Charges against the men involved were dropped, the agents were suspended, and an investigation was launched. No word so far on its final disposition. No word at all. It’s like it never happened.
Little Liam Ramos, with his blue bunny ears hat and Spiderman backpack, was released from the Dilley, Texas, detention center where he was held along with his dad, but on their return, an immigration judge—who works for and can be fired by Trump if he displeases him—denied their asylum claim. They are appealing. If they lose, they’ll be sent back to Ecuador. Homeland Security says the community lied about agents using Liam as bait to catch his dad. The government also says the father entered the U.S. illegally in December 2024. The family’s lawyer, however, who has an ethical obligation to be truthful to the court, says “he entered legally, requesting asylum, and that his asylum claim allows him to stay in the U.S.” Alabama Senator Katie Britt said at the time that she couldn’t stop thinking about Liam. In a write up in The New York Times talking about how she was “haunted” by his story, they wrote, “Ms. Britt hosts Christian youth group dinners at her house. She has a book of speeches by George W. Bush in her Washington office, next to an autobiography of Mother Teresa. She insists on her children writing handwritten thank-you notes on their own personalized stationery, not just for birthday and Christmas presents, but for small kindnesses year-round.” Al.com reported that “Britt then called Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who denied allegations of Ramos being used as bait.” The report continues, “When asked later if she believed Noem’s account of the incident, Britt said, ‘Yes, absolutely,’ according to the article.” Neither Britt nor any of her Republican colleagues have expressed further concerns about Liam. Now, not even two months later, forgotten. Noem’s word seems to have been enough to placate them. But we know better. We know the truth of Minneapolis. And we can’t let the administration avoid it by sending a few officials off into the ether. Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Julio Sosa-Celis and Liam Ramos. Americans and immigrants, mistreated and lied about by our government. After reading the stories, no one should be complacent; no one is completely safe. We need to remember so that the administration face accountability for what it has done, even if that takes time. Keep saying their names, every day. Even though the surge in Minneapolis is over, we seem to still be learning new names. And we can’t forget about the horror the Trump administration perpetrated in Minneapolis that left American citizens lying dead in the streets. We dissent. We don’t want our government to treat babies the way it treated Amelia, who was healthy before an immigration officer arrested her family in January. While they were being held at Dilley, in Texas, Amelia had to be rushed to the hospital with what NBC reported was life-threatening respiratory distress. She was returned to the facility, but wasn’t given her medication and remained in detention for nine more days until a federal judge granted an emergency habeas corpus petition her lawyers filed. CBS reported that “less than 14% of nearly 400,000 immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in President Trump’s first year back in the White House had charges or convictions for violent criminal offenses, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security document,” they obtained. Liam and Amelia certainly weren’t violent criminals. Our government is torturing people, even killing them, for no reason. And in the meantime, ICE agents, who are supposedly enforcing the law, are ignoring it. Politico’s Kyle Cheney wrote in early February that a review of hundreds of cases brought by ICE detainees shows a pattern of noncompliance with court orders. “[T]he Trump administration has slow-walked or outright defied judges’ orders demanding the release of people scooped up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at an increasingly rapid clip.” The agency even took people across state lines to try and avoid decisions made by federal judges. And for what? So babies could get sick in detention? So people without any criminal history, people seeking asylum, could be terrorized? The New York Times reported today that 13 people have died in immigration custody in just the first three months of this year. The total since Trump took office last year is 46, and that’s according to ICE’s reckoning. We cannot afford to forget any of this. As of tonight, Kristi Noem may be permanently out of the building. But that doesn’t mean the administration gets to forget and pretend it didn’t happen. We cannot forget. Thanks for being here with me at Civil Discourse. Your support makes it possible for me to devote the time and resources it takes to write the newsletter. We’re in this together, Joyce You're currently a free subscriber to Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance . For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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