Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Wednesday she is in talks with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about potentially pausing Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in her state, while declining to join fellow Republican colleagues calling for Noem to step down amid intensifying criticism of the department's leadership, The Hill reported.
"I'm talking with the secretary," Collins told reporters. "She's asked for some information on specific cases that constituents have told me about.
"I've sent her some of that and just got some additional information that I'm going to convey to her. So I'm still talking with her."
Collins, who faces a competitive reelection race in Democratic-leaning Maine and serves as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said she is not prepared to call for Noem's ouster, despite growing backlash over immigration enforcement actions.
"She is the president's choice, she's confirmed, she's there," Collins said.
Her stance puts her at odds with fellow Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who have both openly criticized the Trump administration and called for Noem's removal after the fatal shooting of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti by a U.S. Border Patrol agent over the weekend in Minneapolis.
Noem has come under bipartisan scrutiny since the shooting, which has intensified concerns over federal immigration enforcement tactics and leadership at the Department of Homeland Security.
"What she's done in Minnesota should be disqualifying. She should be out of a job," Tillis told reporters Tuesday. "It's just amateur-ish. It's terrible. It's making the president look bad on policy that he won on."
Tillis said the controversy has shifted attention away from Trump's immigration agenda and toward what he described as leadership failures at DHS.
Murkowski also signaled she no longer supports Noem as leader of the Cabinet department.
"I voted for her," Murkowski said. "I think the president needs to look at who he has in place as a secretary of Homeland Security.
"I would not support her again. And I think it probably is time for her to step down."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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