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United States President Donald Trump has announced that Kristi Noem will be replaced as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), marking the first major change to his cabinet since his re-election.

Noem, who has overseen Trump’s controversial immigration crackdown, will instead serve as a special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, a newly created security initiative.

Her removal follows a tense, two-day congressional hearing on Capitol Hill, during which Noem faced a rare, united front of bipartisan hostility.

Trump has nominated Senator Markwayne Mullin to replace her. The change is expected to take effect on March 31.

Here is what we know:

Who is Kristi Noem?

Kristi Noem, 54, was the former Republican governor of South Dakota and recently served as the Secretary of Homeland Security in Trump’s administration.

In that role, she oversaw some of Trump’s key campaign priorities, including efforts to tighten security along the US-Mexico border and accelerate deportations of undocumented immigrants.

Her tenure was marked by high-profile immigration enforcement operations that were often publicised on social media, with Noem at times accompanying federal agents during arrests.

During this sweeping immigration crackdown across the US, two US citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, were fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis earlier this year.

Noem also supervised the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its disaster response operations.

What has Trump announced?

In a post on his Truth Social account, Trump wrote that he was removing Noem from her position.

Despite the move, he praised her tenure, saying she “has served us well, and has had numerous and spectacular results (especially on the Border!)”.

Trump added that Noem would be reassigned to a newly created role as special envoy for the “Shield of the Americas”, a security initiative focused on the Western Hemisphere.

To replace her, Trump said he would nominate Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, whom he described as a “MAGA warrior”, to lead the Homeland Security Department.

The announcement came following controversy over a $220m border security advertising campaign featuring Noem on horseback. After Noem told Congress that Trump had approved the campaign, Trump denied involvement.

In a phone interview with the Reuters news agency, he said: “I never knew anything about it.”

What led to Trump’s reassignment of Noem?

Trump’s decision to reassign Noem followed a two-day congressional hearing on Capitol Hill, during which the Homeland Security Secretary faced questioning about her actions from members of both parties.

Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher said Noem was “destroyed under questioning”, citing a series of controversies that made her continued leadership difficult.

Some of those include:

Minneapolis shootings:

Noem faced severe backlash over the deaths of two US citizen protesters, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were fatally shot by federal agents as immigration enforcement operations were under way in Minneapolis earlier this year and whose deaths had prompted nationwide protests.

Critics of the operation accused the administration of using excessive force and demanded an independent investigation.

Lawmakers also accused Noem of running a “smear campaign” by labelling the deceased as “domestic terrorists” in the wake of the killings, and criticised her for barring local investigators from the crime scenes.

“Republicans and Democrats were querying her handling of what happened in Minnesota, the death of two American citizens that she described initially as domestic terrorists, which proved to be untrue,” Fisher reported.

Controversial $220m advertisement campaign:

Noem was grilled about a roughly $220m border security advertising campaign that prominently featured her, including promotional footage of her on horseback near Mount Rushmore.

The contracts for the campaign drew criticism after they were awarded to firms with Republican political ties, including a subcontractor linked to people close to Noem. During congressional hearings, Noem said Trump had approved the campaign, but the president later told Reuters he “never knew anything about it”.

FEMA mismanagement and disaster response:

Both Democrats and Republicans criticised Noem’s handling of emergency responses, such as the deadly Texas floods in July 2025 and Hurricane Helene in 2024.

Critics said her management style slowed some disaster response funding and reimbursements to states.

What is The Shield of the Americas?

The Shield of the Americas is a new US national security initiative focused on the Western Hemisphere, which Trump has established.

The initiative reflects Trump’s push to expand US security operations across the Western Hemisphere, including greater military and intelligence deployments, and is based on the Monroe Doctrine on “spheres of influence”, now dubbed the “Donroe Doctrine“.

The programme aims to dismantle cartels, combat drug trafficking and counter Chinese influence in Latin America.

On Thursday, Noem said the goal of the newfound summit is to “promote freedom, security and prosperity in our region”. Part of that includes partnering with 12 other countries to “address criminal narcoterrorist gangs and cartels and counter illegal and mass migration”.

Who is Markwayne Mullin?

Senator Mullin, 48, is one of Trump’s fiercest supporters on Capitol Hill.

A former business owner and undefeated MMA fighter with a 5-0 professional record, Mullin served for a decade in the House of Representatives before moving to the Senate in 2023. Known for his “MAGA Warrior” persona, he has long acted as a key intermediary between the White House and congressional Republicans.

If confirmed, Mullin, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, would be the first Native American to lead the DHS.

He describes himself on his website as “a successful business owner, working cow-calf rancher, and proud husband of 28 years to Mrs Christie Mullin”.

He has previously supported Homeland Security policy and the administration’s immigration crackdown.

“Obstructing federal law enforcement is a felony. Most Americans follow ICE instructions without thinking twice,” Mullin said on social media following the death of Pretti.

Al Jazeera’s Fisher said the administration expects Mullin to be a “better administrator” than his predecessor.

“Even though Kristi Noem is a former governor, the White House didn’t feel she was running the organisation properly,” Fisher noted. “They feel they need someone with the experience of navigating the federal machine, and they believe Mullin is that person.”

While President Trump has announced that the official handover will take place on March 31, the transition is not as simple.

“[Trump] doesn’t just get to do that,” Fisher said, because DHS secretary is a Senate-approved position.

“So he has got to go through a Senate hearing with a committee, chaired by someone who described him as a snake,” Fisher reported.

“There are Democrats who want to make sure that Mullen will talk about how to change the way ICE operates; if he doesn’t deliver, they might not vote for him,” he added.

Chants of “British bases out” have rung out in recent days in Limassol, as protesters call for the removal of UK military bases from Cyprus’s sun-drenched south coast island.

Demonstrations erupted after a suspected Iranian-made drone struck RAF Akrotiri earlier this week, two days after US-Israeli attacks on Iran began.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has also allowed the US to use British bases for “defensive strikes” on Iranian missile sites, a move that has intensified debate in Cyprus over the presence of the British military on the island.

A ‘remnant’ of British colonialism

The UK retained two sovereign base areas on Cyprus – Akrotiri and Dhekelia – since the island nation gained independence in 1960 under a fragile power-sharing arrangement between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.

For many Cypriots, that arrangement represented a compromise that left Cyprus only partially sovereign.

“The bases are a remnant of the colonial and imperialist empire of Britain,” Melanie Steliou Nicolaou, an actress and TV presenter who lives near the Akrotiri RAF base, told Al Jazeera over the phone. “To me, Cyprus was never truly decolonised.”

The bases, which are not part of any lease agreement benefitting the island economically, have served as launch points for British military operations in the Middle East.

Aircraft from RAF Akrotiri have supported campaigns in Iraq and Libya, while more recently the base has been used to assist Israeli operations in Gaza, where 70,000 people have been killed.

Nicolaou said the United Kingdom frames the bases as there for protection when, in fact, “they’re really here to spy on the Middle East; when planes take off, people know they’re going to a warzone or sharing intelligence for a mission.”

In October, Declassified UK, a news outlet focused on British foreign policy, reported that more than 600 surveillance flights linked to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza had taken off from Cyprus during the first two years of the onslaught.

In the report, Declassified UK said that a US military contractor hired by the UK to conduct surveillance above Nuseirat refugee camp in northern Gaza the night before an Israeli bombing killed more than 30 Palestinians on December 12, 2024.

Nico, a resident and activist with the group Autonomy, Feminism, Ecology and Anti-Capitalism (AFOA) who requested Al Jazeera withhold his surname, described the bases as “unsinkable launchpads” that allow the UK to treat the island like an aircraft carrier for military campaigns.

He opposes them on moral grounds and because they put the local population at risk.

Nicolaou said the UK’s response – updating personnel on the base while providing little information to nearby residents – angers many locals. More have joined campaigns to remove the bases.

“Now that we are being attacked, people are realising that the activists and politicians who have been warning we are in danger might have been right,” she said.

At a protest on Monday, dozens of new people attended, especially concerned parents, she said.

The sovereign base areas together cover approximately 3 percent of the island, but their footprint extends beyond military facilities, with several Cypriot villages lying within or partly within the territories.

‘No advantage’ for Cypriots

Unlike bases in the Gulf, which the British military operates through leases or host-nation agreements, RAF Akrotiri and Dhekelia are effectively permanent British-controlled territories.

The UK had initially provided financial assistance to Cyprus after independence in 1960 under the arrangements that established the sovereign base areas, though the payments ended in the mid-1960s amid unrest on the island.

In 1974, a Greek-backed coup seeking union with Greece triggered a Turkish military intervention that divided Cyprus, a split that largely remains today.

This means that aside from the incomes of Cypriots who work on the bases, there is “no advantage” to Cyprus allowing these bases to operate, Nico told Al Jazeera.

Nicolaou said that some people believe the British presence provides security against Turkiye, which occupies the northern third of the island.

But it is a view that she disputes, arguing the UK had “failed to intervene during the events leading to the island’s division”.

Nico added that during the fighting in 1974, locals had sought refuge on the bases; now the reverse was occurring, with people wanting to evacuate the area out of fear that they would be attacked by drones or missiles.

He said that on Monday, when the suspected Iranian drone attack occurred, some people got into their cars, scared and disoriented, and began driving away from areas surrounding the bases.

There is a strong perception that the government lacks leadership and that nationals are not being properly informed.

Many flights in and out of Cyprus have been cancelled, and in a country where tourism accounts for about 14 percent of GDP, the disruption could have a significant economic impact.

On Tuesday, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said it was sending a warship to the island along with two Wildcat helicopters “to bolster drone defence for our Cypriot partners”, raising further fears that Cyprus will continue to be a target.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr is in Beirut where more people have been sleeping on the streets due to Israel’s forced evacuation orders and bombing of the southern suburbs, an area seen as a Hezbollah stronghold.