Department of Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem has been a lightning rod for criticism amid anti-ICE riots that have rocked the country, sparked a government shutdown and left many wondering whether the nation’s 8th DHS secretary would keep her job.

Despite the mounting pressure, Noem appeared calm, collected, and confident during a trip this week that included a stop in Mississippi to assess winter storm damage recovery efforts, visits to the southern border in Texas and Arizona as well as the northern border in North Dakota, and a BBQ dinner hosted and served by Noem herself to Border Patrol agents in Arizona.

During the first half of the four-day stint, Congress was still dealing with a partial government shutdown largely over how to fund DHS. The House ultimately reached an agreement, funding the agency through Feb. 13, but Noem’s focus remained the same before and after the bill passed, and her schedule was left unchanged.

During an exclusive interview along the border wall in Nogales, Ariz., Noem told Fox News Digital that the national security functions of the agency are too vital to be sidelined by a spending fight.

BORDER CROSSINGS HIT 55-YEAR LOW — AFTER DEMOCRATS SAID REFORM WAS THE ONLY FIX

“Every day [DHS is] finding terrorists and removing them from our country, protecting our cybersecurity systems, our critical infrastructure,” Noem told Fox. “Only 11% of the DHS budget is ICE. The rest of it is FEMA, TSA, that runs our security checkpoints at our airports.” 

“It is also the Coast Guard, which is absolutely critical to our maritime protection and also partnering with the Department of War,” Noem added. “We have weapons of mass destruction, science and technology, our national labs.”

“We have a lot of responsibilities that we absolutely need to fund in order to do them properly. So I’m hopeful that Congress will recognize that and pass this bill quickly,” Noem said.

KRISTI NOEM TO TESTIFY BEFORE HOUSE COMMITTEE NEXT MONTH

But the debate around government spending wasn’t about the Coast Guard, FEMA or TSA. It was almost entirely based on one of the 23 agencies which Noem oversees – Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Specifically, it centered around ICE’s actions in Minneapolis, a so-called sanctuary city in which the local authorities provide only minimal support to federal officers enforcing immigration laws.

Since the beginning of the year, DHS estimates that Operation Metro Surge has resulted in the apprehension of 4,000 criminal illegal migrants in Minneapolis. The operation was launched mainly due to a fraud scheme that involved members of the Somali community in Minnesota.

The mission then evolved into a heated clash between agitators and federal officers that ultimately left two U.S. citizens dead, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both killed by federal immigration agents.

NOEM VOWS CRIMINAL PROSECUTION AFTER CATCHING ALLEGED DHS ‘PROLIFIC LEAKER’

Noem quickly labeled both Good and Pretti as “domestic terrorists” and said their deaths were due to impeding “law enforcement operations,” sparking outrage from Democrats and some Republicans who began to call for her resignation. 

Rumors swirled whether Noem would actually resign or if President Donald Trump would fire fire her, but the president told reporters shortly after the death of Pretti that he had no intention of relieving her from her position as head of DHS.

When Fox News Digital asked Noem what she believed the American people want when it comes to ICE enforcing the law using the same tactics that led to riots, deaths and assaults on both agitators and agents, Noem said “I think people would want less conflict.”

LEAVITT SAYS TRUMP WILL NOT ‘WAVER’ ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN DESPITE DEMOCRATIC BACKLASH

“[The American people] want to know that we’re enforcing our laws and that we are going after dangerous criminals, and they don’t want them to be released on the streets to perpetuate more crimes,” Noem explained. 

At some stops along Noem’s trip, agitators appeared. At a dinner she hosted inside a hotel in Tucson, Arizona, for CBP officers, protesters with drums, megaphones and seemingly pre-made signs gathered at the entrance of the hotel. Every other car driving by the demonstration honked, though it’s unclear whether they were honking in support or in disagreement with the protesters. 

A Quinnipiac University survey taken from Jan. 29 to Feb. 2 showed 58% of those questioned saying that Noem shouldn’t have the job.

DHS SECRETARY NOEM STANDS BY BODY CAMERA REQUIREMENT FOR FEDERAL AGENTS FOLLOWING TRUMP COMMENTS

Fox News Digital spoke with a GOP insider who pointed to Noem’s inexperience on the national stage, saying her time as governor of South Dakota didn’t prepare her for one of the most challenging roles in the presidential cabinet.

Despite the critics, Noem’s record on securing the border has proven successful, according to figures provided by the department and the Trump administration. Trump’s goal to deter illegal migrants from crossing the border, which was Noem’s mandate, has been a priority for the White House. 

More illegal migrants crossed the southern border in one average month under former President Biden’s watch than have crossed under Noem’s entire watch, according to DHS.

NOEM DEPLOYS TO BOTH BORDERS, SAYS ICE WON’T BE DETERRED BY SANCTUARY OFFICIALS WHO ‘WANT TO CREATE CONFLICT’

“We have over three million people that have deported, and that includes probably about 700,000 that we have detained and removed,” Noem told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. “Beyond that, over 2.3 million have self-deported.”

“You know, you send the message around the world that America is now going to be enforcing its laws and making sure that if you’re in this country illegally, that you should go home, and we’ve been incentivizing that through a $2,600 payment and a flight,” Noem added. “Millions of people have taken us up on that.”

Trump defended Noem for a second time during remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday when discussing if he would relinquish her command at DHS.

HOUSE DEMOCRATS HOLD ‘SHADOW HEARINGS’ AS THEY BUILD CASE TO IMPEACH KRISTI NOEM

“Why would I do that? We have the strongest border in the history of our country,” Trump said. “We have the best crime numbers we’ve ever had going back to the year 1900. That’s 125 years. We have the lowest crime numbers.”

Trump also appointed Tom Homan, the former ICE director during Trump’s first term and the executive associate director of Enforcement and Removal Operations under President Barack Obama, to serve as border czar, a role previously held by Kamala Harris. 

Some reports painted a picture of an unspoken rivalry between Homan and Noem following Trump’s decision to put Homan in command of the situation in Minneapolis.

NOEM SLAMS DEMS, BIDEN ADMINISTRATION FOR LACKING ‘COMPASSION’ AMID ANTI-ICE TENSIONS

But Noem told Fox News Digital she credited Homan for working to get local leaders in Minneapolis to come to the table and negotiate order in what has been a chaotic scene in the Twin Cities.

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“What people need to remember is that Democrat policies were destroying our country,” Noem said. “And President Trump came in and said, I’m going to protect the American people. It’s not going to happen anymore. “

“Since [the Biden administration], thousands of people’s lives have been saved just here, just right here on the border, because those migrants are not victimized anymore,” Noem added.

Preston Mizell is a writer with Fox News. Story tips can be sent to Preston.Mizell@fox.com and on X @MizellPreston

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass was having a really bad week.

But then it turned into a pretty good week, and she must have breathed a sigh of relief.

Until the Saturday morning surprise.

I had to set fire to my scorecard, and to the column I had just drafted, which touched on all the expected big-name challengers who had bowed out of the mayoral race in the past several days: L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, billionaire businessman Rick Caruso (who forced a runoff with Bass the last time around), and former L.A. Unified schools chief Austin Beutner.

It was looking as though we wouldn’t get a badly needed, monthslong, toe-to-toe face-off about all that’s right and wrong in the sprawling metropolis of high hopes and low expectations. In a conversation I had with Loyola Marymount University’s Fernando Guerra, a decades-long observer of the local political scene, he made this observation about the dull political season that was shaping up:

“What is interesting to me is that no one from the establishment political class is running against [Bass] when she is clearly vulnerable.”

Vulnerable because of her handling of the Palisades fire and its aftermath.

Vulnerable because of limited progress on core issues such as homelessness, housing affordability and the shameful condition of streets, sidewalks and parks.

But then came Saturday morning, when, in an unexpected move, L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman decided to step up, injecting a new element of drama into the race.

It was a surprise because Raman and Bass are not political enemies. In fact, they’ve largely been allies and have endorsed each other’s reelection bids.

So what was Raman thinking in signing up for a challenge in which she is clearly the underdog?

“I have deep respect for Mayor Bass. We’ve worked closely together on my biggest priorities and her biggest priorities, and there’s significant alignment there,” Raman told The Times. “But over the last few months in particular, I’ve really begun to feel like unless we have some big changes in how we do things in Los Angeles, that the things we count on are not going to function anymore.”

There’s more to it than that, in political terms. Raman is to the left of Bass and the traditional left in Los Angeles. She and three other council members supported by the Democratic Socialists of America have changed the conversation at City Hall, with more emphasis on social service, housing and labor issues, and less on traditional law enforcement.

That agenda won’t play with conservative voters and neighborhoods in which public safety is a big issue, but among the progressives’ likely supporters are renters, immigrants, young adults, the underserved, and the frontline workers in the minimum-wage economy.

Raman’s candidacy — along with DSA candidates for other city offices — makes the election something of a referendum on the evolving center of political clout in L.A. It raises the question of whether the city is ready to blow things up and move further in the direction of New York City, which just elected as mayor the ultra-progressive Zohran Mamdani.

And for all of that, it also raises the question of whether progressives can both deliver on their promises and also balance a budget. No easy task, there.

As for Bass, you don’t get as far in politics as she has — from the state Legislature to Congress to City Hall — without sharp survival skills and without collecting friends you can count on, even when the road to reelection is filled with potholes.

And even when an ally comes after you.

“Wow, what a surprise,” Guerra said upon Raman’s entry into the race.

He considers her a formidable foe who was the first to prove “that the DSA can win in Los Angeles” and who brings several advantages to a campaign against Bass.

For one, she has a record of some success on homelessness in her district and was involved in that cause in the Silver Lake area before she was in public office, when she identified a startling lack of coordination and continuity. And by virtue of her age, 44, she’s aligned with younger voters hungry for change in political leadership.

It’s possible that with Raman in the race, and the nuts-and-bolts issues of governance now center stage, there will be slightly less emphasis on Bass’s handling and mishandling of the Palisades fire, which destroyed thousands of properties, wiped out a vibrant community and killed 12 people.

When I said at the top of this column that Bass was having a really bad week, I was referring to the Palisades fire and the latest story from Times investigative reporters Alene Tchekmedyian and Paul Pringle. They had already established that the Los Angeles Fire Department had failed to pre-deploy adequately for the fire, and that it had failed to extinguish an earlier fire that later triggered the epic disaster.

The reporters had also established that the so-called “after-action” report on the fire had been altered to downplay failures by the department and the city, all of which was scandalous enough.

But on Wednesday, Tchekmedyian and Pringle reported that Bass was involved in the revisions despite her earlier denials. The mayor “wanted key findings about the LAFD’s actions removed or softened before the report was made public,” according to sources.

Bass vehemently denied the allegations and blasted The Times. But even before the latest story, Bass’s Palisades report card was one that a prudent person might have fed to the dog. She had left the country just before the fire despite warnings of potentially cataclysmic conditions. And multiple other missteps followed, including the botched hiring and early departure of a rebuilding czar.

Raman has not targeted Bass’ handling of the fire, and we’ll see if that changes. I don’t consider the response to the ICE raids to be a point of contention between Raman and Bass. One of the mayor’s strengths in office has been her defense of the city’s immigrants and her pushback against President Trump.

“Bass gets high marks resisting ICE,” Guerra said of polling and public opinion surveys he has either conducted or reviewed. “But on other issues, including homelessness, she does not do well.”

Two-thirds of voters in one poll said they would not back Bass in the June primary, Guerra said. But that poll did not offer an alternative to Bass, and now there is one.

Actually, several. The others include Brentwood tech entrepreneur Adam Miller, who’s got money to spend; reality TV personality Spencer Pratt, a Republican who lost his Palisades home and has been hammering the mayor; and minister/community organizer Rae Huang, a Democratic socialist.

Do they matter, given the odds against them and the entry of Raman into the race?

Yes, they might. Bass needs more than 50% of the June primary vote to win outright. But with Raman and the others grabbing varying percentages of the vote, a two-person November runoff is likely and the candidates will almost surely be Bass and Raman.

After a crazy week in L.A., allies are now foes.

And the race for mayor just got interesting.

steve.lopez@latimes.com

Amid a slew of fresh taxes proposed by the newly emboldened Democratic majority in Virginia, the latest entry seeks to sack people’s fantasy football leagues.

The Fantasy Contests Act, authored by Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, would impose a 10% tax on fantasy sports revenue from games played within the Commonwealth.

Five percent, or 0.5 percentage points of the overall 10% tax, would go to the state’s problem-gambler treatment fund, while the other 95% (9.5 percentage points) would go to the state’s general fund.

VICTORIOUS VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS MORPH FROM PRETEND MODERATES INTO LIBERAL EXTREMISTS OVER NIGHT

It also requires fantasy sports contest operators to register with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and obtain a permit before offering any games to people in the Commonwealth.

Fox News Digital reached out to Ebbin for comment on the tax, and how he came up with the idea for it.

While Ebbin did not respond by press time, Fox News Digital also attempted to press the senator on how this latest levy aligns with Virginia Democrats’ campaign mantra of “affordability.”

Fox News Digital also reached out to the state’s two legislative Republican caucuses for additional comment.

The Virginia Lottery would have rulemaking and oversight authority over daily fantasy sports, according to Gambling Insider.

Other states are also considering legislation providing oversight or regulation of fantasy sports, including Illinois, the outlet reported.

There, a bill would grant the state’s gaming board the ability to tax and regulate such play at anywhere from 10 to 15%.

The Washington think tank Americans for Tax Reform came out swinging against the legislation with a full article-length critique of Ebbin’s plan.

“As with every tax and fee imposed on businesses, the cost doesn’t stay with the company; it’s ultimately passed on to consumers,” ATR wrote.

“This new tax inevitably translates into smaller prize pools, higher entry fees, fewer promotions and bonuses, and less competition in the market. In other words, Virginia players are the ones who end up footing the bill.”

ATR also criticized the logic behind how the bill was crafted, saying that if fantasy sports truly are skill-based — in that players use their sports knowledge to draft, start, sit and trade players — they should not be taxed “as though they were a vice.”

Virginia Democrats have also proposed a slew of other tax proposals — aside from their plan to redistrict potentially every Republican congressman except Morgan Griffith out of their seat.

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One such bill creates a net-investment income tax on trusts and estates, raising the Commonwealth’s top marginal rate to just under 10%.

Other proposals create new high-tax brackets, levy Second Amendment related purchases like an 11% tax on ammunition, place a tax on home-delivery services like Amazon, UPS and Uber Eats, and expand the current breadth of the state sales tax to include purchases not previously taxed under Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s tenure or earlier.