Tricia McLaughlin, Vociferous Supporter of Trump’s ICE Crackdown, Stepping Down as DHS Spox

AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin is stepping down from her role, reported Politico’s Daniel Lippman and Adam Wren on Tuesday.

The tactics used during President Donald Trump administration’s immigration crackdown have been loudly criticized and sparked nationwide protests and multiple court challenges, especially after two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis: Renee Good on Jan. 7 by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, and Alex Pretti on Jan. 24 by Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez. Recent polling shows public opinion souring on the immigration crackdown, even among Republicans.

McLaughlin, as spokesperson for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, has been front-and-center vociferously defending the administration’s actions during numerous television shows, podcasts, and press conferences — even the controversial (and heavily disputed) comments characterizing Good and Pretti as “domestic terrorists.”

Citing “two DHS officials familiar with the move,” the Politico report said McLaughlin “is expected to inform colleagues Tuesday about her plans” and then leave DHS at some point next week.

She was initially planning to resign last December, the report added, “but delayed her departure amid the aftermath of the Renee Good and Alex Pretti shootings, according to the people briefed on her exit.”

McLaughlin’s resignation may have been “long planned,” but the timing of it now comes “amid unprecedented turbulence at DHS,” and mere days after a scathing exposé by The Wall Street Journal about the “constant chaos” at DHS under Noem’s tenure.

Politico also noted an interview McLaughlin did in mid-January with her hometown newspaper, The Cincinnati Enquirer, in which she said she “wouldn’t rule anything out” when asked if she would run for office if she came back to Cincinnati.

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