LOS ANGELES — The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) on Thursday called for sweeping accountability and reform within federal immigration agencies following the removal of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, with Executive Director Angelica Salas describing the move as “long overdue.”
Kristi Noem was appointed to office on Jan. 25, 2025, and human rights organizations across the United States have widely criticized her tenure at DHS. Salas said in a statement that “her tenure, as two congressional hearings this week clearly showed, was defined by chaos, cruelty, corruption, and a refusal to take responsibility for the abuses carried out by federal agents under her watch.”
Many immigrant members of society, as well as those within their social circles, have been negatively impacted by the widespread changes and aggressive enforcement of immigration law in the past year. Salas emphasized that “for immigrant communities across the country, her leadership represented a dangerous escalation of policies that treated families and workers as targets rather than as human beings who contribute to and strengthen this nation.”
According to Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a writer for the American Immigration Council, “the number of people held in ICE detention on any given day increased by over 75% in one year.” Reichlin-Melnick also asserted that “the Trump administration has dramatically changed the profile of who is being arrested by increasing the use of ‘at-large’ arrests in American communities by 600%, leading to an unprecedented deployment of federal law enforcement.”
While the Trump administration and DHS assert that the increase in immigration enforcement actions has dramatically decreased the number of undocumented immigrants suspected of criminal activity, a Jan. 20, 2026, press release stated that “under the United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s leadership this past year, DHS has been hard at work restoring the rule of law, delivering the most secure border ever, removing dangerous criminal illegal aliens, creating safer communities, strengthening cyber defense, fixing disaster response, launching initiatives that are reshaping American travel and national security, and making America safe for generations to come.”
Reichlin-Melnick argued otherwise. He wrote that “these changes in arrest practices have led to a 2,450% increase in the number of people with no criminal record being held in ICE detention on any given day.”
He further emphasized that “these changes have resulted from the expansion of ‘at-large’ arrests in American communities, worksite raids at farms, construction sites, factories, and other businesses, and new ‘re-arrest’ policies at ICE check-ins and immigration courthouses. American communities are now seeing a level of immigration enforcement utterly unprecedented in modern history, leading to a rising backlash and clashes between protestors and DHS officials.”
“But removing Kristi Noem is only the first step,” Salas said, acknowledging that “as President Trump appoints a new leader at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, our communities expect something fundamentally different: leadership grounded in accountability, adherence to laws and the constitution, humanity, and respect for the dignity of every person.”
Salas concluded by calling for systemic reform within federal immigration agencies, stating, “The next secretary must end the culture of impunity within agencies like ICE, CBP, and USCIS, ensure transparency, and recognize that immigrant and refugee communities deserve safety, fairness, and basic human respect—not fear and abuse at the hands of the very institutions meant to serve the public.”
Salas’s call to “end the culture of impunity” raises concerns about internal oversight and accountability within DHS component agencies. ICE, CBP and USCIS each operate under federal authority, and departmental policy directives and enforcement guidance shape their conduct.
The departure of the DHS secretary and the appointment of a successor will likely influence the direction of federal immigration policy in the coming months. Advocacy organizations such as CHIRLA continue to highlight the importance of leadership accountability and closely monitor the impacts of appointed government officials on the conduct of federal agencies as the national debate over immigration enforcement and civil rights protections continues.
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