Democratic New York Rep. Laura Gillen, who was one of just seven Democrats to vote Thursday for a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), announced Sunday she now supports the impeachment of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
In an X post announcing her new position, Gillen appeared to cite the fatal Saturday shooting of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis — though she incorrectly stated he was “killed at the hands of ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement].” The first-term moderate Democrat, who has often broken with her party on immigration issues, represents a swing district covering parts of Nassau County on Long Island and narrowly defeated a one-term Republican incumbent in 2024.
“Another U.S. citizen has been killed at the hands of ICE and there must be accountability, which is why Secretary Noem must be impeached immediately,” Gillen wrote in her social media post.
While ICE and Border Patrol are separate agencies, they are both components of DHS, and therefore would both be funded by the bill currently under consideration by the Senate which Gillen voted for Thursday.
“Under her [Noem’s] leadership, ICE has targeted U.S. citizens and children and killed Americans. She is not focused on safety or border security; she’s focused on chaos and self-promotion, undermining local law enforcement and stoking violence as a result. The American people deserve better,” the congresswoman added in her X post.
Another U.S. citizen has been killed at the hands of ICE and there must be accountability, which is why Secretary Noem must be impeached immediately.
Under her leadership, ICE has targeted U.S. citizens and children and killed Americans. She is not focused on safety or border…
— Congresswoman Laura Gillen (@RepLauraGillen) January 25, 2026
Gillen, along with six other moderate House Democrats, joined all but one voting Republicans in supporting the bill funding DHS. The bill is presently part of a spending package which, if not passed by the Senate by Jan. 30, will trigger a partial government shutdown.
The congresswoman previously justified her breaking ranks with the vast majority of her party on the funding bill in a Thursday statement, writing, “I’m shocked my colleagues would vote to cut off national and community security funding while leaving ICE to operate under the status quo.”
She added in the statement that she supports “funding our immigration enforcement and the commonsense guardrails that have been included in this package.”
In the aftermath of Pretti’s shooting, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and members of his Democratic caucus have vocally come out against the bill, making it increasingly likely the country will enter the second government shutdown of the past few months.
“I urge the Senate to pass this bill swiftly,” Gillen wrote in her Thursday statement.
The congresswoman’s office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Gillen in June 2025 was one of 75 Democrats to break with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and support a resolution which in part expressed “gratitude to law enforcement officers, including [ICE] personnel, for protecting the homeland.” The resolution primarily served to condemn an antisemitic terrorist attack which took place in Boulder, Colo., the week before. The alleged perpetrator of the attack was Egyptian national Mohammed Sabry Soliman.
One of Gillen’s first votes in Congress came in January 2025 when she was one of 46 Democrats to support the Laken Riley Act. The law mandates federal immigration authorities, such as ICE, detain illegal immigrants who commit certain crimes inside the United States. The legislation was named in honor of a 22-year-old nursing student who was slain by an illegal immigrant on the University of Georgia’s campus in February 2024.
After voting for it, Gillen called the now-law, which President Donald Trump signed just over a week into his second term, a “bipartisan bill to keep our communities safe and deter crime.”
“It’s long past time for Democrats and Republicans to work together on common-sense solutions to our current immigration and border challenges,” the lawmaker added in her January 2025 statement about the Laken Riley Act. “That’s why Nassau County sent me to Congress and why my first act in office was to join a bipartisan majority to send this bill to the Senate.”
Gillen’s seat has notably trended to the right over the past several election cycles, having previously been solidly blue. Whereas Vice President Kamala Harris won the seat by just one percentage point in 2024, former President Joe Biden won it by 14.5 points in 2020.
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