Renee Nicole Good dropped her six-year-old son at school on January 7, unaware it would be her last morning. Minutes later, ICE agent Jonathan Ross fired three bullets into her vehicle in Minneapolis. She was a U.S. citizen, a mother, a person with dreams.
Now she’s the catalyst forcing 100 House Democrats to demand accountability from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem—nearly half the party’s entire caucus. What started as outrage over one shooting has become a constitutional reckoning.
The Moment Everything Changed in Minneapolis
Video doesn’t lie. Independent forensic analysis showed the ICE agent wasn’t even in the vehicle’s path when shots were fired, yet DHS claimed self-defense. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called the federal account “garbage”. Renee’s family saw their mother, daughter, and sister reduced to a talking point in a border-security debate.
That crushing reality—a dead woman, a conflicting story, zero accountability—broke through the noise for Democrats who’d been warning about ICE for months. One shooting, one death, one mother gone. It sparked a movement.
The Momentum That Shocked Everyone
Rep. Robin Kelly filed articles of impeachment on January 14. Seventy co-sponsors immediately signed on. Seven days later: one hundred. Nearly half of all House Democrats—a stunning show of unity in a fractured chamber.
Even Representatives who’ve opposed impeachment in the past, like Jared Huffman, signed their names.
Three Articles. Three Directions of Attack.
First article: obstruction of Congress. Noem blocked lawmakers from inspecting ICE detention facilities, violating federal law that explicitly protects this right. Second: violation of public trust. Democrats charge she directed agents to make warrantless arrests and “use violence against United States citizens”.
Third: self-dealing. She allegedly steered $200 million in taxpayer funds to a firm run by her allies, bypassing competitive bidding. Together, they paint a portrait of a Cabinet secretary wielding power without restraint.
$200 Million to the Right People
Follow the money, and you find Ben Yoho’s Strategy Group, a consulting firm with deep roots in Noem’s political circle. Yoho is married to Tricia McLaughlin, who runs DHS’s Office of Public Affairs—the same office that funded the $200 million ad contract.
The firm played a central role in Noem’s 2022 gubernatorial campaign. When DHS needed to spend big on recruitment advertising, it steered the work to Yoho’s company.
The Delaware Shell Game
DHS created a shell company called Safe America Media, incorporated in Delaware just days before signing the contract. That company quietly funneled portions of the $200 million to Strategy Group as a subcontractor. The Strategy Group’s name doesn’t appear on any public documents.
When asked about the arrangement, McLaughlin told reporters she’d “fully recused” herself and had “no visibility into why they were chosen”.
Kelly’s Words Cut Through the Political Noise
“Secretary Noem and her rogue agency have caused destruction and devastation across the country,” Kelly said Wednesday. “Our communities have seen ICE’s Gestapo-like tactics firsthand”. She delivered a direct warning: “You have violated your oath of office and there will be consequences. I am watching you. The American people are watching you”.
These aren’t diplomatic speeches. These are words from a lawmaker who’s decided accommodation is over.
DHS Fires Back: ‘Silly’ and ‘Showmanship’
The Department didn’t apologize or explain. Instead, it attacked. A spokesperson called the impeachment effort “silly during a serious time,” accusing Kelly of caring more about “fundraising clicks than actually cleaning up her crime-ridden Chicago district”.
DHS pointed to a claimed 1,300 percent spike in assaults on ICE officers, blaming “radical rhetoric” from Democrats.
Republicans Hold the Majority
The reality: 220 Republicans, 213 Democrats, and a handful of vacancies. Even unanimous Democratic support wouldn’t reach the 218 votes needed to impeach. If—miraculously—the House passed the articles, the Republican Senate would need 67 votes to convict and remove Noem.
Democrats hold 47 Senate seats. Passage is mathematically impossible. Yet Huffman explained his signature anyway: “A message needs to be sent”. Sometimes the point isn’t winning. It’s being on the record.
Impeachment Without Consequences
Republicans walked this path just two years ago with Cabinet Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. House GOP impeached him in February 2024—the first Cabinet secretary impeached in nearly 150 years. In April, Senate Democrats voted 51-48 and 51-49 to dismiss both charges as unconstitutional.
The entire trial lasted three hours. Republicans had called it constitutional accountability. Democrats called it political theater.
A Constitutional Crisis Brewing
Federal law says Congress can inspect ICE detention facilities without warning. In December, a federal judge confirmed this. One day after Renee Good’s killing, Noem issued a new memo requiring seven days’ advance notice anyway.
Two days later, on January 10, Representatives Ilhan Omar, Angie Craig, and Kelly Morrison showed up at the Minneapolis facility. DHS turned them away.
Three Congresswomen, Locked Out, Fighting Back
Omar, Craig, and Morrison didn’t quietly accept the rejection. They went public immediately, describing being escorted from the building minutes after entering. Morrison said DHS falsely claimed the lawmakers were violating court orders.
Twelve Democratic colleagues filed suit, demanding that the courts force DHS to explain how this policy complies with a federal judge’s prior order. Judge Jia Cobb suggested the new policy appeared to violate her December ruling.
Pattern or Coincidence?
Since Trump took office on January 20, 2025, ICE agents have been involved in at least 26 shootings. Six people are dead. In the four months before Renee Good was killed, federal agents fired weapons nine times across five states and Washington, D.C. Every person shot was inside a vehicle.
In September, ICE killed Silverio Villegas-González near Chicago during what DHS called a traffic stop.
Other Voices. Other Deaths
At the January 14 press conference, Representative Adriano Espaillat revealed that 32 people died in DHS custody during 2025 alone. Four more in the first three weeks of 2026. “Do you think that a dictatorship knocks on your door with a dozen roses?” Espaillat asked. “It creeps up, it assaults you”.
Representative Maxine Dexter described “brazen, militarized federal agents who act without fear of accountability”. These are angry Democrats, but they’re also describing something real: a pattern, a system, a crisis.
A Senate Run Adds Stakes to Kelly’s Bold Move
Robin Kelly isn’t just any representative filing articles of impeachment. She’s running for U.S. Senate in 2026 to fill retiring Senator Dick Durbin’s seat. She announced her run in May 2025. She carries $2 million in campaign funds. Her South Side Chicago district has a national spotlight on it.
Filing articles of impeachment against a Cabinet secretary weeks before a primary is either politically brilliant or politically suicidal. Either way, it’s gutsy.
Democratic Leadership Walks a Razor’s Edge
House Democratic leaders aren’t cheering openly. Leader Hakeem Jeffries said accountability should happen “at the appropriate time,” with focus now on cost of living and healthcare. Some strategists fear impeachment talk energizes Trump’s base right before midterms. Others see it differently: the Noem impeachment is politically safer than impeaching Trump himself.
Representative Juan Vargas captured the split: Trump impeachment “won’t lead anywhere,” he said, but Noem “definitely needs to go”. It’s a party divided between conscience and calculation.
November Changes Everything
Democrats are playing the long game. Midterm history favors the opposition: in 18 of 20 elections since 1946, the president’s party lost House seats. Democrats need just three to five net gains to flip control. If they win in November, committee chairs shift, subpoena power returns, and investigative resources multiply exponentially.
Jeffries warned the Trump administration: “All members of your cabinet,” we’re watching. The impeachment vote now? It’s a placeholder. A promise.
The Historical Reckoning
William Belknap, Secretary of War, in 1876—for bribery and kickbacks. Alejandro Mayorkas in 2024—for border policy disagreements. That’s it. Two Cabinet members in American history faced impeachment. Noem would be the third. The Belknap case involved clear financial corruption. The Mayorkas case centered on policy disputes.
The Noem articles combine both: specific financial misconduct plus complaints about enforcement tactics.
Multiple Investigations Close In
Impeachment is just one front. Five U.S. senators and two House representatives demanded that the DHS Inspector General investigate the Strategy Group contracts in November and December. Senator Peter Welch asked whether Noem violated federal contracting law by using emergency authority to bypass competitive bidding.
Representatives Bennie Thompson and Robert Garcia demanded all communications between Noem and Strategy Group associates.
A Secretary Under Fire
What began with Renee Good’s death in Minneapolis has become a reckoning. 100 Democrats say Noem’s conduct warrants removal. Republicans say it’s political theater. DHS says the charges are “silly”. But the momentum keeps building—blocked oversight, dead citizens, money trails, shell companies, restricted access, multiple investigations.
Democrats are betting that voters in 2026 will agree that accountability matters, even when it’s symbolic. Even when it won’t pass. Even when it’s risky. Renee Good can’t vote in November. But millions of others can. And that’s where this fight actually happens.
SOURCES
Axios – “House Democrats’ support for impeaching Kristi Noem is…” (January 20, 2026)
Rep. Robin Kelly – “Rep. Kelly announces plans to impeach Secretary Kristi Noem” (January 6, 2026)
CNN – “Renee Nicole Good: Mother of 3 who loved to sing and…” (January 8, 2026)
DAWN – “100 Democrats demand impeachment of US homeland security chief” (January 21, 2026)
Rep. Robin Kelly – “Rep. Kelly introduces articles of impeachment against Secretary Noem” (January 13, 2026)
ProPublica – “Kristi Noem-Tied Firm Secretly Got Piece of $220 Million…” (December 28, 2025)