Kristi Noem isn’t leaving the Department of Homeland Security all by herself.
The newly fired DHS secretary, 54, is bringing nearly a dozen of her staffers over to the State Department, where she will lead a drug cartel-fighting initiative launched by 79-year-old President Donald Trump just days after her termination.
An administration official told Politico that 10 of Noem’s staffers at DHS will join her in her new role as special envoy for The Shield of the Americas – Western Hemisphere.
The staffers are Joe Guy, Troup Hemenway, Steven Munoz, Giovanna Cinelli, Joseph Mazzara, Josh King, Zach Watson, Octavian Miller, Jayden Bies, and Josh Sedore.
The DHS and the State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
The Daily Beast previously reported that Mazzara, an attorney with no experience in law enforcement, was escorted out of the DHS offices in Washington, D.C., following Trump’s firing of Noem in the aftermath of the chaotic Minnesota immigration blitz.
A DHS source described Mazzara as a loyalist of Noem and her top aide-slash-alleged lover, Corey Lewandowski.
“He was Corey’s #1,” the source told the Beast.
“He was Corey’s henchman and sought to fire anyone not loyal to Noem, Corey, and Trump,” another added.
Lewandowski made Mazzara a deputy commissioner at Customs and Border Protection less than three months ago in an apparent bid to undermine and force out the agency’s long-serving commissioner, Rodney Scott—but the plan didn’t work.
Earlier this month, Trump announced that he was kicking Noem out of DHS and replacing her with Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin, who faced a grilling in a rocky Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday. He managed to overcome the obstacle, with senators voting to advance his nomination.
With Mullin taking Noem’s job, Trump found something else to keep Noem busy after a chaotic tenure at DHS. Under Noem’s leadership, two American citizens were killed by federal immigration agents, protests erupted across the country against the violent mass deportation agenda, and rumors flew about her alleged affair with Lewandowski.
Trump ousted Noem the same week she answered questions about her relationship with Lewandowski before the DHS oversight committee.
In a Florida event attended by several Latin American leaders—including Argentina’s Javier Milei, El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, and Paraguay’s Santiago Peña—he announced the launch of the Shield of the Americas.
The multinational coalition is aimed at combating drug cartels, narcoterrorists, as well as “illegal and mass immigration.”
“I do want to thank the President for creating this and for giving me the honor and the opportunity to serve as a special envoy to this region, to the Western Hemisphere,” Noem said at the summit. “This Shield of Americas will be a powerful example to the rest of the world about what’s possible.”
