Internal Department of Homeland Security communications shed new light on the extent of former secretary’s executive power Kristi Noem handed over to his principal advisor Corey Lewandowski giving Trump’s 2016 campaign manager the power to make far-reaching decisions about the day-to-day running of immigration enforcement.
Signal emails and messages between top DHS officials between March and August 2025 show that Lewandowski participated in sensitive discussions about the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. These included the planning of expulsions of illegal immigrants to third countries and the legal dispute regarding the expulsion of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador.
The messages were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by American Oversight, a liberal-leaning watchdog group, and shared with POLITICO.
Lewandowski worked at the ministry between January 2025 and March 2026, but without any official role, instead serving as a special government employee – an unpaid role in which an external expert can temporarily support the government’s work as an advisor. Democrats and some Republicans have previously argued that Noem had outsource important decisions for him, it should have been the secretary’s job.
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