Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has been fired. Her removal was deserved and should have come after it was revealed that everything she said about the shooting death of anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement activist Alex Pretti was false. Conducting mass deportations is hard enough without losing public credibility on the issue. But for whatever reason President Donald Trump has finally fired her, the proverbial straw appears to be her untruths about a $220 million Department of Homeland Security ad campaign. Whatever the proximate cause, her dismissal from the DHS is a welcome development. We hope her replacement, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), will work with White House border czar Tom Homan to conduct a more professional enforcement of federal immigration law.

The seeds of Noem’s ultimate firing came early in her tenure: a $220 million DHS advertising campaign ostensibly designed to promote self-deportation by illegal immigrants included many wince-worthy scenes glamorizing Noem, including one of her riding on horseback with Mount Rushmore as her backdrop. Later reporting revealed that, contrary to Noem’s testimony before Congress, the contract for the campaign was not put out to competitive tender and went to an aide who was linked to her longtime ally and “special government employee” Corey Lewandowski.