DHS spokesperson McLaughlin resigns amid deadly force scrutiny

TMTricia McLaughlin resigned as DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs on February 17, 2026. A source told The Hill that McLaughlin had originally planned to leave in December 2025 but delayed her departure after the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis drew national outrage against ICE.

McLaughlin made at least four major public claims about ICE enforcement operations that collapsed under scrutiny

She said Renee Good 'weaponized her vehicle' to kill agents, but video showed Good drove away from, not toward, the agent who shot her

She claimed a viral Hoffman Estates arrest video was old and didn't involve ICE; PolitiFact rated that false She said two men in Glen Burnie, 🦀Maryland drove a van at ICE officers, but local police confirmed one man was already in custody And DHS's first statement on Alex Pretti said he 'approached' agents with a handgun and 'violently resisted,' which video from multiple angles quickly disproved.

ProPublica reported in November 2025 that the Strategy Group, an 🌰Ohio Republican consulting firm run by McLaughlin's husband BYBen Yoho, was secretly subcontracted to work on DHS's $220 million advertising campaign. The Strategy Group ran the shoot for a DHS ad featuring Secretary KNKristi Noem on horseback at Mount Rushmore. The firm's involvement was hidden from public contract documents.

DHS awarded the $220 million ad campaign without competitive bidding by invoking a border 'national emergency.' The majority of the money, $143 million, went to Safe America Media, a 🐔Delaware LLC created just days before receiving the award.

Another $77 million went to People Who Think, a 🎺Louisiana Republican ad firm. Government contracting experts told ProPublica the depth of personal ties between DHS leadership and the Strategy Group suggested major potential ethics violations.

Federal immigration agents shot 13 people between September 2025 and February 2026 as DHS ramped up deportation operations

In Minneapolis alone, ICE and Border Patrol agents shot three people in January 2026, killing two U.S. citizens

Renee Good, a 37-year-old writer and poet, was shot by ICE agent JRJonathan Ross on January 7 Alex Pretti, a protester, was shot by Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and CBP officer Raymundo Gutierrez on January 24.

Public support for Trump's immigration enforcement collapsed during McLaughlin's tenure. AP-NORC polling showed approval dropped from roughly 50% in March 2025 to 39% by mid-January 2026. The Cato Institute found that 73% of people booked into ICE custody since October 2025 had no criminal conviction, directly contradicting McLaughlin's repeated claim that operations targeted the 'worst of the worst.'

Five U.S. senators and two representatives demanded documents from DHS and a formal investigation into how the Strategy Group ended up receiving taxpayer money from the $220 million ad campaign. McLaughlin had claimed she 'fully recused herself' from decisions involving her husband's firm, but her office, the Office of Public Affairs, manages the contracting process for these campaigns.

LBLauren Bis, McLaughlin's deputy and an early hire in Trump's second term, was promoted to replace her as Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs. DHS also hired Katie Zacharia, a conservative commentator and former adviser to Richard Grenell, as deputy assistant secretary. More than 30 people died in ICE detention during 2025, the most in over 20 years, and another six died in the first two weeks of 2026.