Top Trump Homeland Security spokesperson to depart with immigration crackdown under scrutiny

By Ted Hesson and Jasper Ward

WASHINGTON, Feb 17 (Reuters) - U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin will leave the administration, an agency spokesperson said, a move that comes as public support for President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown has dwindled.

McLaughlin became a prominent booster of the Republican president's aggressive approach to immigration enforcement and headed the press operation at DHS, which has come under scrutiny for issuing inaccurate or incomplete statements following violent encounters involving federal immigration officers.

Conservative commentator Katie Zacharia will join DHS as a spokesperson, a Trump administration official told Reuters, requesting anonymity to discuss the move. Zacharia did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Lauren Bis, currently a deputy in the DHS public affairs division, was expected to take the top role in the department, the official said.

McLaughlin did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A department spokesperson said her departure had been planned since December.

Public support for Trump's immigration enforcement push dropped to the lowest level of his presidency in January after months of clashes in U.S. cities and after federal immigration officers shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem initially called the victims in those shootings "domestic terrorists" rather than back an investigation, leading to criticism from Democrats and some fellow Republicans.

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives last month launched an effort to impeach Noem, saying she had violated public trust, stymied congressional oversight and engaged in self-dealing.

Noem, a former governor of South Dakota, became the face of Trump's immigration crackdown during his first year, appearing on the ground with ICE officers in New York City and posing for photographs in front of detainees in a high-security prison in El Salvador.

A Wall Street Journal report last week detailed internal tensions at DHS under Noem and top adviser Corey Lewandowski.