Kristi Noem hired Sheahan straight out of Ohio State, getting her plum appointments in government she had no qualifications for, like being named Director of Wildlife and Fisheries in Louisiana on Noem's recommendation to Governor Jeff Landry at age 26, finally making her Deputy Director of ICE earlier this year. Like Noem, she has no background in law enforcement at all.

“I absolutely think I’m qualified for the job. Because at the end of the day, what really makes anybody qualified for any job?" Spoken in true MAGA fashion.

Source: New York Magazine

Another of Noem’s deputies is Madison Sheahan, 28, who just six years ago was the captain of the rowing team at Ohio State University and who now is the deputy director of ICE. “For the most part, every entity in ICE reports to me,” Sheahan told me in an interview at ICE headquarters in southwest Washington. Sheahan is broad-shouldered with a punishing handshake. She told me she doesn’t sweat the controversial parts of her job. “I understand that everyone wants to poke holes and say we aren’t perfect, and we aren’t,” she said. “But we’ll never know how much ICE prevented — the number of kids that we’ve saved and families that we’ve saved.”

She first began working for Noem pretty much right out of college, as a body woman and policy aide when Noem was governor. “She genuinely believes she was called to serve by God,” she said of Noem. They grew close enough to consider each other friends. Once, Noem invited Sheahan to run a half-marathon with her. When Sheahan asked her boss if she needed Gatorade about a mile from the finish line, Noem said “yes,” only to sprint ahead when Sheahan popped over to a hydration table. Noem beat her by about ten feet. “That really describes her,” Sheahan told me. “She’s gonna have fun. She’s gonna do her job. But she’s gonna win, too.”

Some ICE officials call Sheahan “Fish Cop” behind her back because of her previous stint running the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries in Louisiana. Sheahan knows there are people who think that, without any law-enforcement background, she isn’t qualified for a job usually occupied by veteran ICE officials. “I absolutely think I’m qualified for the job,” she told me. “Because at the end of the day, what really makes anybody qualified for any job?”