The secretary of state insisted that the overall mission was never jeopardized.
Fallout continues after it was learned that top officials in the Trump administration inadvertently added The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg to an unsecured Signal group chat discussing a U.S. attack on Houthis in Yemen.
Meanwhile, the administration invoked state secret privileges as it refuses to provide a federal judge with any additional information about its use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport hundreds of alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador with no due process.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said during Monday's Cabinet meeting that the department is "going to eliminate FEMA."
Noem didn't elaborate any further or provide specifics.
President Donald Trump has long been a vocal critic of FEMA, the agency tasked with responding to natural disasters and emergencies. But he doesn't have the authority to terminate the agency unilaterally, according to federal laws.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem touted deportation numbers so far at Trump's Cabinet meeting.
"We're now not even just getting the worst of the worst out. We're making sure that there's consequence for being here and committing crimes in our communities," she said.
Noem also said she will be going to El Salvador this week to visit the prison where the administration sent alleged Tren de Aragua gang members -- deportation flights that have faced intense legal scrutiny after the administration didn't turn the planes around despite a judge's order to do so.
"I'll be meeting with the president and also Colombia and Mexico and talking about building these relationships so that we can continue to get people out of this country that don't belong here and take them home," Noem said.
President Donald Trump's Cabinet meeting began with officials touting "waste, fraud and abuse" they claim to have identified at their various agencies, including the Small Business Administration, Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Trump, though, admitted it is "not necessarily a very popular thing" to make cuts to staff.
"You know, you're talking about employment, you're talking about people and the lives of people. And yet, I think the American public understands we're trying to save our country and make our country great again," Trump said.
"And I have no idea how it plays out in the public," he continued. "I have --I guess you see, poll numbers that have very good numbers, but I don't know what that means long term. But it's something that has to be done."
Polls have shown that while Americans support efficiency and progress in broad terms, they don't like some of the specifics of what the administration's done.
President Donald Trump's plan for reciprocal tariffs on April 2 is expected to be more targeted than what he has threatened previously, but the situation remains fluid and the plan is still under discussion, sources familiar with the plan told ABC News.
The April tariffs would still be a significant increase in U.S. tariffs and are expected to strain relations with U.S. allies, but it will likely be narrower than what Trump has previously said. In February, Trump ordered federal agencies to look into virtually every U.S. trading partner to evaluate what reciprocal tariff rate to put on them.
"April 2nd is Liberation Day in America!!!" Trump wrote on Truth Social. "For DECADES we have been ripped off and abused by every nation in the World, both friend and foe. Now it is finally time for the Good Ol' USA to get some of that MONEY, and RESPECT, BACK. GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!"
Trump's officials have also been signaling there will be a more focused approach in recent interviews.
"One of the things we see from markets is they're expecting they're going to be these really large tariffs on every single country," Kevin Hassett, Trump's National Economic Council director, told Fox News. "I think markets need to change their expectations, because it's not everybody that cheats us on trade, it's just a few countries and those countries are going to be seeing some tariffs."
--ABC News' Selina Wang
