During a sometimes contentious congressional committee hearing Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended her department’s work in implementing the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.
“Under President (Donald) Trump’s leadership, DHS is securing our borders, we’re restoring the rule of law, and we’re protecting the homeland,” Noem said.
She added that her department has sent a “strong message” to those in the country illegally: “We will arrest you and we will deport you” and contended that more 1.5 million people have voluntarily left the U.S.
The Homeland Security Committee hearing also included testimony from National Counterterrorism Center Director Joseph Kent and Michael Glasheen, the operations director of the FBI’s national security branch.
Noem, whose opening remarks were briefly interrupted by protesters, departed the hearing around noon after about two hours, saying she needed to attend an announcement by the FEMA Review Council. Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the ranking member on the committee, later noted that the FEMA meeting scheduled for 1 p.m. EST had been postponed.
A DHS spokesperson said the secretary learned the meeting had been canceled at 12:26 p.m. when asked for comment by Spectrum News.
Condemnation from Democrats and praise from Republicans
Noem faced harsh criticism from Democrats on the committee, including from Thompson, who was one of several House members who called on the secretary to step down.
“You are making America less safe,” Thompson said during his opening statement. “So rather than sitting here and wasting your time and ours with more corruption, lies and lawlessness, I call on you to resign. Do a real service to the country and just resign –– that is, if President Trump doesn’t fire you first.”
Noem later responded to another lawmaker, Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Mich., who suggested she leave her post, saying, “I will consider your asking me to resign as an endorsement of my work.”
Meanwhile, Republicans largely praised the secretary and the actions taken by President Donald Trump’s administration, with Texas Rep. Michael McCaul likening the difference in questioning between Democrats and GOP members to “A Tale of Two Cities.”
McCaul commended the series of strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats that began in September as well as Wednesday’s seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela by U.S. forces including the Coast Guard, which Noem heads.
“I’m finally seeing an administration flexing its muscle in this hemisphere, which has been neglected for so many years,” he said.
Questions about ICE tactics
Several Democrats asked Noem about reports of American citizens being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Noem contended that during “targeted” enforcement operations by ICE agents, “individuals that are in that area may be detained until we verify who they are, and then they are released” but that the department had “never once detained or deported an American citizen.”
To which, Thanedar replied, “Not true.”
Several Democrats, including Thanedar, cited a report from ProPublica that found that more than 170 U.S. citizens were detained by immigration agents during the first nine months of Trump’s second administration.
Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., questioned the Homeland Security secretary about deportations of people who are pursuing asylum applications in the U.S., which Noem agreed was a “lawful pathway.”
A number of news organizations, including The Associated Press, have reported on cases across the country in which government lawyers have successfully sought for asylum cases to be dismissed, allowing for applicants’ immediate removal.
“If your department then deports anyone with an ongoing asylum application, you are violating the law, correct?” Goldman asked the secretary.
“The asylum program was broken under the last administration,” Noem responded.
Noem asked about individual immigration cases
In another exchange, Rep. Seth Magaziner, D-R.I., highlighted three high-profile immigration enforcement cases, including that of Army veteran Sae Joon Park, who joined the hearing via Zoom. Park, a Purple Heart recipient who was shot twice in the back in 1989 while serving in Panama, self-deported to South Korea after facing removal from the U.S., where he had lived for nearly 50 years.
Noem told Magaziner that she would look into the cases of Park –– as well as that of a second person, Donna Hughes-Brown, an Irish citizen and green card holder who has been detained for the past four months when she returned to the U.S. following a trip to Ireland. Hughes-Brown, whose husband, Jim Brown, attended Wednesday’s hearing, had written two bad checks totaling $80 about 10 years ago, Magaziner said.
When the Rhode Island lawmaker asked about a third person, Narcisco Barranco –– a landscaper who is a 30-year resident of the U.S. and the father of three U.S. Marines – Noem responded by offering a reminder that “every person that’s in this country illegally has an opportunity to voluntarily go home.”