Mr. Grassley (00:00):
... before I give my opening statement and Senator Durbin gives his opening statement, I think we can expect in a hearing this important that we ought to have utmost of decorum during this hearing. Both the witnesses and the members of this committee need to treat each other with respect. And I hope the people in the audience will likewise treat this very important oversight hearing with the respect that it deserves.
(00:42)
Secretary Noem, if you get cut off before you're able to answer, I'll give you time to finish your answer after the member's 10 minute has run out. Also, at any time, if you need a break, just let me know. And I think we had a request from your office that take a break maybe five minutes, halfway through the meeting, but if you want other breaks, just let us know.
(01:13)
And for all the members, there's a 10-minute round of questioning. And I'm pretty liberal, if you got five seconds left in your 10 minutes and you start your question before the five seconds run out, I'll let you finish your question. But don't extend it into a five-minute speech because we got to keep pretty much on time here.
(01:44)
So once again, I would welcome everybody to the Judiciary Committee's Oversight Hearing for the Department of Homeland Security. This hearing comes amid a Democrat-led funding shutdown for the Secret Service, for FEMA, for TSA and the Coast Guard. These agencies are vital to keeping our country safe.
(02:14)
The hearing also comes as our military is engaged with Iran. And I offer my prayers and thoughts to our brave servicemen and particularly to those families that have lost loved ones. Now more than ever, I hope the Democrats will decide to end the shutdown. The Trump administration has worked to deport those who don't have a legal basis in our country. Unfortunately, in the process, some DHS officers, migrants, and protestors have felt threatened, were injured, and in very rare instances, even killed. Mistakes have been made. Let's make it clear, one death is too many. But officers should never be threatened or harmed while enforcing our laws. And there is a clear difference between conduct protected by the First Amendment and unlawful obstruction.
(03:29)
From my perspective, I believe immigration enforcement and dignity aren't mutually exclusive. Secretary Noem, I look forward to hearing how you're addressing these important issues while continuing the department's mission.
(03:48)
And your department's mission is, of course, one of the most challenging in government. The responsibilities of the Department of Homeland Security are immense. Your department operates in a dynamic environment with increased threats against officers. According to DHS, ICE officers have faced an 8,000% increase in death threats. ICE officers have faced a more than 1,300% increase in assaults. Federal law enforcement officers risk their lives finding and arresting criminals. Those criminals have committed murder, sexual assault on women and children, and many have been part of criminal gangs.
(04:38)
According to DHS, ICE has arrested tens of thousands of potential national security risks. And ICE has arrested over 1,500 known or suspected terrorists and made over 7,000 gang arrests. Criminals like this destroy the lives of innocent people and have no business being in our country. And many of them are here because of Biden administration's shameful open border policy.
(05:17)
Under your leadership, the department has renewed focus on removing criminals from our neighborhoods. You've also accomplished what many of my Democratic colleagues have said could only be done through new laws, you did it by securing the border, and President Trump did as well. In 2025, border crossings decreased 93%. According to DHS and Customs and Border Patrol, zero illegal immigrants were released into the country for 10 consecutive months. And Customs and Border Protection has seized over 617,000 pounds of drugs.
(06:06)
For more than a decade, I've done oversight of unaccompanied migrant children. The Biden administration lost track of thousands of children. The Biden administration disgracefully released children, improperly vetted sponsors with addresses including gas stations, shopping malls, movie theaters, and even Disney World. That ought to shock the conscience of every American. And we all love children.
(06:43)
The Trump administration has located over 145,000 of these children lost by Biden's open border policy. And thank God for finding those children. The department has taken important steps to ensure these children are located and removed from harm.
(07:08)
The examples I just shared are results that keep our communities safe. The example, Secretary Noem, you've also been more responsive than your predecessors to a favorite effort on my part, my oversight request. Now, I say how you've been responsive, but to be intellectually honest, from the previous administration, that's a low bar to overcome.
(07:40)
In August last year, you provided updates regarding my longstanding Afghanistan evacuee oversight. Since 2021, I've investigated the Biden administration's failure to vet Afghan evacuees. The Biden administration hid vetting failures from the public. And multiple Inspectors General have since confirmed these vetting failures.
(08:07)
As one example, the Biden administration failed to vet evacuees against all available Defense Department tactical data prior to being paroled. On September the 9th last year, DHS told my office that as of August 12th, 2025, thousands of Operation Allies Welcome parolees were potentially national security risks. Records provided by DHS also show the Biden State Department recommended a special immigration visa to Afghan national charged with shooting two national guardsmen here in Washington DC. According to the Biden State Department, at that time, the terrorist " poses no threat to national security."
(09:08)
The Biden administration's failure put this country at risk, yet my Democratic colleagues keep trying to ignore that historical fact. You all know I'm a strong supporter of Inspectors Generals and oversight. Inspector General Cuffari has told my office several times that he's been restricted by DHS memo from speaking to certain congressional committees about classified report.
(09:43)
That report is about covert testing of the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint security screening. I hosted last year a bicameral bipartisan classified briefing with senior DHS officials on that matter to do what I can to bring about transparency. I asked the Inspector General Cuffari to attend. But he declined asserting that there was a memo in the department preventing him from doing so.
(10:23)
I've also commissioned the Government Accountability Office to review the matter relating to that classified report. Government Accountability Office has said they've been unable to obtain possession of the report and access to relevant transportation security administration personnel. Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office help bring about transparency. And we all know transparency brings accountability to government.
(10:55)
Secretary Noem, if what my office has been told is accurate, these matters should have been ironed out a long time ago. If that is inaccurate, you can tell me.
(11:07)
Lastly, after your confirmation, you worked with me to restore three whistleblowers to their jobs. Thank you for helping me. But more importantly, thank you for bringing justice to those people. Because those whistleblowers faced tremendous retaliation for just reporting what the government should have been doing. They blew the whistle on the government's failure to comply with DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005. By executive order, President Trump has required compliance with that law.
(11:45)
Now, those whistleblowers have been elevated to supervisory roles. They'll receive back pay to cover years of financial losses. For two of them, who needed it, their law enforcement credentials, badges, and firearms were reauthorized.
(12:05)
Often I say whistleblowers are treated like skunks at a picnic. And these were treated like skunks by the previous administration. That administration failed to do right by these whistleblowers. I appreciate your leadership in righting the wrongs against those patriotic whistleblowers, Senator Durbin.
Mr. Durbin (12:29):
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thanks for holding this oversight hearing. After months of excuses and delays from Secretary Noem, we finally gather together. When I was chair, I restored this committee's longstanding tradition of regular oversight hearings with the Secretary of Homeland Security. Today's hearing is long overdue.
(12:51)
We are joined today by friends and family members of individuals currently in ICE detention or who have been deported. I thank them for traveling here today. Their presence is a reminder that the policies implemented by DHS under your leadership, Madam Secretary, have a devastating impact on the lives of real people.
(13:11)
Let me also say a word to those who their families have been the victim of violence by immigrants. Although immigrants as a group commit less crime than native born Americans, there is no excuse for violence. And what you've gone through is a just terrible situation that I willingly acknowledge.
(13:31)
From my point of view, we need an orderly process at the border to start with. And secondly, we should never knowingly allow a dangerous person into this country. And if someone is in this country seeking citizenship and commits a crime, serious crime, they should be asked to leave or incarcerated. Bottom line.
(13:52)
There's a way to deal with immigration that is sensible and humane on both sides. More than a dozen years ago, two members of this committee, myself and another member, worked with a bipartisan group under Senator John McCain to write a comprehensive immigration law, which dealt with many of the issues we've been working on since. It passed in the United States Senate with over 60 votes, bipartisan, supported by business and labor and religious leaders across the board. Unfortunately, the Republican leadership in the House Representatives refused to take it up. Had we passed that and made it the law of the land, we could have avoided a lot of the terrible things that have occurred since.
(14:32)
Madam Secretary, under your leadership the Homeland Security Department has been devoid of any moral compass or respect for the rule of law. Without hesitation or remorse, DHS agents have wreaked havoc in our cities. I've seen it in the city of Chicago. And acted with unspeakable cruelty against children, immigrant families, and American citizens. This administration's reckless immigration enforcement campaign is creating fear in communities and eroding the foundational tenets of our democracy.
(15:06)
Democrats believe that Congress must do its job and rein in ICE abuses by requiring immigration agents to simply follow the same rules as local police. While Republicans claim the DHS shutdown is putting us at risk, the reality is this administration has engaged in mass layoffs of career national security officials and diverted many others from protecting the homeland with the president's mass deportation campaign. This is all while Secretary Noem is sitting on an unprecedented amount of appropriated funds, more than the United States Marine Corps.
(15:45)
Republicans in Congress gave her this and gave her virtual decision making power in terms of the execution of policies. And she is spending nearly $300 million on a fleet of luxury private jets so she can travel in style. Really?
(16:06)
Secretary Noem has repeatedly claimed that the department is arresting the "worst of the worst" and making American cities safe. In fact, less than 14% of immigrants arrested during Trump's first year back in office had charges or convictions for violent criminal offenses. Less than 14%, one out of seven. Immigration agents arrive in cities without consulting local law enforcement. They roam the streets in paramilitary gear. And arrest and detain people based on the color of their skin, their accents, and the language they speak. The infamous Kavanaugh stops. That is not a public safety operation, that is a paramilitary occupation. And Secretary Noem has made excessive force the department's default position.
(16:57)
In my home state of Illinois during the so called Operation Midway Blitz, agents violently attacked, tackled, arrested, and detained immigrants and citizens. They conducted a military style raid on an apartment complex, kicking down doors and zip-tying children. A Border Patrol agent shot an American citizen, Marimar Martinez, multiple times, five times. She miraculously survived. After the incident, the agent bragged on the internet, "Five shots, seven holes."
(17:31)
And this administration didn't just shoot her five times, they called her a domestic terrorist, tried to prosecute her on trumped up charges that were ultimately withdrawn and fought the public release of evidence in her case.
(17:48)
In Minnesota, your agents shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two American citizens. And as their families struggle with these horrible tragedies, they had to fight baseless accusations of domestic terrorism from Secretary Noem, the head of the agency responsible for their loved one's death.
(18:11)
The department has also translated the President's racist attacks into immigration policy. President Trump has repeatedly called Somali immigrants and I quote, "Garbage." Garbage. And said that he doesn't want immigrants from what he calls, and I'm going to clean this up, asshole countries. I heard him say that in the Oval Office repeatedly.
(18:35)
Secretary Noem responded to what she called, "A full travel ban on every damn country that's been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies." It just so happens that every country covered by the Trump-Noem ban has a majority non-white population. Earlier this month, the Trump administration deployed [inaudible 00:18:57] to Minneapolis, supposedly to end Operation Metro Surge. The President is reading his sinking poll numbers and finally recognized the American people are sick and tired and fed up with this heavily armed, masked secret police agents causing chaos in our cities.
(19:14)
But the reality is the administration has not backed down from Stephen Miller's 3,000 person a day arrest quota. Meeting this quota is impossible without continuing indiscriminate enforcement. There simply are not enough of the so called worst of the worst to do it. ICE agents are even arresting trafficking survivors like Luna who was abused for years. In February 2025, the Trump DHS found Luna's application for a trafficking visa was bonafide. Today, Luna is still in detention.
(19:51)
DHS has launched a cruel scheme to purchase massive warehouses for detaining immigrants. Some designed to hold 8,000 people. To put that in perspective, our largest federal prison holds 4,000. Listen to what the US Conference of Catholic Bishops said about this. "The thought of holding thousands of families in massive warehouses should challenge the conscience of every American. Whatever their immigration status, these are human beings created in the image and likeness of God, and this is a moral inflection point for our country."
(20:27)
Even with tens of billions of dollars at your disposal, the administration already cannot meet the basic needs of the 65,000 people currently in immigration detention. Detained individuals, including children and infants, are subject to abusive conditions and inadequate medical care.
(20:45)
This includes Liam Ramos, the five-year-old arrested with his father in Minnesota who became ill in detention. And Amalia, an 18-month-old baby, who became so sick with a respiratory illness, she was hospitalized for 10 days, only to be returned to detention and denied medication.
(21:05)
We have also seen an unprecedented number of deaths in ICE custody. Seven people died last December alone. Nine have died this year. This includes Geraldo Lunas Campos, who was choked to death by guards. This avoidable tragedy was classified as a homicide by the county medical examiner. The Department of Homeland Security's response, try and deport the witnesses as quickly as possible.
(21:33)
Secretary Noem and her rogue immigration agents seem to believe they are above the law and accountable only to the President and Stephen Miller's evil vision of a hateful America.
(21:43)
Chief Judge Patrick Schlitz of Minnesota, a Republican appointee, found that ICE violated at least 96 court orders in Minnesota in January, the month of January alone. Which he said was "likely more than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence."
(22:03)
And hundreds of federal judges have ruled more than 4,440 times that ICE is detaining immigrants illegally. That is an extraordinary rebuke from the federal bench.
(22:15)
It hasn't stopped there. This department has trampled on the Fourth Amendment, forcibly entering private homes and businesses without judicial warrant. The Trump administration has also punished individuals for exercising their rights to free speech and peaceful protest under the First Amendment. They revoked a student's visa for writing an op-ed in America. In America. They have subpoenaed social media companies for information on Americans who have criticized ICE. ICE agents have found the addresses of peaceful protestors and showed up to their homes to intimidate them.
(22:51)
Now the administration is even threatening to interfere with our elections. President Trump has suggested that federal government should nationalize elections. Top Trump ally, Steve Bannon, recently said, "We're going to have ICE surround the polls. We'll never again allow an election to be stolen."
(23:09)
Secretary Noem went further, and this is what you said, and I quote, "Make sure that we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders to head this country." And the administration has threatened immigration enforcement surges if state officials do not turn over their voter rolls. And raided an election office in one swing county.
(23:29)
We must ask what is President Trump's end game for this reign of state sponsored violence against America's own citizens? History teaches us that immigrants are the first target when an authoritarian regime seeks to erode civil rights and consolidate power. But immigrants are never the last target. And we know that Donald Trump does not respect the constitutional rights of any American regardless of party.
(23:54)
Secretary Noem, this is the first time we've met, I've been on this committee for more than two decades, I worked with every one of your predecessors of both political parties. I tried to meet with you before and after your confirmation, but you refused every request. I want to be clear, and you should know this, no official on this side of the roster or the other is above the law. You have no right to deploy immigrant agents as a paramilitary force in American cities. You swore an oath to uphold the Constitution. You have an obligation to answer questions posed by the members of this committee so that meaningful accountability can begin for the terror we are witnessing in America every day.
Mr. Grassley (24:39):
Would you please stand to be sworn. Do you affirm the testimony you're about to give before the committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Thank you for that positive response. Please go ahead and give your opening statement.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Kristi Noem, you should be ashamed of yourself, I'm a former female [inaudible 00:25:11], you have disgraced our agency, [inaudible 00:25:15] simply responding to disaster not ICE. You should be ashamed of yourself. USA, abolish ICE. USA, abolish ICE. USA, abolish ICE.
Mr. Grassley (25:30):
You may proceed.
Kristi Noem (25:32):
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you to the ranking member, Senator Durbin as well, and the distinguished members of this committee. I appreciate the opportunity to be with all of you today and talk about the important matters and work that the Department of Homeland Security does every single day.
Mr. Durbin (25:45):
Is your microphone on?
Kristi Noem (25:47):
The Department of Homeland Security-
Mr. Grassley (25:48):
Hey. Maybe pull the microphone closer to you please. And the red light is on?
Kristi Noem (25:55):
Yep, it is.
Mr. Grassley (25:56):
Okay. Proceed.
Kristi Noem (25:58):
The Department of Homeland Security was established in the aftermath of 9/11, one of the darkest days in our nation's history. That resulted in the death of nearly 3,000 Americans. The mission of the Department of Homeland Security at that time was just as critical as it is today. We protect our American people, we prevent acts of terrorism, and we defend our homeland.
(26:18)
Every action that the Department of Homeland Security takes is guided by that mission and by that responsibility. Thanks to President Trump's leadership and the hard work of the men and women of DHS, our department has delivered historic results and has made our community safer.
(26:34)
Since the start of President Trump's second term, daily encounters along the southwest border declined by 96% compared to the Biden administration's daily average. We've reached the lowest levels ever recorded in US Customs and Border Protection's history. In President Trump's first year, total Border Patrol apprehensions along the southwest border were less than the average of a single month under the Biden administration.
(26:59)
For 10 straight months, the Border Patrol has released zero illegal aliens into the interior of the United States. And in President Trump's historic first year back in office, nearly three million illegal aliens have left the United States as a result of the administration's enforcement efforts from following the law. That includes 2.2 million that have voluntarily left and returned back to their home countries. And more than 675,000 detainments and deportations.
(27:28)
A majority of the aliens that were arrested by immigrations and customs enforcement have a criminal record. And have been charged with or convicted of secondary crimes in addition to their initial crime of being in the United States illegally. During this period, ICE has arrested over 1,500 known and suspected terrorists, more than 7,700 known gang members, many of them that were allowed to come into this country under the Biden administration. We have also reached the lowest murder rate in the last 125 years since that data was tracked.
(28:03)
Under President Biden, more than 450,000 unaccompanied alien children went missing or were lost due to the dangerous open border policies that were embraced. Under President Trump, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services have already located over 145,000 of these children and returned them back to their families and back to people who care about them. And we will not stop until every single one of those children is found.
(28:33)
Fentanyl trafficking at the southern border is down. It's been cut by over 56% because of that secure border and the enforcement actions that have been taken there. And that's compared to the same period of time in 2024.
(28:47)
The Coast Guard has seized enough cocaine the past year to prevent quantities capable of killing more than 193 million Americans. And it's kept them off of our streets. In fact, total interdiction efforts under the Trump administration have prevented 1.7 billion lethal doses of drugs from killing our next generation of Americans. These results reflect the fact that we are enforcing the laws that Congress has passed.
(29:14)
I want to address the dangerous environment that our ICE officers face on the streets today. They are facing a serious and escalating threat as a result of deliberate mischaracterizations of their heroic work and rhetoric that demonizes our law enforcement. DHS has documented an 8,000% increase in death threats against our ICE officers and their families. As well as more than 1,300% increase in assaults while carrying out the lawful enforcement operations that they do every single day.
(29:46)
I recognize that members of this committee may hold differing views about immigration policy. But it's important that we distinguish between disagreements over policy and the department's operational responsibility to enforce existing law that has been passed by Congress. It's our duty as a department to defend our homeland.
(30:06)
The latest Democrat-led shutdown of DHS is reckless, it's unnecessary and it undermines the American national security and it harms the men and women who work at DHS and their families. Despite the House passing a bipartisan bicameral full year DHS funding bill, it is Senate Democrats who've chosen not to fund the department and have held this department hostage. As a result, critical national security missions, including border security, immigration enforcement, aviation security, disaster response, cybersecurity, and the protection of critical infrastructure are all being strained. Our ability to provide for a safe and successful World Cup is being hindered as well. More than 100,000 dedicated DHS employees are once again being asked to work without pay for the third time in just five months.
(30:57)
At a time when we've produced the most secure border in history and removed nearly three million illegal aliens from our country, disrupting the department responsible for those gains is indefensible. I want to thank the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security for their professionalism, for their dedication, for their commitment to keeping America safe, and continuing to show up and work even though they aren't being compensated for it. They've kept us safe and they have patience. And our success is only possible because of their service and sacrifices.
(31:28)
I also want to thank our angel families that are behind us to tell their stories and testimonies. And also thank my husband for being here in support as well. Thank you for the opportunity to testify, Mr. Chairman, and to all the distinguished members, I look forward to your questions today.
(31:42)
With that, I yield back.
Mr. Grassley (31:44):
I have spoken about the 10-minute times that we have. Get it up to 10 minutes for me. It's on five minutes. Ten minutes.
(31:59)
Thank you for your testimony. The previous administration's open border policy brought millions of people to this country. We don't know everyone's background or true intent for entering, but we know many of these had ill intent. Given the Iran conflict, what steps has Homeland Security taken to protect against potential Iranian sleeper cells and related terrorism?
Kristi Noem (32:32):
Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
(32:33)
We work every single day with our intelligence agencies and law enforcement partners to make sure that we are investigating and finding any threats to the homeland here within our borders. We work with the FBI often, and Homeland Security investigations specializes in this kind of work each and every day.
(32:50)
Not only that, we go back and we are re-vetting some of the individuals in some of the programs that we may have concerns about, looking at social media, also going through those interviews that are necessary for some of our programs that the Biden administration abused and perverted under their time there as well.
(33:07)
We look at the fact, Mr. Chairman, that over the last administration, when millions of people streamed across our border, we don't necessarily know who all came into our country. We know that we have many dangerous individuals that came in, un-vetted, and we are working every single day to find them and to make sure that we're preventing the next attack and preventing the next crime they may perpetuate against the American people.
Mr. Grassley (33:30):
Yeah. You heard in my opening statement about the Inspector General's report on airport security screening. After Congress had been told of the report, you announced $1 billion in airport security upgrades. Press report have sources attacking you for changing the shoe removal policy. Does the $1 billion investment relate to the issue in the Inspector General's report? And then I have a follow-up to that.
Kristi Noem (34:03):
Well, sir, I can't speak directly to that report because it is classified. I will tell you that all of the recommendations that the Inspector General had in that report have already been implemented. And that there was flawed data included in it.
(34:16)
What I will tell you is the billion dollar investment is necessary at our TSA security checkpoints because it's been over a decade since a significant upgrade has happened. We have new technologies that can be used in x-ray baggage scanners, abilities to use information and new technologies to scan individuals that would be more efficient, allow people to get through the security checkpoint and get to their planes on time and ensure their safety.
(34:42)
The number one priority of TSA is security. And we make sure that we are continuing to use all of the options and tools available to us to make sure that they are safe as they travel through our airports and in our airways.
Mr. Grassley (34:54):
Thank you for that report. The follow-up was going to ask for those details,
Mr. Grassley (35:00):
... but you've given me those details. Have these details been communicated to the Inspector General?
Kristi Noem (35:06):
Yes, they have, sir, and I wanted to also, in regards to your comments in your opening statement, there's nothing preventing the IG from coming and briefing members of Congress, and he's free to do that. We just need to remember it's a classified document and use those protocols to ensure that it remains classified.
Mr. Grassley (35:22):
Regarding Afghan evacuee oversight of mine, you informed my office that thousands of Afghan parolees were potential national security risk. Nearly of a thousand was reported to me on August 12th last year. What steps have you taken with the interagency partners to investigate these parolees and what, if any, national security concerns still exist because of the previous administration's failures to vet?
Kristi Noem (35:57):
Well, Mr. Chairman, some of the things that we have implemented under President Trump's administration is to go back and look at those individuals who came in under Operation Allies Welcome and make sure that we're re-vetting those, especially those that have come in in the last four years under the Biden administration, recognizing that they weren't tracking necessarily biometrics or their social media present communication, how they were doing since they've come to the United States, and also, sir, there's a requirement under that program to come back every single year and do an interview to discuss with them and have conversations on what they're doing in the United States, how they're transitioning to the United States under that program, and that was not being done. So we're going back and re-vetting all of those individuals and making sure that we know that if someone is here in this country, that they love America, they want to be a part of our way of life and they don't wish to do us harm.
Mr. Grassley (36:55):
I'd like to have you provide me an update on Afghan evacuee data.
Kristi Noem (37:04):
Mm-hmm.
Mr. Grassley (37:05):
As I said in my opening, Trump administration has located over 145,000 children that the previous administration lost. Your department is also performing welfare checks on these children. Describe the ongoing efforts that your department is taking to find children who've yet to be located and how recent welfare checks exposed previous vetting failures.
Kristi Noem (37:38):
Yes. I would say those 450,000 children that came into this country that were unaccompanied alien children were lost by the Biden administration, not tracked. We've located about 145,000 of them, and we've done that through the investigative work of our Homeland Security Investigations team. They are phenomenal at the work that they do and they specialize in child trafficking, sex trafficking and finding individuals that would perpetuate that harm against our children.
(38:08)
The one thing that has been challenging is that under the Biden administration, the government paid sponsors in HHS in order to host these children, and those sponsors many times, we found instances where they trafficked these children themselves. So under that administration, we not only had children that were in this country as a part of a program, the government was paying individuals that were knowingly trafficking them and abusing them. That has stopped. We have gone through and found these children and put them back with their families when we have the opportunity to do so and with loved ones that will care for them.
(38:46)
I would say that even in one case, we have other countries where we've been working with them to get their children back home, where we've been prevented returning these families back and helping them to be reunified by activist judges. But we will continue to work to ensure that these individuals and these children that were abused by the trafficking over the border have the opportunity to be brought back to their families and to their loved ones going forward.
Mr. Grassley (39:12):
I want to bring up administrative warrants. There's been questions raised about your department use of them. Immigration laws include complex and specialized legal processes. For the record today, please briefly discuss how the administrative warrant works and how often they're used.
Kristi Noem (39:33):
Well, an administrative warrant is utilized on a regular basis because it's the process that Congress has given us. It's the process in immigration law that you've given us to ensure that someone is returned back to their home country. I would say that most of the time when it gets talked about, it's inaccurate. In the 400,000 cases that ICE has used these administrative warrants, only 28 times have they been used to enter a home. It is the legal process that we have, that we follow as given to us by Congress, and it's been affirmed by the Supreme Court as the correct way to follow the law. We will continue using this tool, as it's important in the duties that the Department of Homeland Security is responsible for.
Mr. Grassley (40:22):
Under both Democrat and Republican presidents, I've conducted oversight of employees called special government employees by law. This employee is limited 130 days a year of government work and it's been understood that a partial day is one day at work. Have you ensured the SGE personnel follow all laws, rules and regulations as intended?
Kristi Noem (40:52):
Yes, sir. They have career officials at the Department of Homeland Security that track that data and they've all followed the laws and the rules regarding special government employees.
Mr. Grassley (41:03):
You stated that the Department of Government Efficiency found software on your government devices that was used to improperly surveil you and other political officials. What's the status of the investigation into that matter, and has any disciplinary action taken?
Kristi Noem (41:25):
Yes, sir. There was software that was doing surveillance on political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security, and there was measures put in place where some people were removed from their positions and accountability measures put in place. We continue to monitor our systems as the agency that is trusted with cybersecurity and ensuring that our critical infrastructure is protected from hacking attempts from foreign nationals who wish to do us harm or individuals within this country. We take seriously the amount of software, surveillance and work that we do within the department as well.
Mr. Grassley (42:03):
My 10 minutes are up. Senator Durbin.
Mr. Durbin (42:06):
Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Secretary Noem, the nation has watched horrified as immigration agents killed Renee Good, Alex Pretti. In Chicago, one of your border patrol agents shot Marimar Martinez five times after ramming her car. You and your agency rushed to brand these victims as, quote, "domestic terrorist." We have ample video evidence and eyewitness testimony proving you are wrong. Your statements cause immeasurable pain to these families. Let me give you an opportunity to do the right thing. Do you retract these statements identifying these individuals as domestic terrorists?
Kristi Noem (42:50):
Senator Durbin, when we have these situations happen, we always offer our condolences to those families, and I offer mine as well. These are tragic situations and I can't imagine what these families go through in losing a loved one. What I will say is we always work to provide the American people with as much information as possible, that we're relying on reports from the ground and from agents that are there and working to be transparent, and we'll continue to do all that we can to provide the accurate information and the facts to people as we can.
Mr. Durbin (43:24):
Where did you get that information? In the recent hearing before the HSGAC Committee, CBP and ICE officials testified under oath that their agencies did not inform you that Pretti was a domestic terrorist during that hearing, stated during that hearing.
Kristi Noem (43:41):
I was getting reports from the ground from agents at the scene and I would say that it was a chaotic scene, as you've seen, in Minneapolis and St. Paul, as immigration enforcement has gone forward and we've worked at targeting the worst of the worst that many times our agents-
Mr. Durbin (43:57):
And you believe calling-
Kristi Noem (43:58):
... have been faced with violent protestors.
Mr. Durbin (44:00):
... victims of that violence domestic terrorists as a way to calm the scene?
Kristi Noem (44:04):
These violent terrorists have put them in a situation where they've been... it's unprecedented what these agents have faced. So that situation on the ground that day was chaotic, and it was something that they were transpiring and sharing information with us-
Mr. Durbin (44:19):
And you thought you'd be a bridge over trouble waters and brand them as domestic terrorists? Can you explain why you decided to brand these victims that we all saw on video, who were out protesting the activities of your agency and were killed as a result of it? How did you think that calling them domestic terrorists at that scene was somehow going to calm the situation?
Kristi Noem (44:41):
Senator, we are working in those situations where there's a tragic loss of life and that there is something that our agents are involved in, that we continue to deliver information-
Mr. Durbin (44:51):
Is it so hard to say you were wrong? Is it so hard to say you were wrong and issue a retraction?
Kristi Noem (44:53):
We continue, as these investigations continue to go, I absolutely strive to provide factual information and will continue to do that.
Mr. Durbin (45:01):
And when you fail, do you admit it publicly?
Kristi Noem (45:03):
Absolutely. We always know that there's room for improvement.
Mr. Durbin (45:06):
Will you admit it now?
Speaker 2 (45:06):
How about the two other Americans who were killed by ICE, Keith Porter, Jr.-
Mr. Grassley (45:06):
Stop the clock, so-
Speaker 2 (45:06):
Keith Porter, Jr. and Dr. Linda Davis! They were Americans killed by ICE! You have not given their families any justice! Say their names! Their Black lives mattered! Their Black lives mattered! Their Black lives mattered! Their Black lives mattered! Their Black lives mattered!
Mr. Grassley (45:06):
I think you can proceed.
Mr. Durbin (45:34):
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to turn to another incident where DHS is concealing the facts from the American public. Geraldo Lunas Campos died in an immigration detention. DHS claimed he killed himself, but an independent medical examiner found his death was a homicide. Witnesses stated Mr. Campos was strangled by the guards at a detention facility. Instead of investigating this death, your department tried to deport the witnesses to the crime. It took a judge intervening to ensure the fact that these witnesses remain in the country for investigation. Secretary Noem, who ordered those witnesses be deported?
Kristi Noem (46:14):
Sir, I can't speak to the details of that case as it continues to be investigated, but I do know that within our detention facilities, we have the highest federal standards of any detention facilities compared to state or other local facilities that may detent-
Mr. Durbin (46:31):
Did you hear that there was an effort to deport the witnesses?
Kristi Noem (46:34):
Sir, I'm not aware of that, and I will continue to look at that. Whenever there is an incident where we have someone who works for DHS that has done something wrong, there is always an evaluation, an investigation, and there is consequences for that. So we will continue to do that investigation and make sure that the right thing is done if something was-
Mr. Durbin (46:54):
Who's doing the investigation?
Kristi Noem (46:55):
There are internal investigations within.
Mr. Durbin (46:57):
Internal investigation. Is that what you're saying?
Kristi Noem (47:00):
Yes. ICE and-
Mr. Durbin (47:02):
Is there any outside independent agency that's part of that investigation?
Kristi Noem (47:06):
Not that I'm aware of at this point in time, but I may not be able to speak to the details of this case because I'm not fully informed on it.
Mr. Durbin (47:12):
Shame. A man lost his life. Just last week, the Republican-appointed chief federal judge in Minnesota identified over 200 court orders that ICE officials had violated in the last two months. He wrote, quote, "The court is not aware of another occasion in the history of the United States in which a federal court has had to threaten contempt again and again and again to force the US government to comply with court orders." In a sworn declaration, the Trump Justice Department itself acknowledged that your agency has violated court orders more than 50 times in recent weeks in one state, New Jersey. Secretary Noem, is DHS required to follow federal court orders?
Kristi Noem (47:53):
Yes, sir., ad we do comply with federal court orders.
Mr. Durbin (47:55):
How do you explain that your agency has repeatedly violated court orders, as your own administration has admitted?
Kristi Noem (48:01):
Sir, we follow court orders, and when they apply and when the jurisdiction and decision is applicable to a federal agency like ours.
Mr. Durbin (48:10):
I'm sorry. Would you clarify what you ended that with?
Kristi Noem (48:13):
We follow court orders when they're given to us. Federal court orders, we follow, absolutely.
Mr. Durbin (48:17):
So these judges are wrong?
Kristi Noem (48:18):
No. I'm not saying that they're wrong and I can't speak specifically to that statement that was given.
Mr. Durbin (48:24):
Let me ask you about DACA. Are you familiar with the program?
Kristi Noem (48:26):
Mm-hmm, yep.
Mr. Durbin (48:27):
Do you understand the people that are covered and protected by DACA have to go through a background check, which includes a criminal check? Yes or no?
Kristi Noem (48:38):
Yes.
Mr. Durbin (48:38):
You do? Last week, your agency informed us that last year ICE arrested 261 DACA holders and deported 86 of them. We learned about a DACA recipient, who'd lived in this country for decades, was arrested by ICE at her green card appointment. In tears, she hugged her daughter goodbye. She was deported to Mexico within 24 hours. Madam Secretary, why have you deported dozens of DACA holders who had to comply with a criminal background check to be eligible for DACA?
Kristi Noem (49:10):
Sir, we follow all laws as applicable to the Department of Homeland Security-
Mr. Durbin (49:14):
Why did you deport them?
Kristi Noem (49:14):
... and how we handle detainment and deportations.
Mr. Durbin (49:17):
Why did you deport them?
Kristi Noem (49:18):
I don't know the details of that specific case you just read, but I'll look into it, sir. But we ensure that we follow the law that applies to our department and who we detain and who we deport back to their home countries.
Mr. Durbin (49:31):
And you clearly violated the law if that is the case. Let me ask you about the fact that 85% of the 400,000 immigrants that ICE arrested during President Trump's first term in office had no violent criminal record. The president said over and over at his rallies, "We're going after the worst of the worst, the terrorists, the murderers, the rapists," and then it turns out that 85% of the people you've gone after have no criminal history whatsoever. How do you explain that?
Kristi Noem (50:02):
Sir, when you talk about violent crimes, what you're saying, the crimes that don't matter that you aren't counting are ones that affect American families every single day. You're not counting DUIs, you're not counting embezzlements, you're not counting theft, and you're not counting the other crimes against people and drug trafficking and proliferating that. If you don't count those as crimes, that these individuals, and impacting families in this country-
Mr. Durbin (50:29):
No. They do count them. They are counted and they calculated 14% of those that you arrested-
Kristi Noem (50:33):
Those are not counted in your 14%. If you were counting crimes that these individual illegal aliens in this country have committed, it would be well over 65 to 70% of the individuals that are detained today have those crimes on their record, besides the crime of being in this country illegally?
Mr. Durbin (50:49):
Are you going to back that up with some information for me?
Kristi Noem (50:51):
Absolutely, I will.
Mr. Durbin (50:52):
I certainly hope you will. How does taking a father from a child dying of cancer qualify? Where would that be? Is that a violent crime?
Kristi Noem (51:00):
I don't know what you're speaking or referencing to.
Mr. Durbin (51:03):
That's exactly what I'm speaking of. Ruben Torres two weeks ago buried his daughter Ofelia. When he was arrested at the Home Depot in Norridge, Illinois, he said to those who, your agents, "Please let me go home. My daughter is dying of cancer. I would like to be with her on her last days of her life." They said no. They arrested him and deported him for two weeks. Finally, he returned for a court hearing. His daughter lived to see that hearing where the court said he was treated unfairly by your agency, and she died three days later. I was at her memorial service. Is that really necessary? Was he a violent criminal?
Kristi Noem (51:37):
Sir, we enforce the law. The laws that are passed by this body-
Mr. Durbin (51:41):
What law?
Kristi Noem (51:41):
... and signed into statute on the process for individuals that are in this country illegally, that have final removal orders and the process given in immigration law. We continue to follow that. If you don't like the law, I would suggest you change the law, but that is what we do.
Mr. Durbin (51:54):
We tried to change the law.
Kristi Noem (51:56):
Every single day is go out there-
Mr. Durbin (51:58):
We tried to change it with comprehensive immigration reform, and it was stopped by the Republican House of Representatives.
Kristi Noem (52:04):
Our job at the department is to follow the law and make sure that we are a nation of laws, because a nation that doesn't follow the law-
Mr. Durbin (52:10):
I don't think you're even close when it comes to that.
Kristi Noem (52:12):
... is no nation at all.
Mr. Durbin (52:13):
I yield, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Grassley (52:15):
Senator Graham.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (52:18):
Thank you very much for coming. Can you hear me?
Kristi Noem (52:22):
Yep.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (52:22):
Thank you.
Kristi Noem (52:22):
Now we can.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (52:23):
Thanks very much. Well, let's talk about the scope of the problem you inherited here. My Democratic friends said that sensible immigration is what they've been pursuing, talked about the Gang of Eight and a lot of things I've worked on with. Would you say that the four years of Biden was sensible immigration?
Kristi Noem (52:39):
No.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (52:40):
I wouldn't, either. I would say it's obliteration of the border. 11 million people came into this country during President Biden's term. He obliterated all controls. We sent them all over the country in planes, trains and automobiles. What's the scope of the problem you inherited? How would you describe the mess that Biden gave you, very quickly?
Kristi Noem (53:02):
Our country was in a chaotic time and invaded over our southern border. Millions and millions of people came into this country unvetted-
Sen. Lindsey Graham (53:10):
For 11,000 murderers, right?
Kristi Noem (53:12):
Yes, that is correct.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (53:13):
2,700% increase in people on the terrorist watchlist, right?
Kristi Noem (53:17):
That's correct.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (53:18):
During his four years, President Biden allowed 2,700% increase of people on the terrorist watchlist to come into this country. In 2023, 172. Do you know where those people are?
Kristi Noem (53:33):
No. Not necessarily.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (53:36):
So we don't know where they are. They're here, but we don't know where they are, because they didn't care if they came and they haven't really looked very hard. So sensible immigration died on Biden's watch. It was replaced by out-of-control, open border, just absolute chaos, and to all the people on the front row that have lost loved ones, I am sorry. Your family members are a victim of an out-of-control, Democratic-led effort to obliterate the border and every senator on this side of the aisle, that side of the aisle, did nothing about it. Now they want to talk to you about problems we've had. Are these shootings being investigated in Minnesota?
Kristi Noem (54:18):
Yes, they are.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (54:19):
They should be investigated in Minnesota. We want to have orderly processes. How would you say being an ICE agent is right now, the stress they're under?
Kristi Noem (54:30):
I think it's unprecedented for them every day.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (54:32):
I think it's miserable. I think it's just a tough, tough job right now, and if they go too far, we will hold them accountable, but I just want the country to know, these men and women who are trying to solve this problem that was created by our Democratic colleagues, you have no idea of the mess they inherited. This country was overrun by illegal immigrants, murderers, rapists and just average everyday people. How many people did Barack Obama deport when he was president?
Kristi Noem (55:03):
The total, I don't know-
Sen. Lindsey Graham (55:04):
Three million.
Kristi Noem (55:04):
... but it was more than us.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (55:05):
How many of them were violent criminals? So when a Democrat deports somebody who's here illegally, that's good government. When a Republican does it, we're Nazis and fascist. If you're here illegally, are you entitled to stay?
Kristi Noem (55:22):
No.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (55:23):
They would allow you to stay. I want you to understand that these people have no interest in cleaning up this mess. In 2026, we're going to have an election about this and they're openly saying, unless you're a violent criminal, you should be allowed to stay here. Is embezzlement a violent crime?
Kristi Noem (55:42):
No.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (55:44):
Is it a crime without a victim?
Kristi Noem (55:45):
Yes.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (55:46):
If somebody steals your stuff, even though they don't do it through force, is that a crime with a victim?
Kristi Noem (55:55):
Yes.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (55:58):
Laken Riley, I think she was murdered by a man who was actually in custody. Are you familiar with the Laken Riley case?
Kristi Noem (56:06):
Mm-hmm. Yes, I am.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (56:07):
You are? Okay. She's a young lady about 60 miles from where I live. The man who murdered her was in custody, was detained by DHS, but was released because they had no bed space in Texas. He went to New York and committed a bunch of crimes. He winds up in Georgia and he murders this young lady. He was in our control. He was released not because he wasn't dangerous, because we had no place to put him. Do you agree those days are over?
Kristi Noem (56:34):
Yes.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (56:34):
Do you agree the most secure border in American history has been achieved by you and those under your control-
Kristi Noem (56:40):
Yes.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (56:40):
... working with President Trump? Are you proud of that?
Kristi Noem (56:42):
I am proud of that.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (56:43):
So we're down to nobody coming across. We went from a invasion to almost nobody. I hope the American people appreciate that's a good thing for you. Now we're engaged in military action against the mothership of terrorism, Iran, which I hope will sink pretty soon. Do you think the threat level against the United States is up or down when it comes to radical Islamic terrorists?
Kristi Noem (57:07):
It's up.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (57:09):
It's up?
Kristi Noem (57:09):
Yep.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (57:10):
So you mean they actually may want to come here and hit us because we hit them in Iran? I don't think you have to be a general to figure that out. Is the Coast Guard without funding?
Kristi Noem (57:20):
Portions of it. We're keeping some of the salaries paid, but they're-
Sen. Lindsey Graham (57:23):
So there's no funds in the appropriation bill for the Coast Guard. Is that correct?
Kristi Noem (57:26):
That is correct.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (57:27):
Because your agency is not being funded. It's the one part of the appropriations bill where we haven't agreed on funding. Is that correct?
Kristi Noem (57:36):
Correct.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (57:37):
So FEMA, no money, right? Coast Guard, no money. Really? Really? ICE, they have money because of the bill we did before. The Secret Service, are these people being paid?
Kristi Noem (57:52):
Yes, they are.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (57:53):
They are being paid, but do we have money?
Kristi Noem (57:55):
Our law enforcement is paid, but their resources, their administrative staff, their contracting-
Sen. Lindsey Graham (57:59):
They're not being paid out of appropriated funds this year, right?
Kristi Noem (58:02):
Correct.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (58:03):
So in the appropriations process, we've got no new money for this Secret Service. Does that make any sense to anybody in America? Can we not understand America is under siege now, likely to be attacked because radical Islam is under siege and they're going to hit back, and we're sitting here looking at each other and not funding DHS? If you want to reform ICE, great. Count me in. If you want to make DHS more professional, count me in. If you want to investigate bad shootings, count me in. If you don't want to do away with sanctuary cities, count me out. What's a sanctuary city?
Kristi Noem (58:40):
A city that protects itself from our federal immigration efforts in their city. They have-
Sen. Lindsey Graham (58:46):
Are there sanctuary cities and states in this country?
Kristi Noem (58:48):
Yes, there are.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (58:49):
Look at this chart. There are 200-plus sanctuary counties, there are 12 sanctuary states. Eight million illegal immigrants reside in sanctuary jurisdictions in defiance of federal law. A sanctuary city refuses to turn over to the federal government people that are subject to deportation. Is that correct?
Kristi Noem (59:08):
Correct.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (59:09):
They make a choice, the sanctuary states, counties, cities, not to cooperate with federal officials, and the laws have been on the book long before Donald Trump, right?
Kristi Noem (59:19):
Correct.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (59:20):
Do you think it would be good for the country to abolish sanctuary cities and states?
Kristi Noem (59:25):
I do.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (59:26):
Do you believe, as long as they exist, it will be a magnet for future illegal immigration?
Kristi Noem (59:31):
Yes, I do.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (59:32):
So if you are an illegal immigrant and you can get to one of these sanctuary cities, states or towns, you believe you'll never leave. Until you fix this, you're going to have illegal immigrant magnets. Do you agree with that?
Kristi Noem (59:44):
Yes.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (59:45):
Would you urge the Congress to abolish sanctuary cities?
Kristi Noem (59:48):
Yes, I would, sir.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (59:49):
And sanctuary states. When it comes to the threat level against our homeland, how would you characterize it right now?
Kristi Noem (59:58):
Right now, I would say, sir, that we should have every effort within the Department of Homeland Security out protecting people 24/7, because we face not just enemies from overseas that threaten our way of life and our American values, the Biden administration let them here. They let them in our borders. They're in our hometowns. They are unvetted. Thousands and thousands of people that are dangerous criminals, gang members, known and suspected terrorists-
Sen. Lindsey Graham (01:00:24):
Who's this guy?
Kristi Noem (01:00:26):
He is the man that conducted the horrific act down in Austin.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (01:00:30):
Okay. What country did he come from?
Kristi Noem (01:00:32):
I think Senegal.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (01:00:33):
Okay. He was killed in Austin, Texas, right?
Kristi Noem (01:00:36):
He was.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (01:00:37):
And the shirt said what?
Kristi Noem (01:00:40):
Property of Allah.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (01:00:41):
Property of Allah, and when you went to his house, you found a what kind of flag?
Kristi Noem (01:00:46):
Iranian flag.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (01:00:47):
Iranian flag. Wonder how many people are like that here waiting to pounce? And DHS doesn't have appropriated funds. This is insane. There are more people like this. We obliterated our borders. 1.7 million people came into this country from countries that were designated to be a problem. Special interest aliens. Are you familiar with that?
Kristi Noem (01:01:14):
Yes, I am.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (01:01:16):
1.7 million came from countries that would make you a special interest alien because the nature of the country, Libya, Nigeria, North Korea, Afghanistan, China, Cuba. Do you know where those 1. 7 million people are?
Kristi Noem (01:01:31):
Not all of them.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (01:01:32):
Yeah, I don't know where they are, either, but they let them in. We don't know where they are. They came from countries that are so dicey, we made you a special interest alien if you came from those countries. So we're having a hearing here. I'd like to make ICE more professional. I'd like to make sure if there was a bad shooting as documented as such and people pay a price. But I will not apologize to anybody in this room to try to clean up the mess that Biden started and you empowered. We've got to deal with this. We've been invaded. Only God knows how many people are here and what they're up to, and we're not going to stop. We're going to learn, but we're not going to stop, because America's under siege and the idea we're not defunding DHS is insane. Criminally insane.
Mr. Grassley (01:02:26):
Senator Whitehouse.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (01:02:28):
Thanks very much, Chairman. Let me start by noting that we have repeatedly said our ranking member on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Murray, has said that we are more than willing to fund PSA, more than willing to fund the Coast Guard, more than willing to fund FEMA, and that it is the administration that is holding those agencies hostage in order to extract additional funding for ICE and CBP. That is our quite clearly stated position, and I just wanted to recognize that now.
(01:03:09)
Ms. Noem, I want to walk you through an incident that took place in Rhode Island. We have a courthouse in Rhode Island, our Superior Court. The court had an agreement with your organization not to conduct operations in that courthouse. Despite that agreement, your officers went in to conduct operations in that courthouse. They went in in plainclothes and masked, so maybe they were aware of the agreement, maybe they weren't. Either way, it was unprofessional not to honor the agreement with the court.
(01:03:51)
There is also a court rule against photographing people in the courthouse. They were photographing people in the courthouse. They either didn't know or didn't care about that court rule. Either way, it was unprofessional. They were pursuing an intern and taking photos of this young intern, who was not the person supposedly sought. The intern was in high school. The person sought was in his 30s. It shouldn't be too hard to tell the difference. They couldn't. It was unprofessional.
(01:04:36)
A state judge escorted the intern out to his car to take him back to high school. The agents didn't recognize the judge. They operate against the agreement in a courtroom and don't bother to know who the judges are. Again, unprofessional. They followed the judge out to his parked car, which was parked in a spot reserved for judges. Whether or not they already knew he was a judge, it does not take much in terms of powers of deduction to understand that the person getting into a car in a parking spot reserved for judges is probably a judge. Again, unprofessional. Then they threatened to smash his windows and drag him from the car, a judge, with a high school intern in the car, who's not the guy they're looking for. That kind of escalation seems unprofessional and irresponsible. Then they held the kid for half an hour in another vehicle while they figured out that in fact the high school kid was not the 30-plus-year-old person that they were supposedly looking for. Nobody was hurt, but there was nothing professional about that entire exchange. I would ask you to send a signal down to your folks to stop that kind of dangerous and unprofessional nonsense, particularly in our courthouses. Let me ask you, why don't you deconflict with local enforcement when you operate?
Kristi Noem (01:06:36):
Our officers do. We welcome cooperation from local law enforcement and want them at the state level, at the local level to cooperate with us so that we can continue to conduct our federal operations with the safety of the cooperation that comes from those types of agreements.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (01:06:51):
Deconflicting and cooperating are two different things. They can overlap, but they are two different things. You deconflict when you plan an operation in another law enforcement agency's jurisdiction like here, the court sheriffs, and let them know what you're going to do. This all could have been headed off if your people had spoken to the sheriffs first and said, "We're concerned about this guy." "Oh no, he's an intern. He's in high school." None of this was necessary if they had bothered to deconflict. So please, send the message down to your people that there's a reason that deconflicting is standard law enforcement practice, for among other things, officer safety. Will you do that?
Kristi Noem (01:07:34):
Yes, sir, but I will tell you that our law enforcement are being doxxed at unprecedented levels. At times we've run into situations in sanctuary cities or in sanctuary states where notifying that local law enforcement on some of these operations has doxxed them and their families and leaked a law enforcement operation, which puts people's lives in jeopardy. So they absolutely want to work-
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (01:07:55):
I'll ask you questions for the record about that.
Kristi Noem (01:07:55):
... with cooperative local law enforcement, and in that case specifically, these individuals-
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (01:08:01):
I strongly suspect that there's a big difference between non-cooperation and actual interference with your operations, but I'll reserve that to a question for the record so you can substantiate that. Could you explain this?
Kristi Noem (01:08:18):
Sir, I'm looking at a picture of an interior. It looks like a bedroom.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (01:08:23):
Of an airplane.
Kristi Noem (01:08:24):
Mm-hmm. Yes, sir.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (01:08:26):
You're not familiar with that?
Kristi Noem (01:08:27):
These photos are not accurate. If you're referring to the airplanes that the Department of Homeland Security has purchased and are purchasing, we're using them for a long-range command and control aircraft that is dictated in statute by Congress for the Department of Homeland Security to have a plane-
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (01:08:45):
So you did not use a luxury jet with a bedroom in it?
Kristi Noem (01:08:48):
Yeah. We used a 737. I've been on it once, but it is being used by other administration officials and it is used for command and control flights for the department. The department has found that in purchasing our aircraft, that we will save the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (01:09:04):
Does it have a bedroom in it?
Kristi Noem (01:09:05):
In fact, we spent $1.42 billion on ICE deportation flights last year.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (01:09:12):
Does it have a bedroom in it?
Kristi Noem (01:09:14):
I believe it's being refurbished and not having a bedroom in it. So it is being refurbished.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (01:09:18):
[inaudible 01:09:19] part of the room. What kind of deportee justifies being flown out of the country in a luxury jet with a bedroom and accommodations like this?
Kristi Noem (01:09:31):
There are aircraft being purchased that will be utilized for executive air travel and for deportations. If you remember-
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (01:09:38):
Well, your people said that this was going to be used for deportations.
Kristi Noem (01:09:38):
...in the past, we have used jets of this size and this configuration for deportations in the past. If you remember the-
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (01:09:46):
In this configuration? By this configuration-
Kristi Noem (01:09:47):
Well, I didn't see the inside of-
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (01:09:50):
... you mean with a bedroom and luxury accommodations like this-
Kristi Noem (01:09:51):
That plane-
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (01:09:51):
... you've used for deportations. Is that true?
Kristi Noem (01:09:53):
Sir, we have 737s that are being purchased by the department to replace contracts that
Kristi Noem (01:10:00):
... that we have on ICE deportations. That's what they're going to be used for. And in fact, the Coast Guard is the only entity within the Department of Homeland Security that has jets at this point in time. They had two G5s that were 20 to 25 years old. That are being replaced so that they can continue to serve our Coast Guard in our military for years to come.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (01:10:20):
Let me ask you about the response from some senior administration officials about these aircraft. They've been reported as saying, although they don't want to say publicly this, but individuals described as senior administration officials have described these airplane purchases as the world's worst deal and an abuse of federal funds. Can you tell me what the Republicans on this committee who voted for what I call the Billionaires Bill that gave you the money to buy these jets knew about your plans to acquire luxury jets when they voted for that money?
Kristi Noem (01:10:58):
The dollars for these airplanes was appropriated by Congress. In fact, it's mandated from Congress and rules that you've given us that we need to have a long-range command and control aircraft that will seat up to 17 people in the Department of Homeland Security for national security purposes. We are complying with the law. Those planes are being refurbished and will be utilized for that and they'll be utilized by members of the administration and other components.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (01:11:27):
Oh, we'll see. Two quick questions in my last minute if you don't mind. First in my last minute, if you don't mind. Do you-
Kristi Noem (01:11:27):
They will also cut our costs, sir by almost 40%. We are saving the taxpayer 40% by purchasing our own aircraft-
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (01:11:33):
May I have a minute?
Kristi Noem (01:11:34):
... and operating them rather than being susceptible to the contracts that they have today.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (01:11:39):
May I have an extra two minutes to fill in the filibuster there?
Sen. Lindsey Graham (01:11:42):
I'll give you 30 second beyond the 44 seconds you got now.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (01:11:47):
Will you truthfully answer a question for the record about your role in stopping the civil rights investigation into the Minnesota shootings.
Kristi Noem (01:12:00):
Sir, I don't know what you're talking about. I did not stop any investigations whatsoever.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (01:12:05):
Will you testify truthfully if you get a QFR?
Kristi Noem (01:12:08):
Yes. I testified truthfully. I did not stop-
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (01:12:10):
And will you testify in the District of Columbia Federal Court contempt proceeding?
Kristi Noem (01:12:15):
Sir, I do not know what you're referencing, and I would hope for some context.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (01:12:19):
The federal District Court contempt proceeding related to the deportation contrary to a court order of individuals to Venezuela. Will you testify in that proceeding?
Kristi Noem (01:12:30):
Sir, I think that you're referencing something that I have a gag order to, but I can certainly follow up with you.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (01:12:37):
My time's up. Thank you.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (01:12:44):
Senator Kennedy, you're next.
Senator Kennedy (01:12:47):
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Madam Secretary for being here. President Trump ably assisted by Mr. Stephen Miller quickly in the president's second administration developed policies to secure our southern border policies that you and the Department of Homeland Security implemented. And I congratulate all of you on your success. Properly vetting people at the southern border is not racist, is it?
Kristi Noem (01:13:40):
No.
Senator Kennedy (01:13:41):
Could you answer for the record?
Kristi Noem (01:13:43):
No, it is not racist.
Senator Kennedy (01:13:45):
Properly vetting people at the southern border is prudent, isn't it?
Kristi Noem (01:13:52):
Yes, sir. It is.
Senator Kennedy (01:13:54):
And to do that, we need the border patrol, do we not?
Kristi Noem (01:14:01):
Yes, we do.
Senator Kennedy (01:14:03):
And we also need ICE, do we not?
Kristi Noem (01:14:07):
Yes, we do.
Senator Kennedy (01:14:10):
Okay. I just wanted to get my congratulations on the record. I believe you have a policy, Madam Secretary, that you have to approve all contracts at your department over $100 million?
Kristi Noem (01:14:29):
No, sir. I have a policy in place that I review contracts. My deputy chiefs have the ability to review anything under five million. Above that, I evaluate and look at.
Senator Kennedy (01:14:39):
Okay. And you do that, I understand, to try to curb waste and abuse of taxpayer money. Is that right?
Kristi Noem (01:14:50):
Yes, sir. In fact, it's been extremely effective. We've saved the taxpayers over $13.2 billion just by evaluating contracts, negotiating lower ones, and canceling ones that aren't necessary to do our duties.
Senator Kennedy (01:15:04):
How do you square that concern for waste, which I share, with the fact that you have spent $220 million running television advertisements that feature you prominently?
Kristi Noem (01:15:28):
Sir, the president tasked me with getting the message out to the country and to other countries where we were seeing the invasion come from. With putting commercials out that told them that if they were in this country illegally, that they needed to leave or we would detain them and remove them and they'd not get the chance to come back to America the right way. That has been extremely effective-
Senator Kennedy (01:15:49):
The president ask you to run these advertisements, is that right?
Kristi Noem (01:15:53):
We had that conversation, yes, before I was put in this position and sworn in and confirmed, and since then as well.
Senator Kennedy (01:16:01):
Okay. Did you bid out those service contracts?
Kristi Noem (01:16:07):
Yes, they did. They went out to a competitive bid and career officials at the department chose who would do those advertising commercials.
Senator Kennedy (01:16:16):
And the people that you ended up picking were people who had formally done your political work back in South Dakota. Is that right?
Kristi Noem (01:16:28):
No, that's not correct, sir.
Senator Kennedy (01:16:29):
Think it is.
Kristi Noem (01:16:30):
No, it's not, sir. The individuals who, I believe the careers who they chose were two different media firms. There's been conversation about their subcontractors, but we have no legal authority to look into subcontractors on work like that.
Senator Kennedy (01:16:47):
Okay. And you're testifying that President Trump approved this ahead of time? Is that my understanding?
Kristi Noem (01:16:57):
We had conversations about making sure that we were telling people-
Senator Kennedy (01:17:00):
No, ma'am. I'm asking you, sorry to interrupt, but the president approved ahead of time you spending $220 million running TV ads across the country in which you are featured prominently? The president-
Kristi Noem (01:17:15):
Yes, sir. we went through the legal processes, did it correctly, worked with-
Senator Kennedy (01:17:18):
Did the president know you were going to do this?
Kristi Noem (01:17:20):
Yes.
Senator Kennedy (01:17:20):
He did?
Kristi Noem (01:17:21):
Mm-hmm. Yes.
Senator Kennedy (01:17:22):
Okay.
Kristi Noem (01:17:24):
And one thing, Senator, I think would be helpful to know is how effective that communications has been, that overwhelmingly-
Senator Kennedy (01:17:31):
Well, effective in your name recognition. I mean, I personally just... I mean, to me, it puts the president in a terribly awkward spot. And I'm not saying you're not telling the truth, it's just hard for me to believe knowing president, as I do, that you said, "Mr. President, here's some ads I've cut and I'm going to spend $220 million running them," that he would have agreed to that. I don't think Russ Vought at OMB would have agreed to that. It's something we have to defend. I'm on the appropriations committee. I mean, my research shows that you did not bid them out. That, in fact, one of the people you picked, The Strategy Group... I'm sorry, Safe America Media was a company formed 11 days before you picked them and that The Strategy Group got most of the money and the head of that is married to your former spokesperson.
(01:18:46)
Look, we all have friends who are qualified. I'm not quibbling with that. It troubles me, a fifth to a quarter of a billion dollars in taxpayer money when we're scratching for every penny and we're fighting over rescission packages, I just can't agree with Madam Secretary. Are you still running those ads?
Kristi Noem (01:19:12):
Senator, I did not have anything to do with picking those contractors. I know politicals at the Department of Homeland Security did-
Senator Kennedy (01:19:19):
Understand. Understand. Are you still running those ads?
Kristi Noem (01:19:22):
... where officials followed the competitive bid process for that.
Senator Kennedy (01:19:23):
Are you still running those ads?
Kristi Noem (01:19:25):
I think the ads are due to end here in March, I think within a week, I'm not sure of the end date.
Senator Kennedy (01:19:31):
So they are still running?
Kristi Noem (01:19:31):
The one that is running is focusing on angel families. Have you seen that? It is the one that's talking about this is our why, this is why we work every day is for the angel family and their victims that need to-
Senator Kennedy (01:19:42):
Okay. I've got to move on. After the two killings in Minneapolis, and I think there's a lot of video on them, Madam Secretary. I think people can see the video and draw their own conclusions. Are you and your department conducting an investigation of those?
Kristi Noem (01:20:11):
Sir, the investigation is being led by the FBI. HSI was involved. In fact, our HSI agents on the ground.
Senator Kennedy (01:20:18):
I'm sorry to cut you off, but I got so little time. I believe at the time you said these were acts of domestic terrorism; is that right?
Kristi Noem (01:20:32):
Sir, in answer to questions at the press conference that afternoon, it was that it appeared to be.
Senator Kennedy (01:20:38):
Yeah. But you said these appeared to be acts of domestic terrorism.
Kristi Noem (01:20:45):
And as I've said previously in this hearing is that we were given information-
Senator Kennedy (01:20:48):
First, Madam Secretary, did you say that? I think it's been widely reported. Did you say that?
Kristi Noem (01:20:51):
... from a chaotic scene on the ground and relaying information to the American people.
Senator Kennedy (01:20:56):
Okay. Now, again, those videos are public. People can draw their own conclusions. I think it'd be safe to say you got some pushback on that. Would that be fair?
Kristi Noem (01:21:10):
Yes, sir.
Senator Kennedy (01:21:11):
And yet some criticism. I'm not saying the criticism was accurate or inaccurate. I think you did. What got my attention was that you blamed those statements on Mr. Stephen Miller at the White House, did you not?
Kristi Noem (01:21:30):
No, sir. I did not. And in fact, where you're seeing that is in a news article of anonymous sources and anonymous sources say a lot of things, but I've never said that at all.
Senator Kennedy (01:21:42):
Well, here's what you said on the record. I'm going to read your words, "Everything I've done, I've done at the direction of the president and Stephen."
Kristi Noem (01:21:56):
Sir, where did you see me say that at? You read that in a news article with affiliated to-
Senator Kennedy (01:22:01):
It was reported you said it on the record on January 27th of 2026. Did I read your words accurately?
Kristi Noem (01:22:11):
Sir, I enjoy working with the president and with Stephen Miller and that day we were working to get as much information to the American people as possible. That is what we'll continue to do and as that happens, we'll go forward and-
Senator Kennedy (01:22:23):
Do you think it was fair to blame Mr. Miller for your words?
Kristi Noem (01:22:30):
Sir, I did not do that. You're reading from a newspaper article with anonymous sources.
Senator Kennedy (01:22:35):
Yes, ma'am. Are you denying that you said that?
Kristi Noem (01:22:37):
Sir, I'm not going to speak to that situation that is relayed on anonymous sources that no one has heard me say that.
Senator Kennedy (01:22:45):
This wasn't anonymous. It was no.
Kristi Noem (01:22:46):
No. Who reported that to that newspaper?
Senator Kennedy (01:22:49):
You said it. They're quoting you on the record saying it's Stephen's fault. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (01:22:55):
Senator Klobuchar.
Senator Klobuchar (01:22:57):
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Secretary Noem, as Secretary of Homeland Security, you oversaw Operation Metro Search. Is that correct?
Kristi Noem (01:23:07):
Yes. As secretary, I oversee ICE and CBP and HSI officers that were there doing that work.
Senator Klobuchar (01:23:13):
And over 3,000 ICE agents, Border Control to Minnesota, outnumbering by three to one, the number of sworn police officers in Minneapolis, in St. Paul. Is that correct?
Kristi Noem (01:23:30):
We were working to do targeted operations against-
Senator Klobuchar (01:23:32):
Just if you could answer yes or no.
Kristi Noem (01:23:34):
... criminal illegal aliens, and we needed to do that in a safe manner to make sure that we could ensure the safety of our law enforcement officers.
Senator Klobuchar (01:23:39):
Two off my constituents, Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed. They should be alive today. In fact, in one month in the City of Minneapolis, when you look at the three fatalities that were results of shooting, two of three were committed by federal agents. Are you aware of that?
Kristi Noem (01:23:59):
Yes, I am.
Senator Klobuchar (01:24:00):
So your agents, not only their actions resulted in the deaths of two innocent American citizens, but they repeatedly violated my constituent's First Amendment rights to assemble. You say you believe in the Second Amendment right to bear arms, but Alex Pretti was criticized repeatedly by officials in the administration for having a lawful permit to carry and having a gun. Your agents violated the Fourth Amendment rights of my constituents by ramming through doors of innocent people's homes, innocent citizens' home without any kind of a warrant and violated the Fifth Amendment right to due process. So as I've shared with my colleagues, if you believe in federalism, in freedom, and in liberty, you should be horrified by what the Department of Homeland Security did in Minnesota. So my first question is, having spoken to Mr. Homan, what is the exact number of DHS agents still in Minnesota?
Kristi Noem (01:25:06):
Well, I believe that there is still close to 650 there, accounting the investigators that are there working to get to the bottom of the unprecedented fraud that has been found in the Medicaid funding.
Senator Klobuchar (01:25:18):
Was five-year-old Liam involved in that fraud? As you know, I am all in on prosecuting fraud. I put in place the US attorney who exposed the fraud under the Biden administration and brought the bulk of the prosecutions and also recommended to Mr. Blanche that Joe Thompson be the acting US attorney who led those prosecutions and now has left the office because the Department of Justice asked him and many others to investigate Renee Good's wife instead of doing their jobs doing fraud. So what I want to know is when are you going to get down to the original footprint as promised to us?
Kristi Noem (01:25:53):
We're continuing to work at that, although those investigators will continue to stay there to get to the bottom of that fraud, to make sure that those vulnerable people that rely on those programs actually get services from those federal dollars that are spent, that it's not stolen by criminals and used by individuals to enrich themselves and send it out of the country.
Senator Klobuchar (01:26:10):
Okay, let's use one example here Secretary, ChongLy Thao. Are you aware that agents bashed in the door of a US citizen among elder with no criminal record?
Kristi Noem (01:26:21):
I can't speak to the specifics of that case.
Senator Klobuchar (01:26:23):
Did you see the photos of that man being dragged out of his house in Crocs and in his underwear?
Kristi Noem (01:26:28):
Yes, I did.
Senator Klobuchar (01:26:29):
Do you believe that he was involved in fraud?
Kristi Noem (01:26:32):
I do not know where that status of that investigation is.
Senator Klobuchar (01:26:35):
Are you aware that he is a son of a beloved nurse that treated our soldiers in Vietnam?
Kristi Noem (01:26:40):
I believe that we have laws in this country that need to be enforced and need to be applied equally to everyone.
Senator Klobuchar (01:26:46):
Your agents, speaking of enforcing the laws and following the laws, did they have a judicial warrant when they rammed through an American citizen's door?
Kristi Noem (01:26:53):
Our law enforcement officers follow the same product protocols and procedures that all law enforcement do as to how they-
Senator Klobuchar (01:26:58):
Are you aware that he tried to show his identification to show that he was American citizen and they didn't want to see it?
Kristi Noem (01:27:05):
Again, these officers conduct themselves in processes. If something was done inaccurately, then certainly we will make sure that we correct it and rectify it in the future.
Senator Klobuchar (01:27:14):
Are you aware that the person they were looking for was in prison and had been in prison for years? His name is Lo Ma.
Kristi Noem (01:27:23):
Yes. We do targeted operations going after and looking for-
Senator Klobuchar (01:27:26):
Do you agree that it is unacceptable for your agents to ram into someone's door and drag someone out in their underwear in below zero temperatures when they have the wrong guy?
Kristi Noem (01:27:37):
Our officers conduct targeted operations and utilize the law processes that are given to them and the tools-
Senator Klobuchar (01:27:44):
You will not answer that you think that's wrong.
Kristi Noem (01:27:47):
They needed to identify that individual and that individual-
Senator Klobuchar (01:27:50):
They couldn't identify him by looking at his identification? Instead, they had to drag him out, throw him in a car and drive him around for an hour. How about pulling off off--duty police officers, Madam Secretary, every single one of whom made clear who they were, they were people of color, off-duty police officers. In Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, the chief described how one off-duty officer, someone of color, a US citizen, was stopped and confronted by ICE agents with their guns drawn, demanding her proof of citizenship. As Chief Bruley said, I wish I could tell you that this was an isolated incident, but other chiefs said it had happened to their own officers. Why were these officers stopped?
Kristi Noem (01:28:41):
We have thousands of law enforcement operations that we do every single day that get-
Senator Klobuchar (01:28:45):
Do you think they were stopped because they were people of color? Were they racially profiled, Ms. Noem?
Kristi Noem (01:28:50):
... murderers, and rapists, and drug traffickers off our streets. When I look at these American families that have been victimized by criminals that we have removed from cities and from communities, I'm grateful for the work that our ICE officers do. And by your only focusing, I would like to talk about some of the operations we've done to bring people to justice.
Senator Klobuchar (01:29:06):
Are you defending stopping off-duty police officers of color and dragging a Hmong elder out of his home?
Kristi Noem (01:29:07):
When you only talk about these situations like this that we are conducting, and you don't talk about the good work that they do to protect people from being victimized by people that are in this country that want to conduct violent crimes against them or take advantage of them, the laws need to apply to everyone and we're out there enforcing the law. Context is incredibly important in every situation.
Senator Klobuchar (01:29:31):
I am a former prosecutor, Ms. Noem, and I have always worked with our police well. But that's not what was going. These ICE agents were not following police procedures. After the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, when I spoke to Alex's parents, they told me that you calling him a domestic terrorist, this was directly from them, the day after he was killed, a nurse in our VA, Alex, one of the most hurtful things they could ever imagine was said by you about their son. Do you have anything you want to say to Alex Pretti's parents?
Kristi Noem (01:30:05):
We were relying in the hours after that incident that was so horrific on information we were getting from the ground from our actions. What would say to-
Senator Klobuchar (01:30:17):
I just asked if you had anything you wanted to say to the parents or to the family of Renee Good after you called them domestic terrorists.
Kristi Noem (01:30:20):
That's what I'm doing right now is I can't even imagine what they have gone through in the loss of their son and the loss of their family members. It's absolutely tragic and I send them condolences.
Senator Klobuchar (01:30:26):
But how about specifically calling them domestic terrorists without any evidence of that?
Kristi Noem (01:30:31):
Ma'am, I did not call him a domestic terrorist. I said it appeared to be an incident of.
Senator Klobuchar (01:30:38):
I think the parents saw it for what it was. After the killings, the federal government refused to cooperate with state law enforcement. Agents blocked Minnesota investigators from accessing the scene. I know because I got directly calls from the mayor. I tried to call the DOJ. I tried to do everything I could because they were very worried about what was going to happen immediately, especially after Alex Pretti's death. Do you think that blocking local law enforcement from the scene of a shooting makes people safer? Yes or no?
Kristi Noem (01:31:10):
Actually, our HSI law enforcement officers risked their lives on that scene preserving evidence and keeping the violent rioters away from the evidence so it could be preserved for the investigation.
Senator Klobuchar (01:31:19):
What life was lost at that scene, Secretary Noem?
Kristi Noem (01:31:22):
Huh? Yes, I understand that.
Senator Klobuchar (01:31:23):
It was Alex Pretti's life that lost.
Kristi Noem (01:31:24):
And after it became very-
Senator Klobuchar (01:31:26):
I believe it is in the interest of justice to have a full and transparent investigation.
Kristi Noem (01:31:32):
Yes. The investigation's being led by FBI and internal investigations as well into this incident?
Senator Klobuchar (01:31:37):
Will you commit to reversing the decision to cooperate with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Agency of Seasoned Professionals that the agents worked with directly, the FBI agents work with directly to investigate after the shooting assassination of Speaker Hortman, after the killing of those two little kids in that church with the bullets going through those stained-glass windows. In both incidents, our federal and local law enforcement worked together and are working together in those investigations, but they have been blocked, the locals have, from being part of this. Why is that, Ms. Noem?
Kristi Noem (01:32:14):
The FBI is leading this investigation and I would leave that question for them to answer.
Senator Klobuchar (01:32:20):
Thank you.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (01:32:23):
Before Senator Blackburn, without objection, I'll introduce into the record unaccompanied children case study that the Trump health and human services provided to my office, these records describe horrible cases in which children were forced to work to pay smuggling fees, physical assaulted by sponsors and denied chance to attend schools. The unaccompanied children case study are further evidence of the previous administration's policies to put children in harm's way. I appreciate the cooperation of the Trump administration. Is there any objection?
Mr. Durbin (01:33:06):
Mr. Chairman.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (01:33:08):
Proceed.
Mr. Durbin (01:33:09):
I do not object, but I would like to have unanimous consent to enter into the record the details of the three instances where the secretary referred to the victims that we've discussed and has engaged in acts of domestic terrorism. We have the exact statement, the exact date and time that you made those statements. I'd ask unanimous consent to put those on the record.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (01:33:32):
On both requests, any objection? No objection heard, Senator Blackburn.
Senator Blackburn (01:33:37):
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Madam Secretary, thank you for being here today. And I want to thank you so much for the work that DHS and FEMA have done in Tennessee with the recent ice storm, but also previously with Hurricane Helene and the responsiveness we have gotten from FEMA. The difference from the previous administration and your administration has been noted by people in Tennessee, and I just want to express my gratitude to those employees that are working so hard. So we truly are grateful for that.
(01:34:20)
I want to go back to something Senator Durbin said in his opening statement. He referred to the Biden policy, immigration policy as sensible and humane. And in his comments, he said there was a sensible and humane way to deal with immigration, but he felt like Biden's policy was sensible and humane and what you all are doing is not sensible and humane. And this struck me because the Biden administration allowed hundreds of thousands of those illegally entering the country. We have seen hundreds of thousands of migrant children that have been lost. There is nothing sensible and humane about that. There is nothing sensible and humane about having terrorists walk across our border and come into this country. There is nothing sensible and humane to these wonderful families who are grieving the loss of loved ones, that somebody illegally came in the country and took the life of their loved ones.
(01:35:50)
So those comments really struck me, and I want to provide you the opportunity to respond to what Senator Durbin supported the Biden immigration policy. We had hours and hours of hearings dealing with such. He supported the Biden DHS, but to me, there is nothing sensible and humane about allowing millions of people to violate the rule of law in the United States, and I yield to you for a response.
Kristi Noem (01:36:32):
Yes. Well, thank you, Senator. When you look at the Biden immigration policies, I think Senator Durbin is ignoring the consequences of illegal immigration. Over 30% of the young girls that crossed that border during that invasion were raped and brutally harmed by people along the way. There's nobody that crossed that border, came in from Mexico that didn't have to pay a cartel member to get into this country. Those cartels have been enriched and made sophisticated and professionalized by the money that Joe Biden facilitated putting into their pockets by allowing that invasion to happen and funneling people into the cartel's hands. I also would say that 4,000 people died during that invasion. When people were coming into this country, died because of the inhumane circumstances that were going on. From the heat that they were having to deal with, from drowning in the river, it was not humane, what we saw being facilitated by the Biden administration.
(01:37:29)
So every day, the people at the Department of Homeland Security get up to defend this country and our borders and the citizens that live here. I know, Senator Durbin, that you appear to be very concerned about illegal immigrants that are in this country. I will tell you that as a Secretary of Homeland Security, I am very concerned in doing my job and protecting American citizens. That's my number one priority, and I will continue to enforce the law and make sure it applies equally to everyone that's in this country.
Senator Blackburn (01:37:56):
Thank you. Joe Kent, who is the director of National Counter Terrorism Center last year, told the House Homeland Security Committee that there are at least 18,000 known terrorists that are here in this country. And I've heard from Tennesseans all weekend long about their concerns, the attack in Austin was really quite unsettling, and the awareness that there are these terrorists that are among the citizens here in our country. So would you lay out, not only for this committee, but for the American people, what steps are you and your team taking right now to make certain that we apprehend, detain, and prosecute these terrorists before they have the ability to conduct any act of evil?
Kristi Noem (01:39:00):
Well, Senator, when you let millions of people into this country unvetted, you truly don't know how many dangerous known and suspected terrorists there may be in this country. We continue to do our investigative work. We continue to look at individuals that are here that may be committing crimes and working with local and state law enforcement where possible. What I would say is anybody that we... We know that the Biden administration has given green cards to or naturalize. We're going back and revetting those individuals, those who came in under refugee programs, we are revetting those individuals and interviewing them and talking to them to ensure that they are someone who is here appropriately and they didn't come in under a program that was abused by the Biden administration. We continue to use our intelligence and analysis department under the Department of Homeland Security to gather intelligence and cooperate with other intelligence agencies and with the FBI to go after and to prosecute those who would wish to do us harm.
(01:39:57)
We're grateful for the American citizens that work with us and we understand that people who are in this country illegally and have final removal orders should be detained. Our priority is going to continue to go after those worst of the worst and to make sure that we are getting them out of our country as soon as possible and brought to justice if they've committed crimes here.
Senator Blackburn (01:40:20):
There are a couple of bills we were able to fund in the Working Families Tax Cut Big Beautiful Bill back during the summer. And we're so grateful for President Trump and the attention that he put on some of these issues of protecting the American people and making that the priority to ... And that's a part of upholding our oath. I think many of us were struck last week when the president asked, "Do you think it's the first order of business to protect the American people?" And many of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle just sat there. That was stunning.
(01:41:03)
So we're grateful for this focus on protecting our people. There were two bills, the Prince Act and the End Child Trafficking Now Act. These are pieces of legislation I've pushed forward. Now, this helps with protecting these children that are being trafficked, many of them globally trafficked. We're fully aware that Homeland Security Investigations, and I think they're defunded right now during the shutdown, are trying to find some of these traffickers, rescue these children and return them to their families. These two bills allow the collection of DNA and fingerprints so that we can stop this repeat trafficking of children. And I want you to talk for just a moment about the importance of having this legislation on the books and how you are using this to help break these global trafficking rings.
Kristi Noem (01:42:08):
Yeah. No, I appreciate those bills and I'm hoping that this body will find them important and get them signed into law as soon as possible. Collecting of DNA is incredibly important to making sure that children aren't being abused or trafficked. But we saw many times during the Biden administration where the same child would be used by cartels to move individuals into this country illegally. And so one of the policies we put it back in place as soon as President Trump came into the White House is DNA testing of those individuals coming into our country. When we interdicted them, that we would ensure that they were the family that they said that they should be and that those children weren't being moved with strangers or abused and trafficked by them.
Senator Blackburn (01:42:51):
One of the things that has come up regularly when I'm out and about around Tennessee is that we have some of these mayors and governors that have recently demanded millions of dollars in taxpayer reparations for having ICE in their communities. Now, in the case of Minnesota, they're looking at as much as $18 billion in fraud, 18 billion. And what they've uncovered there, what they allowed to happen, whether they want to say they knew about it or they didn't know about it, but it appears they knew about it and will let the investigation bear that out. What do you say to these mayors and governors who are defying the law by having a sanctuary city for illegal immigration that are allowing rampant fraud of taxpayer money? It is not their money, it is taxpayer money, they allow it to happen, and then they are so brazen and calloused and disrespectful of the taxpayer, they stand up and demand reparations. What do you say to them?
Kristi Noem (01:44:11):
Yeah, it's impossible to take them seriously. The hypocrisy of saying that you care about your economy and you care about your citizens when you've allowed that kind of fraud to go forward that they have in these programs. And these programs are there to care for individuals and give services to some of our most vulnerable in society, those individuals that have developmental disabilities, individuals who need special services in order to care for them and to help those families for a period of time with individuals and their family members that need to be that specialized care. They have stolen that from them, allowed individuals to abuse those programs and have done it to the detriment of not just their families there, but also the businesses there and the educational entities and even their credibility to speak. If
Kristi Noem (01:45:00):
Those are the same individuals that called our ICE officers the Gestapo and demonized them, and their rhetoric is very detrimental to the environment that we face every day on their law enforcement operations. So my hope is that we'll continue to get to the bottom of those investigations and bring those criminals to justice.
Mr. Grassley (01:45:20):
Before Senator Coons, Senator Durbin [inaudible 01:45:24]
Mr. Durbin (01:45:24):
Mr. Chairman, the Senator from Tennessee invoked my name several times, so I'd just like one moment to respond. What she said is simply inaccurate. I didn't mention the Biden administration at all in my opening statement. What I said, and I still believe, is that if we work together in a positive, good faith, bipartisan effort, we can come up with a sensible, humane immigration law for America. You've heard the witness say repeatedly we write the laws. She's correct. We need to accept the responsibility of writing a law that is sensible for this country. What I think is happening now in this administration is neither sensible nor humane. I yield.
Mr. Grassley (01:46:04):
Senator Coons.
Senator Klobuchar (01:46:05):
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Madam Secretary, thank you for appearing before us. It is your duty and mine, all of ours here, to protect our American homeland and our citizens, but to do so in a way that is legal, that is humane, that is effective and principally, constitutional. So let's get to that. Foundational to the administration's entire immigration agenda and to everything we've seen in the streets of Minneapolis and other cities across our country, is your pursuit of higher and higher numbers for deportation. The mass deportations that Stephen Miller designed and President Trump has ordered you to implement. It's why we have robing patrols racially profiling whomever they see and creating a, "show me your papers" state. It's why you go into sensitive locations like churches and hospitals and schools. It's why you have been arresting children, the elderly, refugees, the disabled, including a resident in my own state suffering from severe developmental disabilities.
(01:47:01)
When there's pressure on you to hit high numbers, you don't have the time to focus on targeted effects to find violent criminals on the run. It's easier to simply round up people here breaking no laws and contributing to our communities. It's why you deny people due process and rush them out of the country, and it's why you've put poorly trained ICE recruits on our streets engaging in reckless and dangerous tactics. Does DHS, Madam Secretary, operate on any quotas or numerical targets for immigration arrests every day?
Kristi Noem (01:47:35):
No, Senator, we do not. We do targeted law enforcement operations going after those worst of the worst criminals that are here illegally.
Senator Klobuchar (01:47:41):
I would certainly prefer it if you did targeted operations against the worst of the worst, but just last year, Stephen Miller, who's the president's Homeland Security Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff, went on Fox News and said, "We're setting a goal, a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day, and President Trump is going to keep pushing to get that number higher and higher." He's the deputy chief of staff and homeland security advisor and he oversees immigration policy for the president. What's your response to his public quote?
Kristi Noem (01:48:14):
Sir, there is no quotas at the Department of Homeland Security. When we do law enforcement operations, we do them on targeted enforcement, getting public safety threats off of our streets and out of our communities to protect the American people.
Senator Klobuchar (01:48:26):
Thank you. And you agree that setting quotas would actually put improper pressure on law enforcement to conduct themselves in ways that might not be in the best interest of their safety or the public.
Kristi Noem (01:48:36):
Senator, we don't have any quotas on our law enforcement operations at the point.
Senator Klobuchar (01:48:38):
Have you ever issued any guidance rejecting the use of numerical targets or quotas?
Kristi Noem (01:48:44):
I usually put out notices on things that are impacting our operations. There's been no discussion or requirement on numerical quota targets, therefore, there would be no need to reject them in a memo unless I feared that they were being implemented, which they are not.
Senator Klobuchar (01:48:58):
Ma'am, here's why I think there might be real value and you're putting out a memo saying, "I reject any quotas." It's not just what Stephen Miller said last May. He's reportedly, and I have many press accounts of this I can submit for the record, making conference calls, berating agency officials, threatening to fire them, threatening to fire the leadership of field offices that are in the bottom 10% of arrest numbers. I would suggest that it's this constant drive for higher numbers that has been behind a lot of what we've been seeing in terms of the failure to actually focus on the worst of the worst and targeted enforcement, and to instead do things like roving patrols and profiling. Let's move on.
(01:49:39)
Steve Bannon, long an advisor to the president, one of his earliest public supporters, recently said that ICE should be deployed at the polls in the next election. Will you rule out the deployment of ICE or CBP to polling places this November?
Kristi Noem (01:49:56):
There are no plans to have ICE officers at our polling locations, and-
Senator Klobuchar (01:50:00):
I'm glad to hear that, but would you rule it out? Would you say it will not happen?
Kristi Noem (01:50:04):
Do you plan on illegal aliens voting in our election, Senator?
Senator Klobuchar (01:50:07):
I do not.
Kristi Noem (01:50:08):
Okay, then there should be no need to.
Senator Klobuchar (01:50:09):
In fact, the Heritage Foundation-
Kristi Noem (01:50:10):
Unless you plan on illegal aliens voting.
Senator Klobuchar (01:50:10):
Madam Secretary, the Heritage Foundation recently concluded that over a 20-year period where they reviewed hundreds of millions, billions of voting cases, they found only a small handful of actual cases of illegals voting. So I am concerned by your rebuttal, which suggests you may be unfamiliar with 18 USC Section 592. Are you familiar with this federal statute that relates to sending armed men to polling places?
Kristi Noem (01:50:38):
There are no plans to send any of our law enforcement officers to polling locations. There have have been illegal aliens-
Senator Klobuchar (01:50:41):
But Madam Secretary, you're clear it would be a federal crime for you to do so?
Kristi Noem (01:50:43):
There are legal aliens that have voted and it's been proven in the past in certain cases, in certain states. We provide a program to states. I think we have 27 different states that utilize our state program now to verify individuals that are eligible to vote in their elections. And as states run their election systems, we encourage them to use that to make sure they maintain their election integrity.
Senator Klobuchar (01:51:05):
Madam Secretary, can you understand how when Steve Bannon says publicly, "We should have ICE at the polls," and you say there are no plans, that's not enough to rule out the possibility of a violation of this longstanding federal law. Will you issue a directive that ICE and CBP should be nowhere near polling places this November?
Kristi Noem (01:51:25):
We have no plans to have ICE officers or law enforcement at polling locations. States are responsible for running their elections, and we're giving them tools and mitigation efforts that they can utilize in order to make sure they maintain the integrity of those elections and that individuals can trust their systems to ensure that their vote counts.
Senator Klobuchar (01:51:44):
Let me move on to training. I was long responsible for the second-largest police agency in Delaware. I understand and recognize the critical role that training plays in keeping law enforcement officers safe, in making sure that they perform their important duties as effectively as possible, and that they understand the obligations of policing in a democracy. A whistleblower recently testified that ICE's training process is quote, "deficient, defective, and broken, raising concerns about how you cut training time in half, reducing training hours by 240, and cut out key courses on the use of force and constitutional obligations." He also testified to a culture of fear that pervades ICE and a constant effort to churn out more trained officers in order to achieve higher numbers.
(01:52:32)
Your department put out a statement that the training is the same number of hours that officers have always received. So let's be clear, is it your sworn testimony today, Madam Secretary, that training hours have not been reduced for any recruit compared to where they were, say, a year ago?
Kristi Noem (01:52:48):
Senator, our ICE officers are trained when they come on board the department, 56 days. We've changed the format of those days. Instead of five days a week, eight hours a day, they now do six days a week, 12-hour days. We also give them 28 days of on the-job training so they can have more hands-on experience with individuals that have served a longer period of time in law enforcement and have that experienced officer supporting them going forward. What I would say about your whistleblower is that your whistleblower came to FLETC, which is the academy where we train over 130 different federal law enforcement agencies, he came there after we had changed our program and didn't experience how we trained our ICE officers previous to that on those five days a week, eight hours a day. I don't know how he would speak to how ICE used to that-
Senator Klobuchar (01:53:38):
Madam Secretary, do you specifically train new recruits on the requirements of the First Amendment and policing.
Kristi Noem (01:53:39):
... and this individual was only detailed there for a short period of time, a few months and was a trial attorney, not an expert in-
Senator Klobuchar (01:53:47):
I recognize that your agents, in a number of places around the country have faced protests, protests for how they've been conducting their policing. Do you specifically train your new recruits on how to handle peaceful protestors in the context of the First Amendment and their rights?
Kristi Noem (01:54:02):
Yes, they are trained in that. And they are annually trained and updated with legal guidance, with constitutional provisions, deescalation techniques, and driving techniques, medical aid, intervening, use of force. All of those are things that our individual officers are trained on. What has happened-
Senator Klobuchar (01:54:22):
You put out a press release that said enforcement and removal operations, ERO, training was 42 days. But on February 23rd, just a month later, the same day that the whistleblower testified, you issued a new press release saying it was 56 days. You seem to be making it up as you go along. Help me understand how you square those quite different numbers in terms of the total number of training days.
Kristi Noem (01:54:45):
Our training for ICE officers is at 56 days with 28 days of on-the-job experience that they get as well, that continues their training, and their specialized training is above and beyond that as well. And we're grateful for those individuals, many of those individuals that have come and joined ICE. We had over 220,000 individuals apply to become ICE officers. We've hired approximately 12,000 of those, and many of those had previous law enforcement experience when they came to serve with us.
Senator Klobuchar (01:55:16):
Last question, Madam Secretary, about Afghans. Americans fought, served, and died in Afghanistan over 20 years. Many of our service members critically relied on translators and on Afghans who served and fought alongside them. I've gotten to know a number of them who came to this country and were thoroughly vetted and were, frankly, heroes who had risked their lives alongside Americans. At the moment, I believe your leadership at DHS has abandoned our commitment to the Afghans who served alongside us. There are currently many trapped in a center in Qatar, and at least 150 of them are the family of current active duty US military forces. It is within your power to create a process for them to seek waivers of the refugee ban so they could come into the United States. Will you consider doing so?
Kristi Noem (01:56:08):
We'll continue to do our due diligence on vetting individuals that come into this country, especially those who came in on a refugee program, and make sure that that vetting process was thorough. We found deficiencies in how the Biden administration was doing that-
Senator Klobuchar (01:56:22):
Will you commit to not forcing any of them back-
Kristi Noem (01:56:22):
.... and I'll look into the situation.
Senator Klobuchar (01:56:24):
... into the waiting arms of the Taliban, who will certainly torture or kill them?
Kristi Noem (01:56:28):
We'll continue to look at every situation and make sure they qualify for the programs to how they're laid out in statute.
Senator Klobuchar (01:56:33):
Madam Secretary, as I said at the outset, it's your obligation and mine to protect our homeland and American citizens in a way that is legal, effective, humane, and constitutional. My concern is that across all the different incidents that have been spoken about today, you are failing to do so. You are failing to deliver legal, humane, effective, and constitutional protection for the American people. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Grassley (01:56:58):
I got three things to do before I call on Senator Britt. First of all, Madam Secretary, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me the answer you should have given about Steve Bannon is he's not even in the administration.
Senator Klobuchar (01:57:13):
Correct.
Mr. Grassley (01:57:13):
So why would he have any influence over what you're doing?
Senator Klobuchar (01:57:17):
Correct.
Mr. Grassley (01:57:17):
Secondly, we're going to take a break after Britt, Blumenthal, and Schmitt. Lastly, without objection, I'd like to introduce evidence of potential human trafficking that I sent to the Biden administration as part of my unaccompanied children oversight. For over a decade, I've exposed how children in this category and the program associated with them have been subject to harm, abuse, and even sex and labor trafficking. Thanks to Secretary Noem, Trump administration, greater transparency has finally been brought to this issue. Senator Britt.
Senator Blackburn (01:58:02):
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Madam Secretary for being here today. To echo what my colleague, Senator Kennedy said, I appreciate you actually securing our border. The work that President Trump has done, and you alongside him, to make sure that we don't have just an actual invasion happening every day like we saw under the Biden administration. I believe we had about an average of 5,000 people a day that came over the border during the Biden administration, many of which are unaccounted for. When we're looking at what is ahead of us, I've heard Senator Blackburn and others bring this up to you, but I am thinking about the children that we know that came unaccompanied, many of them with a phone number written on their arm or taped to them.
(01:58:46)
Senator Blackburn mentioned that the Biden administration did away with the DNA policies. We know many of these children have been trafficked into our interior. You mentioned the rape, that 30% of women ... Is that right?
Kristi Noem (01:58:58):
That's correct.
Senator Blackburn (01:58:58):
That came across our border, were most likely raped in the process. The 4,000 people that died, the inhumane circumstances that were created and the enriched cartels as a result. As a result of four years of the Biden administration, the cartels were stronger and more prosperous, and unfortunately had a greater grip on our interior. It is your job to make sure that we unwind that, that we keep American families safe, that we abide by the law, that we enforce the law. The way we do it matters. We have to do it the right way. There are countless families sitting behind you who have either had a loved one injured or lost because of the lack of enforcement of the previous administration. Do you commit to me today that you will ensure that no family has to go through this again, that you will use the tools at your disposal the right way to protect American citizens?
Kristi Noem (01:59:53):
Yes. I will use every tool I have available to make sure that we're protecting as many Americans from having to go through what these families have had to go through.
Senator Blackburn (02:00:01):
And Secretary Noem, I want to talk to you about these children. Where are they?
Kristi Noem (02:00:05):
Yeah.
Senator Blackburn (02:00:06):
We didn't have hearings about them under the previous administration. I want to know where they are. How many children do you think are in our interior unaccompanied for? Are they being sex trafficked, labor trafficked? Where are they?
Kristi Noem (02:00:18):
Yeah.
Senator Blackburn (02:00:18):
And how many have you found, and what is your plan to find all of them? Every one of those children deserves to be seen, deserves to be found, and I appreciate the president's commitment to making that happen. I want to know what you're going to do to follow through with it.
Kristi Noem (02:00:33):
We're going to continue to do our work. We found 145,000 of those children so far, identified them, returned them back to their loved ones, and taken care of them. We will continue until we find every single one of them. The Homeland Security Investigations teams are the most specialized law enforcement officers for getting into these networks, these trafficking networks, and making sure that they're not just finding one child, but finding the network that is trafficking hundreds of children, and make sure that we're bringing them back home and helping them heal.
Senator Blackburn (02:01:03):
Well, let's actually talk about HSI. We have heard ICE be vilified across the nation, called Nazis, called Gestapos. I want to talk about HSI for a second because you just mentioned it. When we are looking at finding child predators, when we're looking at finding people who are exploiting children, when we're looking at cyber crimes, human trafficking, when we're looking at drug smuggling, weapon smuggling, HSI does the hard work, do they not?
Kristi Noem (02:01:34):
Yes, they do.
Senator Blackburn (02:01:36):
I want you to see behind me, these are some of our most notorious and high profile criminals in recent years. Sean P. Diddy Combs, El Chapo, R. Kelly, Jared Fogle, Josh Duggar, the Merchant of Death, Viktor Bout. And what do all of these criminals have in common? All of them were brought to justice with the help of ICE, HSI. Does that sound like the work of Nazis or Gestapo, Madam Secretary?
Kristi Noem (02:02:19):
No, it does not.
Senator Blackburn (02:02:21):
This sounds like an agency that is working for the American people, who is taking bad actors off the streets and is doing the hard work for our most vulnerable. Can you speak a little bit to the work that you've seen HSI do?
Kristi Noem (02:02:39):
These HSI officers are, I believe, the most exceptional law enforcement officers that we have at the federal level. They specialize not just in identifying sex traffickers and human traffickers, but also any kind of money laundering, financial investment. They partner with our other intelligence agencies to use that information to build cases that we then win in prosecutions and hold those people accountable. And they all have families. They all have families that they care deeply about. And when you talk to them, they will go on and on about how they do their work to make sure that families in the United States can be safe, and that they have a future and they can walk down the streets and continue to be entrusted that their kids won't fall victims like they see so many times in their work when they do these types of cases.
Senator Blackburn (02:03:26):
Changing gears a little bit, when we're talking about just immigration enforcement in general, I know I've had a number of questions from constituents over the weekend about the number of known and unknown terrorists in our interior. We know the numbers that came through the border, but we also know the countless numbers of known got-aways, that we don't know who they are, where they're going, or what their intentions are. Madam Secretary, what we saw in Austin, I think was chilling to so many people. We want to make sure that we are doing everything possible to locate terrorists in our interior and to obviously capture and get them out. Tell me what you're doing to make sure that that happens and what the American people need to hear from you.
Kristi Noem (02:04:17):
Well, first of all, Senator, let me thank you for your work to get the Department of Homeland Security funded, so that we can use everything and every tool available to us to go after these threats that we face, both foreign and domestic. These individuals that we've brought to justice already include over 1,500 known and suspected terrorists that we have already found in the last year that President Trump has been in the White House, and we brought them to justice and removed them from our country. We also have thousands and thousands of gang members, MS-13, TDA members, that have partnered to victimize people and perpetuate violence upon them. We're continuing to do that work and will every single day, but we need funding to make sure that all of our law enforcement agencies have the tools they do to bring them to justice.
Senator Blackburn (02:05:01):
Well, let's actually talk about that. When we are looking at the department having gone unfunded now for 17 days, I'd like to know what are the real implications of that. I think a lot of people, when you look at the Department of Homeland Security, we've obviously seen in the news, ICE and CBP. We just talked about some of the good work that ICE has done, particularly ICE, HSI. We look at the border, Customs protections, people coming through, making sure whether it is weapons being smuggled or whether it is drugs, that those things are caught by those men and women there at the border.
(02:05:40)
Then we look at the other missions that fall under Department of Homeland Security, our courageous men and women in the Coast Guard. You look at those serving in FEMA. We have been ravaged by storms both in the South and up the Northeast, and these people need assistance and they need help. That all comes through your department. You look at the Secret Service and you look at where that is. You look at the Center for Domestic Preparedness, for example, in Anniston, Alabama, which I hope I have your commitment to continuing to make sure that our law enforcement officers are trained there in the event of something unthinkable.
Kristi Noem (02:06:14):
Yes. Yes, absolutely.
Senator Blackburn (02:06:15):
And as we look at all of this and our TSA officers, I was struck by what I saw actually ... You put this up here behind me. When you see what's happening with people going without pay, again ... So you have people like a TSA officer that went without pay for 43 days in the previous Democrat-led shutdown, and here they go once again. The financial insecurity that comes from that is tremendous. "We heard reports officers sleeping in their cars at airports to save money on gas, selling their blood and plasma and taking on a second job to make ends' meet. Some are just recovering from the financial impact of the 43-day shutdown, and many are still reeling from it. We cannot put them through another such experience." In the last minute left, will you tell us the real implications of this shutdown on men and women that stepped up to serve our country in the highest way to keep our homeland safe and secure?
Kristi Noem (02:07:16):
Yes. I'm grateful for our TSA security officers that are still showing up and doing their jobs, running those security checkpoints, even though they're not collecting a paycheck. A couple of the stories that I had heard when I spent time with them just in recent days, was one individual whose wife needed cancer treatment, $1,200 treatment that he couldn't afford, and had to go and borrow money so she could get her cancer treatment because he wasn't getting his paycheck. Another individual who had nine children, was raising two of his grandchildren as well, that was struggling to pay his bills. Took a nighttime job as a welder just to try to keep food on the table for the responsibilities that he had. These people joined TSA because of 9/11, because they wanted to be a part of keeping people safe in the United States and defending our homeland.
(02:08:02)
Beyond that, FEMA, our ability to fund disaster response is virtually gone. It needs to be refunded. Our FEMA employees are out there doing work every single day, but we have 10,800 individuals that are funded out of the Disaster Relief Fund that could potentially not be there for them, and not respond to individuals who need it when they have those terrible storms or devastating crisises.
Senator Blackburn (02:08:26):
Thank you for your work, and I'm hopeful that we can work with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to find a pathway forward to fund the program.
Mr. Grassley (02:08:31):
Senator Blumenthal.
Senator Kennedy (02:08:33):
Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for being here today, Madam Secretary. For a year, you maintain that no US citizens have been arrested or detained by ICE or CBP after hearings that I conducted in the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation as the ranking member. You admitted finally in a letter written to me just last month that, in fact, US citizens have been detained and arrested. I'm going to ask, Mr. Chairman, that that letter be entered into the record. Thank you. You put the number as 38. Far more American citizens have been arrested by ICE and CBP, probably in the hundreds, perhaps the thousands. Have you met with any of the American citizens who have been detained or arrested by your agency?
Kristi Noem (02:09:32):
The individuals that may have been detained and arrested were individuals that could have been obstructing law enforcement operations-
Senator Kennedy (02:09:40):
You haven't met with them, correct?
Kristi Noem (02:09:41):
... and committing crimes that way, and that we would have done individuals-
Senator Kennedy (02:09:43):
I'd like to introduce you to three of them.
Kristi Noem (02:09:45):
... until they're identify was confirmed.
Senator Kennedy (02:09:47):
Leo, Javier, and Marimar, would you please stand? These three individuals, Madam Secretary, were arrested by your agency, Leonardo Garcia Venegas, Javier Ramirez, and Marimar Martinez. Do you know what your agents did to Leo Venegas? I'll tell you. On May 21 of last year, they entered the private property at a house that he was constructing without consent, without a warrant, illegally. Again, on June 12th, they entered private property, a home where he was doing construction. He is a United States citizen, born in Florida. They seized him and ignored and disregarded his proof of citizenship. Wouldn't you agree with me that no US citizen simply working lawfully should be arrested?
Kristi Noem (02:10:55):
In law enforcement operations across the country, there are times when US citizens-
Senator Kennedy (02:11:00):
It's a simple yes or no.
Kristi Noem (02:11:00):
... may be arrested or detained until their identity is confirmed and that they haven't committed a crime.
Senator Kennedy (02:11:03):
Would you agree with me, Madam Secretary, that US citizens should not be arrested when they are obeying the law, they have no criminal record, and they are engaged in a lawful activity?
Kristi Noem (02:11:14):
Sir, in situations where law enforcement, regardless of the agency across the country, when there is probable cause an individual may be-
Senator Kennedy (02:11:20):
Let me tell you about Javier Ramirez. Do you know what your agents did to Javier Ramirez? He was on his own private property when he was assaulted by masked agents. His own property, without a warrant, without consent. They said, "Get him. He's Mexican." He was violently slammed into the ground while being handcuffed, and taken into custody despite telling officers that he is a United States citizen and even showing them his passport. And when he was asked what he was being arrested for, you know what they said? "We don't know." Wouldn't you agree that targeting someone just because he is or looks like he is Mexican when he is a United States citizen is wrong?
Kristi Noem (02:12:17):
Senator, we do not target people based on their race or ethnicity. We do targeted operations based on criminal backgrounds and information that we have.
Senator Kennedy (02:12:27):
This story goes on, Madam Secretary. Javier was detained for over four days. He was denied medicine that he needed for severe diabetes. He lost consciousness. He had severe hypoglycemia. Wouldn't you agree with me that medical treatment should have been provided to him?
Kristi Noem (02:12:47):
Senator-
Senator Kennedy (02:12:47):
It was denied.
Kristi Noem (02:12:48):
... Medical treatment is provided to individuals-
Senator Kennedy (02:12:51):
Well, it wasn't for him. Wouldn't you agree that was wrong.
Kristi Noem (02:12:53):
... in our processing and detention centers. Within 12 hours, they have a medical examination. We get them the prescriptions and medication that they need. They also have a full evaluation, including-
Senator Kennedy (02:13:04):
Will you commit to take action and to look into why he was denied medical treatment?
Kristi Noem (02:13:07):
Yes, I will look into that case specifically for you, Senator.
Senator Kennedy (02:13:11):
Marimar Martinez is with us today as well. She's standing right behind you. She was on her way to donate clothing at her church when she came across an unmarked car. The agents sideswiped her car, three masked agents in camouflage stormed out, and one of them pulled out his gun and fired at her moving vehicle, hitting her five times. She almost bled to death. Wouldn't you agree that shooting Miramar Martinez on her way to donate clothing at her church, a United States citizen from Chicago, is wrong?
Kristi Noem (02:13:58):
Sir, I don't know the situation or the case. I'll look into it to ensure-
Senator Kennedy (02:14:02):
Well, I'm glad you'll look into it.
Kristi Noem (02:14:04):
... that all the procedures were followed properly.
Senator Kennedy (02:14:05):
Miramar, by the way, was falsely charged with impeding law enforcement, but the case actually fell apart. The judge dismissed it as being trumped-up. He dismissed it with prejudice. And in fact, the agent who shot her, I'm not going to name him, but you know who he is, was quoted on social media the day or so afterward. And he said, quote, "I fired five rounds and she had seven holes. Put that in your book, boys." And quote, "Cool. I'm up for another round of F around and find out." Will you join me in condemning that agent?
Kristi Noem (02:15:02):
Sir, that situation, I don't know the details of, but I will look into that.
Senator Kennedy (02:15:09):
I don't know why you can't join me in saying it was wrong to shoot Miramar, almost cause her death, and then brag about it. Wouldn't you agree with me that it was wrong?
Kristi Noem (02:15:24):
Sir, the way that you have portrayed it, it appears to be, but let me look into the case so I can speak to the specifics of it.
Senator Kennedy (02:15:29):
In fact, apparently, contrary to what you just said, you actually supported the agent who shot Ms. Martinez five times. He's quoted as saying, when he was asked, "Everyone has been supportive, including Chief Bovino, Chief Banks, Secretary Noem, and El Hefe himself," referring presumably to President Trump. Is the agent who shot Ms. Martinez still on the job?
Kristi Noem (02:16:07):
Sir, our law enforcement officers conduct operations every day according to procedures and to training and the experience that they have. When there is something that is not done properly-
Senator Kennedy (02:16:15):
Is the agent who shot Ms. Martinez still on the job carrying a gun?
Kristi Noem (02:16:22):
I don't know the details. I will find out and get that information to you.
Senator Kennedy (02:16:26):
Would you agree with me that he shouldn't be on the job carrying a gun?
Kristi Noem (02:16:29):
I will look into this case and get back to you on the details. I'm not familiar with it.
Senator Kennedy (02:16:32):
I think Americans would find it absolutely terrifying that that agent is still on the job carrying a gun. And the fact that you can't tell me that you will take him off-
Kristi Noem (02:16:47):
Sir, do you know who Angel Samaniego is? Do you know, recognize that name?
Senator Kennedy (02:16:54):
You know, I think we're talking about-
Kristi Noem (02:16:55):
This is an individual that was murdered-
Senator Kennedy (02:16:58):
... an egregious illegality here.
Kristi Noem (02:16:59):
... in your state by an illegal alien.
Senator Kennedy (02:17:01):
A violation of rights and trust.
Kristi Noem (02:17:02):
Duct-taped.
Senator Kennedy (02:17:03):
The answers are very simple.
Kristi Noem (02:17:04):
It looked like it was an assassination.
Senator Kennedy (02:17:06):
And I would have hoped that-
Kristi Noem (02:17:06):
I haven't heard you say one victim's name-
Senator Kennedy (02:17:09):
... you could give better answers today to these three individuals-
Kristi Noem (02:17:10):
... from illegal immigrants that are here perpetuating violence against people.
Senator Kennedy (02:17:13):
Do you want to say anything to Ms. Miramar, Mr. Ramirez, or Mr. Venegas?
Kristi Noem (02:17:15):
I'd like to hear you say the name of one of our victims of illegal criminal activity and fight for one of those victims, so that we can stop as many of them from being created in the future, by people who should never be in this country to begin with. Illegal individuals and aliens that are in this country-
Senator Kennedy (02:17:30):
Well, the charges against Ms. Martinez were dismissed with prejudice. Let me ask you about a memo that evidently was written by the acting director of ICE. This memo, have you seen it?
Kristi Noem (02:17:48):
I can't tell what it says. I see lots of memos. I see many, many a day.
Senator Kennedy (02:17:51):
Well, this memo is by Acting Director Todd Lyons. It's been frequently referenced in the hearing that I conducted by the whistleblower who testified, Brian Schwank, as being the basis for instructing ICE agents. It specifically says that ICE agents should violate the Fourth Amendment and break into people's homes without a judicial warrant. Do you agree with it?
Kristi Noem (02:18:24):
I will look at that memo, sir. I can't read it from here, but if it's referencing administrative warrants, that is the proper legal tool that this body has given us to utilize on immigration enforcement operations. Those administrative warrants were provided and affirmed by the Supreme Court-
Senator Kennedy (02:18:40):
Let me ask you one last question.
Kristi Noem (02:18:41):
... and we'll continue to use those.
Senator Kennedy (02:18:42):
Madam Secretary, does Corey Lewandowski have a role in approving contracts? And if so, what is that role?
Kristi Noem (02:18:49):
His role is a special government employee, and special government employees work for the White House and the administration. There's thousands of them.
Senator Kennedy (02:18:59):
Oh, he does have a role?
Kristi Noem (02:19:00):
[inaudible 02:19:01]
Senator Kennedy (02:19:01):
Senator Schmitt.
Senator Schmitt (02:19:02):
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Since we're having folks stand up, I would have Laken Riley stand up. I would have Kayla Hamilton stand up. I would have Jocelyn Nungaray stand up. I would have Rachel Morin stand up. I would have the beautiful sons and daughters who were murdered by illegal immigrants stand up, but they can't because they're dead. They were murdered by illegal immigrants that were led into this country by Joe Biden. And I think it's important to set the stage since we're having this oversight hearing, to set the stage how we got here. Five years ago, something was done that had never been done in the history of our country. We had a president who willfully ignored immigration laws and immigration enforcement, threw open the border to 15 million, million,
Senator Schmitt (02:20:00):
People who are here illegally, tens of thousands of murderers, hundreds of thousands of hardened violent criminals. And we can debate why. I know why. They're trying to pump up the numbers for their congressional districts because they lost the case with the American people. But the tragedies that ensued, the tragedies that were left in the wake of this disastrous policy are what we're left with. And your job now is to finally enforce our immigration laws. And they don't like it. They actually don't think that anybody should have to leave because if you create the problem so big, which is what Joe Biden and the Democrats tried to do, the only solution is mass amnesty. And I'm here to tell you we're not doing it. And the mass deportations will continue. Thank God we front loaded the money for ICE. Thank God we did it because it was just a matter of time.
(02:21:06)
Now, by the way, the outrage machine has moved on to something else, so I actually have hope that maybe we'll actually approve DHS funding. But we're not kneecapping ICE. We're not doing it. We're not going to take away the tools that they have to deport criminals in this country who are raping and murdering sons and daughters. So for all the spectacle that the Democrats want to create, the American people will not lose sight of what this mission is, which is to restore American sovereignty. No country, no sane country would ever do this. We lived through it. Now it's time to fix it. And the sanctuary status that many of these jurisdictions ... There's about 11 that matter the most in this country. But what is that about? What does that really mean? It means that the local leaders will not tell ICE when rapists and murderers and criminals are released from prison so they can be deported.
(02:22:09)
Think about that. Think about that. That's what's happening. And by the way, it's happening in Northern Virginia. The new governor just today said that this brutal killer, Abdul Jalloh, an illegal immigrant from Sierra Leone with more than 30 prior arrests, who brutally stabbed to death Stephanie Minter, a mother and American citizen, less than 50 miles from here, she will not work with ICE. If for some reason this monster gets released, she will not let ICE know when he's being released. Think about that. That's what is happening in this country. So forgive me if I don't want to be lectured by the Democrats on this point. I would think, in a different time and a different place, that we could all actually agree that if somebody is here illegally and they're being released from prison, that we would let federal law enforcement know about it. Apparently not.
(02:23:07)
And so if you want to know why we had the flashpoint in Minneapolis, it's because it's a sanctuary jurisdiction that wasn't letting anybody cooperate. It wasn't responding to 911 calls for law enforcement, and encouraging people to engage in this kind of confrontation. So I just want to go through a few of these. I mentioned Abdul Jalloh. Let's talk about the difference between states that actually work with ICE and states or jurisdictions that don't. This is the contrast. Cecilio Lopez Vasquez was an illegal alien from Guatemala. He was arrested by the Missouri Highway Patrol for DUI. Cecilio had previously been deported in 2006 and had an active rape warrant in Guatemala. Missouri is not a sanctuary state, and turned Cecilio over to ICE. He was deported. Thank God. Hernando Garcia-Morales was an illegal alien from Mexico. He was arrested multiple times in New Jersey for crimes, including burglary. New Jersey, as a sanctuary state, failed to notify DHS or ICE. He was released. On January 9th of this year, he threw a baseball-size rock at a school bus, shattering a window and hospitalizing a third-grader. Ariel Nunez Figueroa was an illegal alien from Mexico with an arrest warrant tied to the murder of 43 students at the Ayotzinapa Teachers' College. ICE arrested him in Houston, Texas, not a sanctuary city. DHS deported him on March 6th. Christian Espinosa-Sarango was an illegal alien from Ecuador arrested in New Haven, Connecticut, for sexually assaulting a minor. He was charged with multiple serious offenses. Connecticut sanctuary laws prevented cooperation with ICE, and he was released into the community before being rearrested by ICE. Mayama Sesay was an illegal alien from Liberia. She was a former rebel commander linked to war crimes, including recruiting and leading child soldiers. Despite a removal order entered in 2022, she was not taken into custody by ICE until April 19th of 2025. The previous administration refused to deport her. She has now since been deported.
(02:25:35)
Hector Balderas-Aheelor was a illegal alien from Mexico arrested in California for a felony hit-and-run that killed an 11-year-old boy. California, a sanctuary state, rejected DHS's detainer. Hector has a bond of $100,000 that could allow this guy back on the streets. We don't know. If he's released, they're not going to tell ICE. Luis Elias-Santos was convicted of statutory rape in Boone County, Missouri. Missouri cooperated with ICE. ICE took him into custody on February 20th, 2026, and assuming he will be deported. Finally, Hugo Renee Hernandez-Mendez was arrested in Prince George's County, Maryland, for DUI. The county did not cooperate with ICE and released him. Months later, he murdered Dacara Thompson, a 19-year-old woman. She would be alive today had Maryland cooperated with ICE. I don't know how you explain this away, but I just want to ask you, Madam Secretary, how critical is it for the operations of ICE to deport these monsters to be able to work with local leaders?
Kristi Noem (02:26:53):
Oh, it's absolutely critically important. It keeps our officers safe. It allows them to do their operation in an efficient manner to make sure that the public is safe as well. And when you talk about these sanctuary jurisdictions touring murders and rapists loose on the street, I picture every time listening to Rachel Morin's mom telling the story of how she died, how she was brutally raped and murdered, and a mother of five children that no longer have a mother. And that individual who raped and murdered her was released three different times, back out to perpetuate more crimes. And that's what I don't understand the argument that these Democrats are making. Do we have to wait until someone who's in this country illegally creates another victim before we hold them accountable and get them out of our country? Why do we have to wait until there's more murder victims? More-
Senator Schmitt (02:27:45):
We need it in sanctuary cities. I want to ask you real quickly. We've talked about illegal immigration. The time I have left, legal immigration and the abuses we've seen. I've written to you about H-1B and OPT. And for those listening, the H-1B program was marketed as a program to bring in the best and the brightest for jobs that we don't have people for. That's been patently false. What's happening is this abuse is that American citizens are being displaced by cheaper, more obedient foreign labor. The abuse has been pretty rampant. I've written to you about that. And the OPT program, which has become visa mills for universities, taking away opportunities for American students because they don't have to pay taxes on the foreign labor for at least a year if you have this visa for OPT. Anyway, there's been rampant abuse we've seen. I've written to you about this.
(02:28:38)
I appreciate your response. I want to just ... With the remaining time, you committed, in that letter, to reevaluate OPT's scope and duration. I just want to ask you, what's the timeline for that review? And will you commit to completing that reevaluation this year?
Kristi Noem (02:28:55):
Yes, we are. We're continuing to do that review now. And it will be completed here in 2026.
Senator Schmitt (02:29:00):
Thank you.
Kristi Noem (02:29:01):
Yeah.
Senator Schmitt (02:29:01):
Thank you, Madam Secretary.
Kristi Noem (02:29:01):
Thank you.
Charles Grassley (02:29:02):
In 30 seconds, we'll take a break. I want to say law enforcement continues to face a record amount of threats in the course of their duties. This is unacceptable. As I mentioned earlier, any loss of life is a tragedy. When rare instances occur, potential misconduct is investigation, and these investigations should play out. We'll take a ... Stand at ease for a few minutes.
(02:29:27)
You say she's coming down the hall? The Secretary's just about here. And when she gets here, Senator Hirono will be the first person to question. How'd you know she was in the hall? She'd be here by now.
Speaker 3 (02:41:11):
Yeah. At least that's what they tell me.
Charles Grassley (02:41:40):
Is she coming through this door?
Speaker 3 (02:41:41):
Yes, sir. She'll come through here.
Charles Grassley (02:41:43):
Go see if she's coming down the hall.
Speaker 3 (02:41:50):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 4 (02:41:50):
Yeah. She's down the hallway. She's walking. She's walking.
Speaker 3 (02:41:54):
She's walk ... I'm sorry.
Speaker 5 (02:41:54):
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 3 (02:41:55):
She's walking. She's walking down the hallway now, sir.
Charles Grassley (02:41:56):
Yeah. I just checked. The Secretary is coming. Tell me, Secretary, when you're ready.
Kristi Noem (02:42:38):
Yes, Mr. Chairman. I'm ready. Yes, sir.
Charles Grassley (02:42:43):
You're ready?
Kristi Noem (02:42:43):
I'm ready. Yes.
Charles Grassley (02:42:45):
Senator Hirono?
Senator Blackburn (02:42:46):
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Over the last year, the American people have watched in horror as DHS agents have terrorized our communities. We've all seen pictures and videos of ICE agents dragging people out of their cars, shooting them with pepper balls or worse, murdering people in the street. This is not normal, but it's what communities being targeted by ICE are forced to face every day under this regime. It is why Americans of every background across the country are up in arms and raising a hue and cry about ICE. My first question, Ms. Noem. Last August, DHS attempted to deport 600 children to Guatemala in the middle of the night. When challenged in court, the lawyer representing DHS said, "Our requests have been made by either their parent or legal guardian," to justify deporting these children. A federal judge found that statement had no support. In other words, no evidence that the parents had been asked. That statement by the lawyer representing DHS was false. That was a lie? Yes or no?
Kristi Noem (02:44:16):
Ma'am, in that situation and in many others, we're working to return children back to their parents so they can be with their families. And specifically in Guatemala, we were stopped by an activist judge from returning those children to some-
Senator Blackburn (02:44:28):
Ms. Noem, the answer [inaudible 02:44:29].
Kristi Noem (02:44:28):
... of their family members. And we'll continue to work to reunite them-
Senator Blackburn (02:44:31):
That was a lie because the judge said-
Kristi Noem (02:44:32):
... so that we can keep people together.
Senator Blackburn (02:44:34):
You lied. Your attorney lied.
Kristi Noem (02:44:34):
These poor angel families behind me will never have their children again.
Senator Blackburn (02:44:38):
Reclaiming my time.
Kristi Noem (02:44:38):
And that's one of my motivations every day.
Senator Blackburn (02:44:40):
After DH agents shot Marimar Martinez five times, five times, your department was quick to label her a domestic terrorist and claim that she ambushed and rammed federal agents with her car. She was even criminally charged, only for those charges to be completely dropped when body camera footage showed the truth, that during the incident, the DHS agents announced that it's time to get aggressive and then rammed her car. Secretary Noem, DHS was lying when it said Ms. Martinez was a domestic terrorist who ambushed federal agents. Yes or no? That was a lie.
Kristi Noem (02:45:36):
Every day, our law enforcement officers face tragic situations on the ground in-
Senator Blackburn (02:45:42):
Ms. Noem.
Kristi Noem (02:45:42):
They work every day to bring public safety threats to justice.
Senator Blackburn (02:45:46):
I am not hearing yes or no. You know what? You actually had to dismiss the lies that you alleged against Ms. Martinez. So that was a lie. Next. After DHS agents shot and killed ICU nurse Alex Pretti, you were also quick to label him a domestic terrorist. Even before an investigation began, you said he was brandishing a gun, a firearm. You also said he was apparently trying to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement. The videos show that Pretti had a phone in his hand while helping a woman who was pepper sprayed. He never touched his gun. After DHS agents pinned Pretti to the ground and your agents removed the gun, they then shot him at least six times, killing him. Secretary Noem, when DHS claimed that Mr. Pretti was a domestic terrorist who was brandishing a firearm, that was a lie. Yes or no?
Kristi Noem (02:46:59):
That investigation is still ongoing, being led by the FBI, but when that horrific day happened and that tragic situation, we continued to relay information from agents on the ground to get information to the American public.
Senator Blackburn (02:47:11):
I'm not hearing your answers our simple yes or no questions, so moving on. Secretary Noem, in this photo, this man is on the ground, and there are multiple people holding him down. Yes or no?
Kristi Noem (02:47:29):
Yes.
Senator Blackburn (02:47:30):
You see? Yes or no?
Kristi Noem (02:47:33):
Yes, he's laying on the ground, and there are multiple-
Senator Blackburn (02:47:35):
Yes?
Kristi Noem (02:47:35):
... people with their hands on him. Yes.
Senator Blackburn (02:47:37):
So that is what the American people saw. This man is completely subdued on the ground with multiple DHS agents on top of him. Despite being pinned down, a DHS agent soaks him with pepper spray, which can blind and burn a person. You can't even see his face. That yellow substance is pepper spray because your agent deemed it necessary to cover his face with pepper spray. Next photo. In this photo, the man with a clergy collar is surrounded by multiple DHS agents. Yes or no?
Kristi Noem (02:48:22):
Yes.
Senator Blackburn (02:48:22):
Showing you a picture. Yes or no?
Kristi Noem (02:48:25):
Yes, ma'am.
Senator Blackburn (02:48:26):
That is what the American people saw. This man is Reverend David Black, who is the Senior Pastor of The First Presbyterian Church of Chicago. He had his arms up in prayer when ICE agents fired pepper balls directly at his head. They shot him seven times, including twice in his head. Next photo. In this photo, do you see the woman on the ground? Yes or no?
Kristi Noem (02:48:57):
Yes.
Senator Blackburn (02:48:58):
That's what the American people saw. This is just after your DHS agent violently shoved her against the wall and down to the ground in front of her two young children. She later went to the hospital. Secretary Noem, under your leadership, DHS attacks Americans and acts as if the law doesn't apply to them. That recklessness and lack of accountability stem from the lies that you and your partners in this regime are constantly telling. "Oh, it's domestic terrorists. They were aggressive," whatever. Meanwhile, Stephen Miller, a top White House official, declared to an ICE officer, "You have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties," to all ICE officers. That is Stephen Miller. When DHS agents hear what you and the White House say, those agents think they can do anything. They know there will be no accountability for their lawlessness. They know that when they fire their weapons without restraints, you will immediately and reflexively blame the victims and label them domestic terrorists, regardless of the circumstances or facts.
(02:50:32)
That is exactly what happened when DHS officers shot and killed Renee Good. DHS agents pulled up to her car, surrounding her. Moments later, a DHS officer shot her three times through the car window. She died. In response, you blamed Renee Good, saying she committed an act of domestic terrorism. Vice President Vance was then quick to say that the ICE officer who killed Ms. Good is protected by absolute immunity. No wonder we saw DHS shoot and kill another innocent person mere weeks later. The lies that you and this regime spread are creating a culture that fosters abuse of power. This is the reason we need clear guardrails on DHS. No more masks, no more warrantless searches, nor more roving gangs of officers terrorizing our communities. We need DHS to meet the same use of force standards that local police need to meet. They have the same requirements to identify themselves like local police have, and use the same warrants that local police use.
(02:52:09)
In other words, we need immediate guardrails to rein in the lawlessness that you have unleashed. Mr. Chairman, I am done with this witness.
Thom Tillis (02:52:32):
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Secretary Noem, thank you for being here. I'm really glad that a lot of my Republican colleagues talked about the disaster that Biden and Mayorkas, your predecessor, created. It was absurd. You heard the things from Senator Britt, people that came over here who themselves were traumatized by the very people who then come to this country and traumatize American citizens. You heard Senator Schmitt saying the same thing. A lot of us are very frustrated with the disaster that President Biden left behind, and a failed DHS. It's why I'm angry and it's why I've been critical of you, Secretary Noem, because we're missing an opportunity. Ladies and gentlemen, one of the reasons President Trump won a year and a half ago is because people were sick and tired of a Democratic administration's open border policy and allowing millions of people to come to this country.
(02:53:29)
1.7 million called Gotaways. We don't even know where they are, but we know when you pay a premium to a cartel to get them into this country, they're bad people. Now, why have I been critical of Secretary Noem? Because I don't think we're focusing on ... We have limited resources. ICE can't be everywhere at once. There's very few people in Capitol Hill that support law enforcement more than me, including the sworn ICE officers. In fact, I've just been told, fortunately, in about a week and a half, we're going to get a plaque on the wall over the Capitol, thanking the Capitol police officers and all the agencies that responded on January 6th. All those thugs have actually been pardoned. And yet, we haven't thanked the Capitol police officers for their work here. So when I say I'm unapologetically pro law enforcement, you can count in every single sworn officer in Homeland Security.
(02:54:21)
So why am I disappointed with Secretary Noem? Because we're not going after enough people who did this damage at the expense of running numbers that Stephen Miller wants out of the White House. We just want numbers. We want a thousand a day, 6,000 a day, 9,000 a day because numbers matter, right? No, they don't matter. Quality matters. Not quantity, quality. And what we've seen is a disaster. Under your leadership, Ms. Noem, a disaster. What we've seen is innocent people getting detained that turn out are American citizens. I could talk about the culture that's been created here
Thom Tillis (02:55:00):
... With Stephen Miller aiding and abetting. I heard first reports that he was the one that said it was a domestic terrorist situation where two people lost their lives in Minneapolis. I've heard that report. Maybe you can refute it. I don't know that we'll have time for you to respond because I've given you a performance evaluation here. I'm not looking for a response. And I'm saying, Ms. Noem, that time after time after time, I've been disappointed.
(02:55:27)
But before I get back to looking at the vicious people that did this damage to these families, I want to talk a minute about FEMA. You have a policy right now that anything over $100,000 has to go through your desk for approval.
(02:55:44)
I asked my staff, because I'm a management consultant, I don't try to do cheap shots in here, but the facts do not lie. This is your administration for FEMA response. This is President Trump's first administration. Which one would you like to have? If you're a state that has a $60 billion disaster, your biggest disaster in South Dakota that I can tell that when you were an elected official was about a half a billion dollars. So 1/100th of this single storm where thousands of people are hurting in North Carolina and you're just barely catching up.
(02:56:19)
This is what competent FEMA leadership looks like. This is what incompetent FEMA leadership looks like. And people are hurting in Western North Carolina from the most significant storm they've ever experienced. This is what we need more of. I'm convinced you can't do it. If you're requesting a review of $100,000 and up, then it begs the question why. Why would you be involved in that? Why would that be a policy? And in a minute, I'll ask about some people that are involved, some special government employees, why are they involved in it? Thank you.
Kristi Noem (02:56:51):
Senator-
Thom Tillis (02:56:52):
No.
Kristi Noem (02:56:52):
... that $100,000 only had to do-
Thom Tillis (02:56:54):
And you can finish after my 10 ten minutes are done and I will hold the clock until I finish.
Kristi Noem (02:56:58):
Okay.
Thom Tillis (02:56:59):
The bottom line is I've done the analysis and you can say whatever you want to. I worked with a Democrat governor, I worked with a Republican governor, I've worked with fiscal research. We have people contacting my office now to get the information to better understand the failure of this department.
(02:57:15)
You failed at FEMA. And in fact, if I get to it... Actually, why don't I cover this right now? The Homeland Security Act of 2002 expressly prohibits the Secretary of Homeland Security from restricting or diverting FEMA resources from the agency's mission. Based on your disaster response, the chart that I just showed you, I have reason to believe that you're violating the law, either knowingly or unknowingly. So I'll be asking and getting a submission to the record... submitting a question for the record, what the total amount of FEMA reimbursements are currently being held by DHS, awaiting for final approval. Held by DHS, awaiting for final approval, for an agency that you should not be obstructing the disbursement on. I'm going to give you time to answer to it under penalty of perjury so that we can get it right.
(02:58:05)
Now, going back to Minneapolis, why can't we just say we made a mistake? I will ask you one question, if you can just give me a quick response. Who does Tom Homan work for, you or the president?
Kristi Noem (02:58:19):
The president.
Thom Tillis (02:58:20):
Okay. Why is that? Because I believe the president recognized that you weren't getting it done in Minneapolis and you're putting us further away from pointing to this. We're beginning to get the American people to think that deporting people is wrong. It's the exact opposite. The way you're going about deporting them is wrong.
(02:58:38)
The fact that you can't admit to a mistake, which looks like under investigation is going to prove that Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti probably should not have been shot in the face and in the back. Law enforcement needs to learn from that. You don't protect them by not looking after the facts. Not only should the FBI be investigating it, but every single law enforcement agency in that jurisdiction should be invited to it, so our law enforcement officers do not have this pall cast upon them. One of the reasons why ICE officers are having threats, and damn the people that threaten ICE officers because so many of them are doing a good job, is because you've cast a pall on them by acting like we should investigate things differently.
(02:59:21)
Officer-involved shootings have a formula that we should go through every time. And we're not going through that formula. As a matter of fact, in Ms. Good's case, I think that they were even saying that maybe there wasn't even a need to do it in the DOJ. I hope that that's changed. But I'm telling you... It was a civil rights review. I saw your frown. You can correct me if I'm wrong... But originally Blanche said there wouldn't be an investigation. Folks, law enforcement, we've got to have their back. We've got to make it clear when they make a mistake, then they get corrected for it. But you don't walk away from it and you've done it too many times.
(02:59:58)
Now, Secretary, I read your book last week. And honestly, some of the parts of it impressed me, but some of it distresses me. And I'll give you a good example of one that does. The passage where you talk about killing a dog that was 14 months old. I trained dogs, all right? And you are a farmer. You should know better. You should know that if you're going out to a hunting lodge and you're putting pheasants out and you're putting dogs out, you don't take a puppy out there. A 14-month-old dog is basically a teenager in dog years. You decided to kill that dog because you had not invested the appropriate time and training. And then you have the audacity to go into a book and say it's a leadership lesson about tough choices. It's in your book. We could play it if we had time. At that same lunch hour, you killed a goat, and you killed the goat because you said it was behaving badly. You are a farmer, you don't castrate a goat, they behave badly. You should have probably done that before. But my point is, those are bad decisions made in the heat of the moment, not unlike what happened up in Minneapolis.
(03:01:09)
I expect... We're an exceptional nation, and one of the reasons we're exceptional is we expect exceptional leadership. And you've demonstrated anything but that in the time that I've seen you responding to the emergency in North Carolina and across the Southeast, and acknowledging when mistakes are made and speaking too soon for the expedient of social media or whatever it is.
(03:01:33)
I'll leave you with this, Ms. Noem. I'm expecting answers to Charlotte's Web. I requested it a month ago. That was one of the investigations in Charlotte, 20 minutes from where I live. All I asked for, if it had to be anonymized, was information so that I could determine if your hit rate is right. I want to find more of those people and I want to detain fewer of the others.
(03:01:58)
And Mr. Chair, in my remaining time, I have a lot to go. But I want to submit this letter from the Office of Inspector General that cites 10 different instances under Ms. Noem's leadership where they've been misled and not allowed to pursue investigations that they think are critically important. Does anybody have any idea how bad it has to be for the OIG in this agency to come out and do this publicly? That is stonewalling, that's a failure of leadership, and that is why I've called for your resignation. And if I don't get an answer to these questions... I don't want an applause. Please don't do that for me... If I don't get an answer to these questions, if I don't get an answer that you've had a month to respond to, and the remaining ones, as of today, I'll be informing leadership that I'm putting a hold on any unblocked nominations until I get a response.
(03:02:49)
And in two weeks, if I don't get a response, I'm going to deny a quorum and markup in as many committees as I can until I get a response. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Grassley (03:02:58):
Okay. Now it's Senator Booker's turn.
Senator Schmitt (03:03:03):
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Secretary Noem, you're in charge of your agency, the buck stops with you, correct?
Kristi Noem (03:03:10):
I'm in charge of my agency what?
Senator Schmitt (03:03:12):
The buck stops with you, correct?
Kristi Noem (03:03:14):
Yes, correct.
Senator Schmitt (03:03:15):
And you had to swear an oath to the Constitution before you took this job, right?
Kristi Noem (03:03:20):
Correct.
Senator Schmitt (03:03:22):
So one of the most sacrosanct ideals of our nation, enshrined in our Constitution, is freedom, is liberty. It is an idea that the government has a very high standard should they take away liberty and freedom from an American citizen. How many US citizens has DHS detained as of last October?
Kristi Noem (03:03:52):
Senator, if you're talking about detained and arrested, is that those that have been violating and obstructing our law enforcement operations? Is that what you're referencing? Because it could be hundreds and hundreds. We have faced violent riots across the country-
Senator Schmitt (03:04:05):
That's the problem. You are saying that-
Kristi Noem (03:04:06):
... specifically in Portland and in Minneapolis.
Senator Schmitt (03:04:08):
... the only people you've detained are committing crimes, but you and I both know that's not true.
Kristi Noem (03:04:13):
I haven't said that. I didn't say that, I asked which question you were referencing.
Senator Schmitt (03:04:15):
So then how many people have you detained?
Kristi Noem (03:04:17):
I can't give you an accurate number because we've literally detained and arrested many for those obstruction of law enforcement operations, when there were also others that had probable cause.
Senator Schmitt (03:04:24):
The public records, let me tell you what my staff researched.
Kristi Noem (03:04:27):
And then released once they-
Senator Schmitt (03:04:28):
May I continue?
Kristi Noem (03:04:29):
Yes.
Senator Schmitt (03:04:30):
Public records are showing that over 170 incidents of your agency unlawfully taking away the liberties and freedoms of American citizens. This includes 20 children, 20 American kids, that your agency detained. How long can your agency detain an American citizen?
Kristi Noem (03:04:58):
We don't detain children and separate them from their parents. Those parents have chosen-
Senator Schmitt (03:05:01):
But you're telling me under oath right now-
Kristi Noem (03:05:02):
... to keep their child with them.
Senator Schmitt (03:05:04):
Hold on. I just want to be clear... You're telling me under oath right now that your agency has not detained American children.
Kristi Noem (03:05:09):
Those parents have chosen to keep their children with them. We don't separate families like the Biden administration did.
Senator Schmitt (03:05:15):
So hold on. Let me continue.
Kristi Noem (03:05:16):
We keep them together, and parents have the option-
Senator Schmitt (03:05:18):
Please let me continue.
Kristi Noem (03:05:19):
... on if they want their child with them or not with them.
Senator Schmitt (03:05:21):
How long do detentions last? When you detain an American citizen? How long do they last?
Kristi Noem (03:05:25):
We don't detain American citizens, and if there's probable cause-
Senator Schmitt (03:05:30):
Let me give you, because you're not speaking truthfully under oath. Isaias Pena Salcedo, a US citizen living in California, was detained more than 70 hours, almost three days, even after he showed ICE agents his passport. My colleague, Senator Blumenthal, gave you example after example. He brought people here who had something else we Americans consider sacrosanct, our home, our property. Your masked agents, jumping out of unmarked cars, have broken into... considerable property damage occurring... into American citizens' homes. Case after case of this, and you sit here before me and claim the buck stops with you, but you don't even know the names of these individuals.
(03:06:21)
I ran New Jersey's largest municipal police department. When my officers engaged in misconduct, you can be damn well sure I knew about it and I investigated it. And yet you have situations where your officers are violating the sanctity of people's homes, arresting and detaining them, arresting and detaining them and holding their children, and you're acting as if you don't know about it and saying that under oath.
(03:06:53)
Miramar Martinez, who is here right now, on her way to church. An American citizen going to church, not just to worship, but to donate clothing, your officer shot her multiple times. The case was thrown out of court and you represent here that you don't know about it.
(03:07:21)
In New Jersey, are you aware of your officer's activities in places like schools? Are you aware of your officer's activities at our public schools?
Kristi Noem (03:07:34):
Sir, we don't go into schools and do targeted law enforcement operations. We do targeted law enforcement operations like other agencies and law enforcement do.
Senator Schmitt (03:07:42):
So you're telling me that ICE officers entered the grounds of a high school in Minneapolis. That's a fact. Elementary school children in New Jersey are terrified of your agents. When they came upon a school bus stop, they fled. Another school, a higher education, Columbia University, your agents reportedly lied to students, told them they were searching for a missing person, to gain access to private spaces to non-public areas of campus.
(03:08:12)
Secretary Noem, these are kids. They're terrified in our communities. How do you think that affects them when children in my state go running, fleeing? And often you all pursue children, throwing them to the ground, getting on their backs, putting them in handcuffs.
(03:08:36)
I want to talk to you about this incredible empire of for-profit companies that are profiting at rates we've never seen, and the way you're using money. Let's drill down on the warehouses that DHS has been buying over the last several months, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. Are you familiar with the acquisition of a warehouse DHS recently bought in Roxbury Township, New Jersey?
Kristi Noem (03:09:07):
Yes.
Senator Schmitt (03:09:08):
You are familiar with that?
Kristi Noem (03:09:10):
I'm familiar that it's-
Senator Schmitt (03:09:11):
Do you know how much you spent for it?
Kristi Noem (03:09:13):
No, sir. I do not.
Senator Schmitt (03:09:14):
$129.3 million. Do you know how much it was assessed for in New Jersey?
Kristi Noem (03:09:22):
Sir, we're purchasing centers across the country to build efficiency into our detention system.
Senator Schmitt (03:09:28):
Efficiency to me-
Kristi Noem (03:09:28):
So that we can-
Senator Schmitt (03:09:29):
... as a person who's run tight budgets before and had taxpayer dollars, you paid $129.3 million for a facility in my state that was assessed at less than half of that, at $62 million. To work for a president that says he's a great dealmaker, I can't believe he thinks that you're a great dealmaker. But what's worse than that is that the Roxbury Township Council, comprised entirely of Republicans, voted unanimously early this year to oppose that facility. My office tried to facilitate a meeting between DHS and local officials so that ICE could hear their concerns, yet DHS did not even respond. That is unacceptable that you all would enter a town, you wouldn't even follow environmental reviews or have conversations with local officials about the resources, from emergency resources to fire resources and more, that you're going to pull down. You didn't even have a conversation. Secretary Noem, do you comply with court orders?
Kristi Noem (03:10:34):
Yes, we do comply with court orders.
Senator Schmitt (03:10:35):
Your agency complies with court orders?
Kristi Noem (03:10:38):
Yes. We comply with the federal court orders.
Senator Schmitt (03:10:40):
Again, you're saying under oath that you do, and yet we know in January the chief judge, Republican-appointed, for the Federal District of Minnesota, find that ICE had violated nearly a hundred court orders since January 1st alone. In my state of New Jersey, last month, the chief of staff of the deputy attorney general, admitted in my state that in the New Jersey District Court that the government had violated 52 separate court orders, all involving cases where immigrants successfully challenged the legality of their detention. So this, again, is a constitution that you swore an oath to, and one of the most important ideals is that no one is above the law. You are violating the separation of powers, violating court orders, and routinely violating the civil rights of Americans. This is a reckless and out of control agency that you are responsible for. You seem to have no situational awareness whatsoever of some of the most egregious examples of Americans being completely attacked, violated, undermined, in accordance with our laws, by their own government.
(03:12:06)
And this is what is phenomenal to me, is immigration was your president's number one issue, overwhelmingly popular with the American people. But now it's overwhelmingly unpopular. And it's not because you are deporting dangerous people that everybody here wants out of our country. No, it's because you're going into our schools, you're terrorizing our children, you're detaining children, you're arresting Americans, you're breaking into our homes, you're terrorizing our streets, you're violating our rights to peacefully protest again and again and again.
Kristi Noem (03:12:46):
None of that is true.
Senator Schmitt (03:12:47):
And then when a court tells you to stop-
Kristi Noem (03:12:48):
None of that is true.
Senator Schmitt (03:12:48):
And then when a court tells you to stop-
Kristi Noem (03:12:48):
You're trying to impede us from enforcing the law.
Senator Schmitt (03:12:50):
... you violate judge's orders-
Kristi Noem (03:12:50):
And getting dangerous criminals-
Senator Schmitt (03:12:55):
... not in a partisan way, Republican-appointed and Democratic-appointed.
Kristi Noem (03:12:55):
... off of our streets. So we don't have more families like the ones that are sitting behind me.
Senator Schmitt (03:12:58):
You don't sit there and tell me that you're responsible-
Kristi Noem (03:12:58):
Plus their children are gone forever.
Senator Schmitt (03:13:01):
... for the running of your agency when you're not even aware. Either you are utterly incompetent or you are violating laws with impunity. You should step down from your position. If you don't, you should be removed by this president. And if not, Congress should impeach you.
Kristi Noem (03:13:17):
I appreciate the encouragement.
Mr. Grassley (03:13:20):
Senator Lee.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (03:13:21):
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Secretary Noem, for being here. Just over a year ago, President Trump took office. At the time he did so, he came in with a significant mandate or set of mandates. One of those mandates included the task of having to address a veritable tidal wave of illegal immigration that had occurred during the four-year period between 2021 and 2025. A period of time in which an unknown number of people entered the United States borders unlawfully. Some have said it's maybe 10 or 15 million. Some have said it's more. It's difficult to ascertain. But what we do know is that many of those same people who were encouraging those things at that time are the same people who are now opposing President Trump and his efforts and your efforts and those of your department to remove those individuals. That was part of his mandate, clean up the mess.
(03:14:21)
Now, under ordinary circumstances, I would think that when there are laws of the United States that have been broken, most or all members of this body, if asked, should those who have violated the law, in coming to our country be returned to their own countries? I would think we'd all be able to raise our hands in support of that. We had doubt cast on that last week during the President's State of the Union address. When President Trump made the point, "The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens." He asked those of us who agreed with them to stand, and stunningly, a whole lot of my colleagues and a lot of our counterparts on the House of Representative side declined to stand, refused to stand.
(03:15:09)
These things are not without consequence. Illegal immigration is not something that poses no risk to the American people, to the security of the homeland, to the safety of individual families. It brings tremendous risk, and we have felt that, some families represented here have felt that all too personally, and my heart goes out to each of them.
(03:15:32)
We also face another threat as we approach another election this fall, a threat that due to a ripple in existing federal law under the National Voter Registration Act, it's stunningly easy for someone in almost any state of the Union to walk into a DMV, fill out a form to apply for a driver's license, which you can do as a non-citizen in almost any state. And by merely checking a box and signing your name, you can register to vote, including to vote in a federal election. Even though existing law prohibits anyone, who is not a citizen from voting in a US federal election. It's phenomenally easy to do so if they follow this stunning formula. That's why I've proposed the Save America Act, which would make sure that we have the tools necessary to protect your vote. Because anytime someone casts a vote in a federal election who is not an American citizen, it's taking away your vote. It's taking something that doesn't belong to them and that belongs to you uniquely as an American citizen.
(03:16:41)
Yet, stunningly, some of the same people who are condemning you and condemning President Trump for trying to clean up the mess that President Biden created over a four-year period of time, are also the people most staunch, most dogged, most dug in, in their opposition to this very simple reform to make sure that those showing up to vote are entitled to vote. You know, you have to show your credentials in all sorts of circumstances when boarding a plane, when applying for Social Security benefits, applying for a passport, when starting any new job. For a new employer, you have to prove your identity, who you are and that you're entitled to do that thing. You've got to demonstrate that you are entitled to do the thing that you're going to do.
(03:17:26)
But it's not just government that requires these. When you pick up a prescription at a pharmacy, when you go to the doctor, when you're admitted to a hospital, when you board an airplane, when you pick up airplane tickets, when you go to the Super Bowl, the Emmys, the Grammys, the Oscars, or even the Democratic National Convention, where yes, photo ID and credentials are required or you can't get in. You see, because the Democratic National Convention understands that when people participate at that event, who are not entitled to, they're taking something from someone else who does have that right, and that is wrong.
(03:18:03)
Meanwhile, many of those same individuals who publicly cheered and advocated for President Biden as he was distorting various immigration laws, including the use of immigration parole, which requires an individualized determination or in order to admit somebody into this country, President Biden used it categorically to bring in millions of people. With respect to our asylum laws, he just opened the floodgates and started treating people as if they were asylees just for having submitted an asylum application, then let them off into the interior of the United States saying, "We hope one day you will show up to your immigration hearing where you'll have an individualized determination." And by the way, that immigration hearing might be many years or even decades into the future. So those same people who were applauding that are now condemning you and condemning President Trump for just trying to enforce the law. And those very same people today want your department, the entirety of it, to remain shut down, to remain defunded. Secretary Noem, tell me how that is affecting your operations within the department, either your operations, your ability to protect the American homeland from those who have come here illegally or otherwise. How is that harming the families of those who work in your department, how is that harming the American people in undermining their safety?
Kristi Noem (03:19:30):
Well, the patriots that work at the Department of Homeland Security still get up every day and do their jobs and work hard to protect the American people. There's individuals in some of our departments though that have been furloughed, that it's not an option for them to come in and they're not getting paychecks. They're not able to pay their rent, put food on the table for their kids. Our cybersecurity agency has lost hundreds of workers that have been furloughed. We've got Weapons of Mass Destruction that does training for detecting bombs and terrorist activities across the country and works with our local law enforcement, has been furloughed and is not on duty today. We have ICE and CBP and officers at Secret Service and some Coast Guard elements that are still there and are essential employees that are showing up and doing their jobs, but their support staff isn't able to work, and their contracting isn't getting done, and their management practices aren't getting done, and those families are struggling.
(03:20:20)
Many of these TSOs at TSA that are running these security checkpoints are borrowing money so that they can get through a short period here without paychecks, but they just got through one of those and they're still in debt from paying the fines and penalties for late bills. So we are damaging families to make a political point, that the Democratic Party is damaging families long-term to make a political point when it has no effect on what we're able to do for immigration enforcement out there every single day because that agency is funded.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (03:20:52):
Now, you've heard from some of those same colleagues of mine today on this stand that they're negotiating, that they've made their offer, they've made it fairly easy for us to fund your department with their conditions. Tell us about those conditions and how those would affect you.
Kristi Noem (03:21:08):
Honestly, I don't understand what their conditions are at this point. One of the discussions that we had was body cameras. I've already instituted body cameras. They're being utilized on our law enforcement officers. They need to be funded. That has something that Congress has not given us the tools to do that. They talk about masks, yet they're the party that in 2020 mandated masks and penalized and put crimes on US citizens if they didn't have a mask on. And now they don't want our law enforcement officers to be protected from doxing and from threats where people have threatened their families and come after them for just doing their jobs.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (03:21:43):
And that to be sure is why they don't want them wearing masks, right?
Kristi Noem (03:21:46):
Yes.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (03:21:46):
They want to be able to dox them. Is that the case?
Kristi Noem (03:21:48):
They want to be able to dox them and to dox their identities and have them be bullied, threatened, and potentially victimized by people out there who don't support them upholding the law.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (03:21:58):
Merely for doing their job.
Kristi Noem (03:22:00):
Correct.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (03:22:01):
Doing their job, which means enforcing the law. Now, who in this room would not want, would not want the US government doing its job in enforcing the law and sending people back to their home country if they came here illegally? I can't imagine why somebody would not want that. It's stunning to me that particularly during a time like this, they'd want to carry out that kind of shutdown operation.
(03:22:28)
Now, tell me this. Over the last few days, we've had a few new developments on the world stage and domestically, with what happened over the weekend in Austin and with what happened on the other side of the world over the weekend. Tell me how that has uniquely intensified the effects of the now two and a half week old shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, which has been shut down a couple of times now in the last five or six months.
Kristi Noem (03:22:55):
We have known and suspected terrorists in this country that we don't know where they are. We have always faced threats here on our homeland, and that is our department's duty is to do all that we can to protect the American people. But when we have conflicts overseas, we see that the ramifications are that are higher threats here at home as well, and more resources are needed to be out there to do due diligence, to try to do everything we can to prevent any kind of attack on our homeland against our American citizens.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (03:23:23):
If we're going to be a country and if we're going to be a safe country, we've got to fund the Department of Homeland Security. We should focus on nothing else until that's done. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Grassley (03:23:32):
Before I call on Senator Padilla, I expect DHS, just like any other executive branch agency to comply with all lawful court orders. That's why we have an independent judiciary. All local and state law enforcement ought to support their federal law enforcement partners. Our laws need to be followed, even in instances where officials might disagree with them. We have this public safety issue because previous administration refused to enforce our immigration laws. The previous administration let millions of illegal immigrants without proper vetting, and creating a humanitarian crisis at the border. President Trump and his administration have acted swiftly to address the crisis and with great success. Senator Padilla.
Senator Kennedy (03:24:28):
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Secretary Noem, I'm Senator Alex Padilla, the senior senator for the state of California. Last year, you were in Los Angeles when you publicly declared that the mission of DHS in Los Angeles was to liberate the people, not just of Los Angeles, but the state of California from its duly elected leaders. The National Guard that was federalized and deployed into Los Angeles to assist DHS in this mission, that whole deployment was deemed unlawful as I'm sure you are aware. Thankfully, those Guards members and the Marines who were also deployed to assist DHS in Los Angeles have also returned home and to their primary missions. Meanwhile, ICE and CBP are still conducting operations. My first question, the first of several yes or no questions, do you declare mission accomplished?
Kristi Noem (03:25:27):
Senator Padilla, our mission is not accomplished until we get every single illegal criminal out of this country-
Senator Kennedy (03:25:34):
[inaudible 03:25:36].
Kristi Noem (03:25:35):
... and protect American citizens until protect all of our children and these families behind me don't ever have to go through what they had to go through.
Senator Kennedy (03:25:43):
I'm trying to ask a question here. Thank you. Trump advisor, Steve Bannon, among others close to President Trump, has called for ICE agents to "surround the polls." However, acting ICE director, your acting ICE director, Todd Lyons, has said, "There's no reason for us to deploy to a polling facility." And just last week, your deputy assistant secretary for election integrity, Heather Honey, told a bipartisan group of state election officers on a call that ICE would not be present at polling places. I know this question came up earlier, but I have two specifics. One, which is it? Do you, Secretary Noem, agree with Steve Bannon or your acting ICE director and your deputy assistant secretary?
Kristi Noem (03:26:38):
There are no plans to have ICE officers at polling locations.
Senator Kennedy (03:26:42):
I'm not getting any answer, because that what you replied to Senator Coons, who left earlier in the hearing.
Kristi Noem (03:26:42):
I'm not certain, Senator, if you're indicating that your parties are planning on facilitating illegal aliens voting in our elections.
Senator Kennedy (03:26:48):
So I respect that you're saying there's no current plans, but obviously plans can change. No plans is the right answer, but not definitive enough. Sending ICE agents to the polls to intimidate voters is illegal. And so I want to ask you explicitly, if President Trump or Stephen Miller directed you to do it anyway with or without a bogus National Emergency Declaration, would you say no?
Kristi Noem (03:27:18):
Sir, there is no plans to send ICE officers to polling locations.
Senator Kennedy (03:27:22):
Would you say no? Would you say no, yes or no?
Kristi Noem (03:27:23):
And we are not planning on doing that. Are you planning on sending illegal aliens to vote?
Senator Kennedy (03:27:25):
No, that's already illegal.
Kristi Noem (03:27:30):
Is that what you're planning to do?
Senator Kennedy (03:27:30):
And extremely, extremely rare.
Kristi Noem (03:27:30):
Yes. But people have done it in the past and that's what... but we are not going-
Senator Kennedy (03:27:33):
That's amazing, Mr. Chairman, that we even have to ask these questions because just a couple of weeks ago, Secretary Noem, when you visited Arizona, claimed that DHS has authority over certain aspects of elections. So enlighten me here. What statutory authority are you referring to?
Kristi Noem (03:27:48):
The Department of Homeland Security has mitigation responsibility over critical infrastructure, and our election system is defined by statute as critical infrastructure. Therefore, it's under our department to put forward and point out vulnerabilities that may be in election systems and then recommend mitigation.
Senator Kennedy (03:28:08):
Listen, I'm very familiar the specific role for CISA in elections as a former secretary of state. Third area that I wanted to ask you, that the nation has watched-
Kristi Noem (03:28:13):
I know that states run elections, but we just point out vulnerabilities that may exist-
Senator Kennedy (03:28:16):
... the violent manner-
Kristi Noem (03:28:16):
... and offer mitigation.
Senator Kennedy (03:28:16):
Mr. Chairman, can I ask the question here?
Mr. Grassley (03:28:16):
[inaudible 03:28:25].
Kristi Noem (03:28:16):
Okay.
Senator Kennedy (03:28:26):
So the nation has watched the violent manner in which many immigrants and citizens alike have been taken into custody by your officers and your agents. In addition to that, 32 people died while in ICE custody last year, and at least eight more have died in the first seven weeks of this year. The numbers are a big increase from prior years. Secretary Noem, yes or no, do you care enough about the human rights of the men, women, and children in your custody to improve the conditions as required by the courts?
Kristi Noem (03:29:09):
Yes, absolutely. We adhere to our federal detention standards, which are higher than virtually all state and local detention standards. We provide medical care to all of our detainees, three nutritious meals a day. We take care of them. We keep families together.
Senator Kennedy (03:29:24):
I appreciate the response, but have to tell you-
Kristi Noem (03:29:26):
We continue to do that. You talk about-
Senator Kennedy (03:29:26):
... that I believe my own eyes.
Kristi Noem (03:29:27):
... when we have an unfortunate situations where individuals have passed away.
Senator Kennedy (03:29:30):
I believe my own eyes when I saw firsthand the poor conditions in which people were treated when I visited the detention center in California City.
(03:29:42)
Now, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to enter into the record reports from California-based and national non-governmental organizations, as well as the California Attorney's General's office about the deplorable conditions at the California City Detention Facility, and a recent court order
Senator Kennedy (03:30:00):
... Requiring DHS to address these conditions, if I may, without ... Thank you very much. Now, maintaining basic standards should not require court orders. The deplorable conditions at facilities across the country are the result of Secretary Noem's failed leadership. Now, since the beginning of the administration, federal judges have found DHS not in compliance with judicial directives on a number of immigration matters.
(03:30:32)
The administration has lost in court, lost in court on immigration cases more than 4,500 times since October alone, with judges across the country finding that DHS is detaining immigrants unlawfully and judges appointed by both Republicans and Democrats across the country have threatened to hold the administration in contempt for failure to comply with court orders. This too is a result of Secretary Noem's failed leadership. Now, despite clear court orders, DHS continues to refuse members of Congress, including myself, access to detention facilities to conduct unannounced oversight. That's our job. This is yet another court order that DHS refuses to comply with.
(03:31:27)
And another example of Secretary Noem's failed leadership. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security has cut support and collaboration with state and local elections officials on election security. Secretary Noem has cut staff at CISA by a third. You've proposed cutting $500 million from the CISA budget. You talk about critical infrastructure. I know it well. And this is after having transferred $144 million from CISA to ICE last year for immigration enforcement, all this at a time when our country is more vulnerable to cyber attacks than ever. Another example of Kristi Noem's failed leadership.
(03:32:16)
And now the department's also playing political games with the distribution of disaster aid, another sign of failed leadership and on the topic of immigration enforcement. Despite the DHS database that supposedly showcases the worst of the worst, a DHS spokesperson recently admitted that the database was full of inaccurate information. What we know is true based on DHS's own data is that less than 14% of those arrested by ICE and CBP have previously been charged with or convicted of violent crimes. Lies have become the pattern or practice of Kristi Noem's DHS.
(03:33:04)
In the fall of last year, Secretary Noem asserted that no American citizens have been arrested or detained, despite more than 170 verified reports to the contrary. During a House Homeland Security Committee oversight hearing recently, Secretary Noem claimed that DHS had not deported veterans, not under this administration. And seconds later, Representative Magaziner presented via a video call. Say June Park, a veteran who earned a Purple Heart, but was deported by Secretary Noem's DHS. And so, it comes as no surprise that not just the secretary directly, but her representatives within the department have repeatedly lied to the American people about how the officers and agents under her charge have beaten, tased, shot at and killed.
(03:34:06)
Secretary known before you even knew the facts or even allowed for a credible investigation to be conducted, you called Renee Good, an Alex Pretti domestic terrorist for exercising their first amendment rights. And just last week, DHS lied yet again about abandoning a Rohingya refugee, a nearly blind man who couldn't speak or understand English in the parking lot of a closed coffee shop only for him to die in the freezing streets of Buffalo. These are not accusations, colleagues. I submit for the record reports, declarations, other documents confirming these lies.
(03:34:50)
For all these reasons and more Secretary Noem, you should resign or the president should fire you or the House should vote to impeach.
Mr. Grassley (03:34:57):
Did you want those put in the record? Without objection. Secretary Noem, in a couple minutes, if you want to respond, if you don't want to, I'll go to Senator Moody.
Kristi Noem (03:35:09):
I just wish that Senator Padilla would have used his time to talk about Kate Steinle or other families that lost loved ones that aren't here any more because of violent, illegal criminals that are in this country that we are charged with removing to protect American citizens. He didn't use any of his time to talk about victims that have been perpetuated by Joe Biden's invasion over the southern border. He didn't talk about the 1.7 billion lives that were saved by the amount of drugs that we've stopped in the last year from coming into our country and killing Americans and many other people.
(03:35:44)
He didn't talk about the fact that we have the lowest murder rate in the last 125 years because of President Trump and the work that he has done to keep Americans safe. He didn't talk about the fact that American citizens should be the priority in this country because they're American citizens. I know he's very concerned about illegal aliens, but my job as a Secretary of Homeland Security is to get up every day and to put American citizens first and keep them safe here in the homeland. And I'll continue to defend the homeland every moment of every day that I get the chance and that I'm blessed to. Thank you.
Mr. Grassley (03:36:16):
Senator Moody.
Senator Blackburn (03:36:18):
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you, Secretary, for being here today. I know it's been a long warning and certainly we appreciate you being here to answer some really tough questions. But I think questions that are important to have for the American people to know what their government is doing and how it's placing their interests first, finally, and caring about the sovereignty and safety and security and stability of this country.
(03:36:47)
And I know President Trump came in on day one and said, "We're taking this back. We've just witnessed years and years of devastation to our communities as a result of a president who was asleep at the wheel or allowed the radicals to run the White House and just pretty much abolished ice, abolished border patrol, basically." I mean, just in your understanding, I know you have previously served as a Congresswoman, as a governor, but just in your understanding, have you ever seen anything like the dereliction of duty by a president as it relates to immigration and the safety of a nation?
Kristi Noem (03:37:24):
No, it was alarming. And under that invasion, every state was a border state, even though I was from South Dakota and the governor there, we were the first state to deploy National Guard down to help support Texas in their efforts to keep our country safe because we saw millions of people coming into this country unvetted. We saw other countries sending their criminals and emptying out their prisons and their mental health institutes and sending people to our country to make them our problem and to deal with and to try to protect our American citizens from any crimes that they would commit.
(03:37:56)
So, that's why I took this job and why I'm blessed and honored that President Trump has asked me to do this job is because I get the chance every single day to try to stop the damage that that invasion has corrected and to try to make sure that America is safe here on our homeland.
Senator Blackburn (03:38:10):
Your predecessor sat right there in front of this committee. I sure wish I would've been on this committee at the time. At the time I was the Florida Attorney General dealing with the affects and consequences, the jeopardy to the safety of Floridians as a result of President Biden and his policies. But your predecessor, my orchestra sat right there and said under oath that the border was secure and that they were following the laws. And in fact, when I knew with my team, my great team in Florida, not only within the Attorney General's office, but with the sheriffs across the state, local law enforcement, they saw what was happening. They saw the trafficking of children.
(03:38:54)
They saw the peddling of poison in our communities. They saw what was happening as a result of an unencumbered border, a non-existent border, and the effects it was having in our state. I saw that firsthand. In fact, President Biden came in and in his policies, and I think it's really important that we put this in perspective because we have some families here today with us that have lost loved ones. And I appreciate you being here.
(03:39:24)
Thank you so much for reminding us of the duty that we owe the American people to protect them through our policies and not just adopting good policies like here in the Congress, but making sure they are faithfully executed and enforced by the executive branch, which is what the Constitution requires of our president. And so, I appreciate you being here and reminding us all of the solemn responsibility and duties that we owe you and we owe every American out there that's trusted us with these roles.
(03:39:56)
President Biden came in and upended precedent of Democratic and Republican presidents, and that precedent was to deport those here illegally that had committed felony crimes from trafficking to violent crimes to other types of crimes where they would have been deported. They stopped doing that. They reversed that policy. We also saw policies at the border that required more and more people to be pushed in. I would say, and I said many times, they are requiring a certain number of people every day to be pushed in quotas, and they were demanding that they process faster, faster, faster, faster until vetting was practically non-existent. Do you remember that?
Kristi Noem (03:40:46):
Yes.
Senator Blackburn (03:40:47):
Do you remember that anywhere between 11 million and the 20 million people that came in, we were talking about the fact that encountered people were on the terrorist watch list, had been murderers, had been rapists, had been drug traffickers. We had encountered those people that were trying to come in, but can you acknowledge, and do you remember that there were many godaways, millions that we have no idea their background, we have no idea why they didn't walk up and go to the welcoming committee, which was what President Biden rolled out. We don't know their backgrounds and we don't know where they are today. Is that correct?
Kristi Noem (03:41:23):
Yes. And because the Biden administration pulled border patrol agents off the border and used them to process people and to feed people and to move paperwork, great chunks of our border had no surveillance at all. There was no security on other chunks of our border. And the cartel used that as a mechanism to divert attention. They would push thousands of people across the border and locations, so that the other part of the border miles down could be exposed and they could move their human trafficking and their drugs across the border unimpeded.
(03:41:55)
The Biden administration facilitated that and gave the cartels exactly what they needed to enrich themselves, to commit their crimes, to build themselves up and perpetuate more violence. And that's why we're dealing with cartels now that are foreign terrorist organizations that are everywhere in this country. Years ago, you wouldn't even heard of foreign gangs like MS-13 or TDA. In fact, TDA didn't have a presence.
Senator Blackburn (03:42:19):
Taking over apartment complexes.
Kristi Noem (03:42:20):
Yes, absolutely.
Senator Blackburn (03:42:21):
But we sure saw that during the Biden administration.
Kristi Noem (03:42:23):
Yeah, Jocelyn Nungaray.
Senator Blackburn (03:42:25):
And in addition to breaking down any sense of order, pushing more and more in, more and more to where the border patrol said they were telling us not, they were asking us for our advice, how not to stop it, but how they could process faster. They also built programs to make it easier during that surge, overwhelming surge, using apps to make it easier to come over here. And many of those folks were not vetted. In fact, we found them committing crimes in our nation after they came over on the app. Is that correct?
Kristi Noem (03:42:53):
That is correct.
Senator Blackburn (03:42:54):
And that I alleged was illegal and couldn't be done, but yet they pushed forward, even though we were experiencing a historic surge and influx at our border. Is that correct?
Kristi Noem (03:43:03):
That is correct. Yes.
Senator Blackburn (03:43:04):
In fact, some Democratic states even had to declare an emergency based on Biden's policies and what was going on, right?
Kristi Noem (03:43:09):
That is correct.
Senator Blackburn (03:43:10):
And they declared an emergency and they demanded more money from the administration because they couldn't keep pace with the emergency that the Democratic President Biden and his radical handlers created.
Kristi Noem (03:43:22):
Correct.
Senator Blackburn (03:43:23):
And at the same time as Florida Attorney General, I got calls from around my state that drug traffickers that were prosecuted here that were not American citizens, but they were incarcerated in federal prisons. So, I want to underscore this. The only reason they're in America is because they were drug traffickers. They were not American citizens. We brought them here, we prosecuted them here, and they were serving an incarcerated portion of their sentence. And after that, instead of deporting them back to their country after they did that, they were pushing them back into the communities where they were prosecuted, even though they weren't citizens. Is that correct?
Kristi Noem (03:44:00):
That is correct.
Senator Blackburn (03:44:01):
And did you know that during that time period when I pressed for information on who they were and where they were going and where they were being pushed, do you know that they stymied our efforts and would not give us that information? Would you say that what you are faced with as a secretary is unlike any successor has had to deal with in terms of cleaning up a dangerous, threatening situation created by their predecessor?
Kristi Noem (03:44:30):
Yes, absolutely. And it's not just the illegal immigration situation. It's the crime. It's the amount of individuals in this country that wish to do us harm that they let in, the amount of known and suspected terrorists that we know are here that we need to find and remove before they perpetuate harm on this country, to the neglect at FEMA, the politicization of FEMA, how they only did disaster response to individuals who aligned with the Democratic Party and their ideals and ignored other families who were suffering and had lost everything. What we saw as far as not investing in Secret Service and TSA and intelligence and analysis, and then CISA was manipulated and censoring people's First Amendment rights. It was deciding what was misinformation and disinformation and trying to manipulate election outcomes, and that has been fixed. So, under the 23 agencies.
Senator Blackburn (03:45:21):
Can I ask you? How important is it? In Florida, I was so proud of my state. When we had an administration that came in and said, "We are going to put the American interest safety first again." And it was so clear who supports that at the State of the Union. Every one of the counties, 67 counties in my state signed up and said, "We will help you. We will enter in agreements with you. We will help you track these people down that should not be here that have committed crimes. We will work with you." I as a senator said, "Let's get you money to help reimburse them for those efforts." Does that make a difference?
(03:45:55)
And did you see a difference in the way you engaged with states and the stability and safety of all involved when you didn't have people working with you hand in hand?
Kristi Noem (03:46:04):
Oh, absolutely. And we're thrilled. We have over 1,400 law enforcement agreements through the 287G program at the state and local level that have partnered with us to do operations to address public safety threats and to get them out of communities. And those individuals that are local law enforcement are critical partners in the success and safety of the American people.
Senator Blackburn (03:46:25):
And I would just ask for you to keep engaging with those sheriffs of the local communities, asking how they think best to safely do these operations. I think that...
Kristi Noem (03:46:34):
Just spent yesterday with all of our sheriffs-
Senator Blackburn (03:46:36):
That's great.
Kristi Noem (03:46:37):
... with all four associations and hundreds of sheriffs thanking them for the work they do.
Senator Blackburn (03:46:44):
Thank you. Thank you for being here.
Mr. Grassley (03:46:44):
Senator Schiff.
Senator Schmitt (03:46:44):
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you to the families who are here who have lost loved ones, both who lost loved ones to violence perpetrated by immigrants, but also to those who have been seriously injured by ICE agents and to those watching who have had family members killed by ICE agents. Madam Secretary, I want to ask you about one of the first claims you made in the immediate aftermath of the shooting of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. You accused them both, I think, within hours of engaging in domestic terrorism. You've testified earlier that you did so based on preliminary field reports. Who told you that these two victims were engaged in domestic terrorism? Where'd you get that information from?
Kristi Noem (03:47:40):
I've said before, and we'll repeat again for you, Senator, that those reports were coming from on the ground agents that were there. It was a chaotic scene.
Senator Schmitt (03:47:49):
So, you spoke to agents on the ground who told you they were domestic terrorism?
Kristi Noem (03:47:52):
Yes.
Senator Schmitt (03:47:53):
Domestic terrorists?
Kristi Noem (03:47:54):
My team was working with me, talking to those agents on the ground to relay as much information as possible that we could to the American people.
Senator Schmitt (03:48:00):
Your team told you that people in Minneapolis said they were domestic terrorists. Did they tell you whether they had any basis for that claim within either minutes or hours of the shooting of Alex Pretti and Renee Good?
Kristi Noem (03:48:18):
Sir, if you look back at the day of January 24th, there was a press conference earlier in the day, and then I held one hours later-
Senator Schmitt (03:48:23):
So, I'm asking you...
Kristi Noem (03:48:23):
And we were also talking...
Senator Schmitt (03:48:24):
I'm asking you, did you determine whether there was any basis for the sensational claim, a claim that proved to be utterly false that these two victims were engaged in domestic terrorism?
Kristi Noem (03:48:36):
There is an investigation ongoing. The FBI is leading that.
Senator Schmitt (03:48:39):
I'm aware of that. What I'm asking you about though is not the investigation that's ongoing.
Kristi Noem (03:48:40):
There's also internal investigations that are ongoing.
Senator Schmitt (03:48:43):
I'm asking you...
Kristi Noem (03:48:43):
We'll continue to bring the facts forward.
Senator Schmitt (03:48:45):
Excuse me. Excuse Madam Secretary. I'm asking about your statements in the immediate aftermath of these shootings, your statements based on completely unvetted information, information that if it was even provided to you proved to be utterly false, that you were content to tell the whole country. Do you have any concern about misleading the whole country? Don't you think in the immediate aftermath of a shooting that you should provide only vetted information to the public? How do you imagine you're going to gain the trust of the American people if you're pushing out false information about the shooting of American citizens?
Kristi Noem (03:49:27):
I work every day to get factual information to the American people and when...
Senator Schmitt (03:49:31):
Well, you didn't on the day. You didn't on the day that Alex Pretti was shot, and you certainly didn't on the day Renee Good was shot. You weren't getting out good information. You were making a spurious claim that has caused endless injury to the victim's families on the basis of God knows what, and then your agency doesn't allow local investigators. They essentially push away independent investigators. How's the public to have any confidence and investigations done of excessive use by ICE agents if number one, you make immediate and false statements about the victims?
(03:50:12)
And number two, you don't let any independent agency conduct an investigation. How is the public supposed to believe anything your agency says or finds?
Kristi Noem (03:50:23):
These investigations are being done in the same way that they always are. And so, the FBI is leading. There are internal investigations as well. In these situations, ICE has an internal investigation.
Senator Schmitt (03:50:35):
Excuse me. Excuse me.
Kristi Noem (03:50:36):
Well, would you like to hear about the investigations that are ongoing?
Senator Schmitt (03:50:38):
Excuse me. You're not allowing state and local investigators to participate.
Kristi Noem (03:50:42):
That is not my decision.
Senator Schmitt (03:50:44):
And furthermore...
Kristi Noem (03:50:45):
The Department of Justice-
Senator Schmitt (03:50:46):
Furthermore...
Kristi Noem (03:50:46):
... and the FBI decides how investigations go.
Senator Schmitt (03:50:48):
Furthermore, they're not being conducted in the way investigations are always done. Are you telling me that in the case of Marimar Martinez, that having an agent involved in shooting her, drive a vehicle that was used to ram into her vehicle, drive that vehicle, that evidence away from the scene and a thousand miles to Maine, you're telling me that's the way investigations are always done, that you let an agent involved and an officer involved shooting drive a key piece of evidence a thousand miles away? Is that how you conduct investigations at DHS?
Kristi Noem (03:51:25):
I'm not conducting these investigations into these. The Department of Justice with the FBI is conducting those investigations and CBP...
Senator Schmitt (03:51:32):
But will you take some responsibility for how investigations are conducted??
Kristi Noem (03:51:35):
We follow.
Senator Schmitt (03:51:36):
And ICE agents, when agents under your control are engaged in the use of force?
Kristi Noem (03:51:40):
The investigations into our officers have not changed under my leadership or the president's leadership than what they were under the previous administration.
Senator Schmitt (03:51:47):
That's being done by Pam Bondi's Justice Department. I'm not responsible for that conversation and I'll practice...
Kristi Noem (03:51:51):
Our internal investigations are following the same policies that they always have.
Senator Schmitt (03:51:55):
That's the orders of Steven Miller, so I'm not responsibility responsible for that either, but you are responsible. You are responsible. You could insist on independent investigations, but you're not. You could wait until there's good information after a shooting before you go to the press and the public and mislead them. Let me ask you about a different subject, and that is the waste of resources at your agency, the continued allegations of favoritism and contracting, and let me in particular focus on the $220 million ad campaign, many of which feature you very prominently. An ad campaign that is more expensive than the whole budget for one fight after another or any Hollywood blockbuster film.
(03:52:49)
So, let me ask you, you said that the president approved this, this vast expenditure on a media campaign that largely profiles you. How do you know that? Did he approve it to you personally?
Kristi Noem (03:53:03):
This media campaign was critical in telling the world and this country-
Senator Schmitt (03:53:07):
No, I'm asking about the president's approval.
Kristi Noem (03:53:08):
... that we are enforcing the laws in the United States of America. That if you're in your country illegally-
Senator Schmitt (03:53:11):
You testified earlier to answer the Senator Kennedy's question...
Kristi Noem (03:53:13):
... then you should leave now. If you want the chance to come back to the United States someday in the future.
Senator Schmitt (03:53:19):
So, my question how do you know...
Kristi Noem (03:53:20):
If you don't, you will be detained and we'll be removed and never get the chance to come back.
Senator Schmitt (03:53:23):
Madam Secretary. How do you know that the president...
Kristi Noem (03:53:24):
It's been extremely effective in sending the message.
Senator Schmitt (03:53:26):
Excuse me, Madam Secretary. How do you know the president approved of this $220 million contract?
Kristi Noem (03:53:30):
We had conversations and worked with OMB to make sure that the funding was there...
Senator Schmitt (03:53:36):
So, you had a conversation directly with the president? Excuse me. I just want to clarify. So, you had conversations directly with the president, where he approved this $220 million ad campaign that significantly features you. Is that correct?
Kristi Noem (03:53:45):
Sir, this campaign was talking about making sure that people knew that our laws were being enforced.
Senator Schmitt (03:53:54):
Again, I want to make sure that we're not misunderstanding each other.
Kristi Noem (03:53:54):
And we continued to go through the process. It was a competitive bid-
Senator Schmitt (03:53:54):
So, the president approved...
Kristi Noem (03:53:54):
... campaign. I had nothing of choosing...
Senator Schmitt (03:53:56):
Excuse me. So, the president approved this expenditure?
Kristi Noem (03:53:59):
Sir, I've been explaining this to you how it went. It was a competitive process. The career officials at the Department of Homeland Security...
Senator Schmitt (03:54:06):
No, no. Well, okay, you say it was a competitive process. I guess you don't want to confirm the president's role in this and I can understand why, but you say it was a competitive process and yet this contract went to a company that didn't exist two weeks before they got the contract.
Kristi Noem (03:54:19):
Sir, I can't speak to that. I don't know the name of that company. I'm sure...
Senator Schmitt (03:54:23):
You're saying you can't speak to it, but let me ask you this. Are you saying it's just a coincidence, it's just a happy circumstance, it's just a-
Kristi Noem (03:54:29):
I'm saying that...
Senator Schmitt (03:54:30):
... that a fortuitous event that 143 million of that went to a subcontractor that you worked with extensively as governor in South Dakota or during your campaign, that that is just coincidental?
Kristi Noem (03:54:43):
The same process was followed for this media contract than any other media contract that's happening-
Senator Schmitt (03:54:49):
So, just a coincidence?
Kristi Noem (03:54:49):
... the Department of Homeland Security, I had nothing to do and no political had any-
Senator Schmitt (03:54:52):
You had nothing to do with it? Nothing to do with...
Kristi Noem (03:54:53):
... no choosing of who the contractors-
Senator Schmitt (03:54:54):
Just a coincidence.
Kristi Noem (03:54:56):
And we don't have a legal process-
Senator Schmitt (03:54:57):
Excuse me...
Kristi Noem (03:54:58):
... for weighing in on subcontractors. It doesn't exist.
Senator Schmitt (03:55:00):
Excuse me. Just a coincidence also then that this 143 million dollars...
Kristi Noem (03:55:05):
You ask questions, you should want the answers.
Senator Schmitt (03:55:06):
Excuse me, I'm trying to ask a question.
Kristi Noem (03:55:07):
You're trying to say that this was a political decision and it absolutely was not.
Senator Schmitt (03:55:12):
I'm just asking you. So, it's just a coincidence that $143 million subcontract went to the husband of your press person. Also, someone that Corey Lewandowski, one of your special government employees worked with extensively. So, that was all a coincidence, right? Because you had no knowledge of this, no involvement.
Kristi Noem (03:55:33):
Media company that gets the contract-
Senator Schmitt (03:55:36):
And none of the people around you had any involvement.
Kristi Noem (03:55:36):
... the ability to choose subcontractor.
Senator Schmitt (03:55:37):
So, taxpayers should just assume this is coincidence?
Kristi Noem (03:55:40):
We don't weigh in on whose subcontractors are. There's not a legal process for us to determine what subcontractors are a part of a contract that goes out for a competitive bid-
Senator Schmitt (03:55:48):
Can you state the record...
Kristi Noem (03:55:48):
... and only career employees that DHS-
Senator Schmitt (03:55:48):
Excuse me.
Kristi Noem (03:55:50):
... were in on the choosing of those media contracts.
Senator Schmitt (03:55:52):
Can you state for the record then that neither you nor Mr. Lewandowski nor your press secretary married to the husband of the person who got this 143 million dollar property.
Kristi Noem (03:56:03):
We were not a part of the decision making.
Senator Schmitt (03:56:03):
Can you state for the record that none of you that I've just described had any role, played any part, made any communication with any government agency that was involved in deciding who would get that contract?
Kristi Noem (03:56:16):
To the best of my knowledge, none of us were involved in deciding who got those contracts for the media campaign.
Senator Schmitt (03:56:20):
I'm deciding, but were any of you involved in advocating, communicating, or expressing a preference in any way with the government...
Kristi Noem (03:56:25):
Not to my knowledge. Senator, not to my knowledge.
Senator Schmitt (03:56:27):
Excuse me. Let me just finish the question. Were any of you involved in any way in communicating, expressing a preference in any form, manner, verbal, written with any government agency that was involved in the contracting process?
Kristi Noem (03:56:40):
The same process was followed for that contract that is for all media contracts-
Senator Schmitt (03:56:43):
You're not answering that question.
Kristi Noem (03:56:44):
... that have gone forward. To my knowledge-
Senator Schmitt (03:56:45):
Yes or no.
Kristi Noem (03:56:46):
... there was no involvement whatsoever of anybody that is on the political appointee side of this position and that media contract.
Senator Schmitt (03:56:54):
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (03:56:57):
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Secretary Noem, good to see you again.
Senator Schmitt (03:57:00):
Good to see you too.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (03:57:01):
If I could just start with a Missouri question. Last time you and I visited over in the Homeland Security Committee was shortly following a massive series of tornadoes in the state of Missouri. And you and I talked about that. You pledged your full support and FEMA support in cleaning up the devastation, which has happened. I thank you for that. I just want to follow up on one challenge that has come in the wake of the devastation. In the partnership with the state of Missouri, the city of St. Louis has stood up a debris removal project. Local officials currently estimate that about 10,000 homes, these were very significant tornadoes.
(03:57:34)
About 10,000 homes in the area will require some assistance debris removal assistance by the time that efforts are completed. FEMA has very helpfully helped to fund this debris removal. Thank you for that. My question for you is some of the conditions that have been placed on the funds by FEMA mean that only one or 200 homes out of those 10,000 can actually get access to FEMA debris removal funds. Here's my question for you.
(03:57:58)
Would you be willing to work with me and the state of Missouri to see if we can remove some of this red tape so that more folks, more residents in the city, we're talking about thousands and thousands of people now, can get access to the debris removal and cleanup and get back in their homes if they need to, have their homes appropriately remedied so that folks can get a roof over their head.
Kristi Noem (03:58:20):
Mm-hmm. Yes, I will.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (03:58:21):
Thank you. Thank you again for all of your help on this. It's really been tremendous. I've heard a lot of complaining. You've heard a lot of complaining today. Let's just take a second to talk about the unqualified success that you have enjoyed since coming to office and been a big part of. Since the president has taken office, daily migrant encounters are down 92% from their peak under Joe Biden. Daily border apprehensions are down 95%. In fact, if I've got my numbers right, you correct me if I'm wrong. Last year, Southwest Border Apprehensions came in at the lowest annual total since 1970.
(03:58:55)
So, in 55 years, for seven consecutive months, Border Patrol has released zero illegal aliens into the country, zero. I mean, that is really something. And I want to make sure I get this number right. Removals. Your department reports that more than 2.5 million illegal aliens have left the United States since January of last year, over 620,000 through formal deportation proceedings and an estimated 1.9 million through self-deportation. That's just an extraordinary record, a complete turnaround from the utter chaos and disaster we saw at the border under your predecessor. Just give us a sense. I mean, what does this mean, for example, for the flow of illegal drugs into our country?
(03:59:36)
How has what's happened at the border, the effective closing of the border to crime and illegals, how has that affected the flow of drugs into our states?
Kristi Noem (03:59:43):
Senator, with President Trump prioritizing having a secure border, that has cut the flow of fentanyl into this country by 56% over that border. Also, because of the interdiction efforts that we've had between the Coast Guard being out there on Operation River Wall, but also on under maritime waters doing interdiction there as well in partnership with CBP and partnership with ICE and the Department of War, which are fantastic partners for us. We have confiscated and interdicted over 1.7 billion lethal doses of drugs, which means that is 1.7 billion people whose lives were saved because we stopped the cartels and other drug manufacturers from proliferating it on our children and our grandchildren.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (04:00:25):
How about crime? What has it meant for crime in this country?
Kristi Noem (04:00:28):
We have historic low crime rates. In fact, since we've been keeping this data for 125 years, we've never had a lower murder rate than what we have right now. Even though we deal with challenges in sanctuary cities and in areas where they don't partner with us to bring and address public safety threats, we still have done fantastic work in getting criminals, murders, and rapists off of our streets and protecting the American people.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (04:00:54):
How about human trafficking?
Kristi Noem (04:00:55):
It's incredible the amount of ability that HSI has brought to the table in partnering with the FBI and going after human traffickers. In fact, of the 450,000 children that Joe Biden lost, lost track of, allowed cartels to manipulate and traffickers to abuse, and even the government paid sponsors to abuse these children. We have found 145,000 of them, and we're not going to stop until we find every single one.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (04:01:20):
I'm glad that you mentioned child trafficking because it's so important, and I'll never forget having a whistleblower from HSI, Homeland Security Investigations, which you oversee, come to me in 2023 and reveal that 600 HSI investigators who were assigned to child exploitation and fentanyl cases, 600 of them had been pulled off of those child exploitation and fentanyl cases and moved to the southern border to, in the words of the whistleblower, make sandwiches for illegal immigrants and ferry them back and forth to doctor's appointments.
(04:01:54)
At the same time that the administration in power at the time, the Biden administration was, as you said, allowing and facilitating the largest child trafficking ring in American history. You have, I'm confident, remedied that problem and reassigned those HSI agents back to child exploitation, back to the introduction of fentanyl. Let me just ask you about where child trafficking is moving now, which is increasingly online. I want to show you a chart here that is truly, truly shocking, I think. This chart records the number of images and videos of suspected child abuse uploaded just in the United States just in the year 2023.
(04:02:38)
The far right side records the number just in 2023, 104,370,572 images of exploited children. In that same year, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimated that there were 20,500,000 cases, individual cases of suspected child abuse and child exploitation online. Now, there are many facets of this, but many of these images are being hosted on big tech platforms, social media platforms, and now AI platforms. We've talked about Homeland Security Investigations. You have a mandate and a unit to investigate child exploitation, to work with the FBI to prosecute it. My question is first, are you getting cooperation when it comes to identifying the children in these images?
(04:03:33)
Are you getting cooperation from the social media platforms who frequently are hosting these images to identify and then to take down the images? Are they helping you in your work of going after the abusers?
Kristi Noem (04:03:45):
Yes, they are partnering with us. There's always more we can do, but President Trump has done a fantastic job bringing them to the table and getting them to engage with us to go after these criminals and these individuals who abuse our children.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (04:03:59):
My big concern is with all of these data centers, I think there's 3,000 or 4,000 in the United States and another 4,000 that are coming online. If we don't take action soon and keep the pressure up to get rid of these images and to get the trafficking rings that are using these platforms to carry on their exploitation and to feed their trafficking rings, if we don't do that, I'm afraid that these data centers are going to be child porn libraries. We're going to have 4,000 more child porn libraries in the United States of America. I don't want that. I know that you don't want that.
(04:04:29)
And I just want to call on these companies again here today to take down these images and to allow the victims of these images and of this exploitation to be able to get into court and have their day in court. Currently, these companies are completely immune from any accountability in court. As you know, Madam Secretary, this is a completely anomalous and totally unjust. And the companies ought to say, "We will take down these images. We will work cooperatively with you. We will not support the traffickers and we will stop this epidemic of child exploitation."
Sen. Lindsey Graham (04:05:00):
Let me ask you one more thing about this. With all of these images of kids online, I was shocked to learn recently that hundreds of thousands of children in these images are unidentified, which means that we don't know who they are, we don't know where they are, and maybe most significantly, we don't know where their abusers are.
(04:05:19)
Now, I know that DHS works very hard on this. You have an entire section that works on victim identification and rescue. My question is to you, is it time for Congress maybe to give you some more resources? I mean, I know that you've got agents who are working hard, but the truth of the matter is I was looking through your budget. You just don't have that many folks who are able to work on victim identification. I was looking at the Interpol numbers. There's multiple databases of these exploited children. In the Interpol database alone, 90,000 kids are completely unidentified. In the UK's database, it's over 200,000.
(04:05:53)
So here are these kids, there are pictures of them getting abused, exploited. We don't know who they are. We don't know where to send folks. Would it be helpful to you ... Here's my question. Would it be helpful to you if Congress said, "You know what? We're going to create more analysts, more child abuse expert positions, more forensic analysts, and more prosecutors to give to you to look at these images, figure out who these kids are, and go after their abusers." Would that be helpful in tackling this epidemic?
Kristi Noem (04:06:19):
Yes, it'd be incredibly helpful, and especially HSI are experts at this work, and to have more resources to focus on these investigations would free more kids from that life of victimhood.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (04:06:29):
Tremendous. Well, I look forward to working with you on that. I'm going to introduce legislation to do just that. Thank you for the terrific work you're doing to end the epidemic of child exploitation in our country, to find the missing children that were brought in over the border, but also to find these children and to bring their abusers to justice. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Grassley (04:06:46):
Senator Welch.
Thom Tillis (04:06:48):
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. First of all, I would like to acknowledge the families that are here and you have my condolences. We appreciate your participation. I'd also like to acknowledge others who've lost their lives as a result of violence that did occur with ICE agents. Second, on the question of ... Madam Secretary, welcome. On the question of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, I heard your answers to my colleague, Senator Schiff. But knowing what you do know, do you want to take an opportunity to apologize to their families that you characterize them on the basis of the information you had at the time that they were engaged in domestic terrorism?
Kristi Noem (04:07:45):
Mm-hmm. Yeah. I certainly offer my condolences to these families and for their loss. It's a tragic situation that we saw in Minneapolis and we continue to work to make sure that those situations are handled appropriately.
Thom Tillis (04:08:02):
I'm going to try and be precise in my question. I understand you're offering condolences. You said something that accused them of being domestic terrorists. A 37-year-old mother of three, a 37-year-old veteran administration nurse. One question, do you want to apologize for that characterization that they were domestic terrorists?
Kristi Noem (04:08:24):
I will continue every day to get up and to work hard to give you everybody factual information and I do all that I can to portray-
Thom Tillis (04:08:33):
I want to move on to the use of department resources. Senator Kennedy asked a number of questions about this contract, $220 million. Senator Schiff asked about it as well and I do too. I don't want to question what the purpose was, but how the award was made. This is $220 million. It was an advertising campaign, as I understand it, that featured you, and you were on a horse at Mount Rushmore. The contract was a no bid contract. You acknowledge that?
Kristi Noem (04:09:11):
I wasn't involved with this contracting process, so my understanding is that there was many companies that competed for this contract.
Thom Tillis (04:09:19):
I'm asking if it's a no bid contract. The answer to that is yes or no.
Kristi Noem (04:09:20):
I don't believe it was. I believe other companies competed for this because there was two different vendors that were chosen.
Thom Tillis (04:09:26):
Madame Secretary, I have here a document from usspending. gov, and this document specifically states the justification for no bid contract that goes to Safe America Media and People Who Think. Those are the two entities that did the campaign, correct?
Kristi Noem (04:09:49):
I believe it is. I wasn't a part of this contract in process.
Thom Tillis (04:09:52):
All right. Let's get serious here.
Kristi Noem (04:09:54):
Yes.
Thom Tillis (04:09:54):
Okay. Safe America was incorporated 11 days or 7 days by my account before they got an award of $143 million. You have any dispute with that?
Kristi Noem (04:10:43):
Are you talking about the subcontractor on that contract?
Thom Tillis (04:10:43):
Nope. Safe America
Kristi Noem (04:10:43):
Senator, I wasn't a part of this decision. We followed the same processes that have been our policies and how these are conducted appropriately.
Thom Tillis (04:10:43):
I will go through this and then you can answer. I don't want us to be talking over each other. Safe America was incorporated 11 days or 7 days by my account before they got a $143 million contract. Now, as an administrator who has fiscal responsibility over a huge budget, do you realistically think that a company that was created 11 days before they got $143 million is in a position to execute on $143 million contract?
Kristi Noem (04:11:05):
Senator, I can't speak to their business model. I will tell you that since I've been at the department, I have reviewed over 10,000 contracts. I have saved the taxpayers over $13 billion by renegotiating contracts and being more efficient.
Thom Tillis (04:11:20):
Mr. Chairman, I don't want the filibuster. All right. And I want my time back.
Speaker 6 (04:11:26):
Stop the clock.
Thom Tillis (04:11:37):
I'm not denying her a chance to answer. I'm asking you to deny the abuse to filibuster.
Kristi Noem (04:12:01):
Mm-hmm.
Thom Tillis (04:12:01):
Okay.
Mr. Grassley (04:12:01):
[inaudible 04:12:10].
Thom Tillis (04:12:11):
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I'll go through this. All right. This is on a US government website that says that contract for $143 million was a no bid contract. Public documentation says the contract of $143 million went to the Safe America company, created 11 days before they got an award. That company then subcontracted with the strategy group, and you are familiar with many of the principals in the strategy group, correct?
Kristi Noem (04:12:47):
I know one of them.
Thom Tillis (04:12:49):
Mr. Yoho.
Kristi Noem (04:12:50):
Yes.
Thom Tillis (04:12:50):
And let me show you a photograph. That's Mr. Yoho standing next to you, correct?
Kristi Noem (04:12:55):
Yes.
Thom Tillis (04:12:56):
Now, Mr. Yoho is also the husband of your former spokesperson. Is that correct?
Kristi Noem (04:13:04):
Correct.
Thom Tillis (04:13:05):
Tricia McLaughlin.
Kristi Noem (04:13:11):
Yes.
Thom Tillis (04:13:11):
Your former assistant secretary and her husband are the ones that got the subcontract from Safe America. That's what the record shows. Any dispute about that?
Kristi Noem (04:13:26):
No, except there was no politicals, myself or anyone else besides career employees who are a part of that process for putting out those contracts and choosing those vendors.
Thom Tillis (04:13:38):
That's generous but what you have is the Republican operative-
Kristi Noem (04:13:41):
Well, you're trying to insinuate that-
Thom Tillis (04:13:45):
I'm not insinuating. I'm stating a fact. Thee fact is that Mr. Yoho-
Kristi Noem (04:13:47):
You're saying that I weighed in on this contracting process and I did not.
Thom Tillis (04:13:51):
Mr. Chairman. The fact is that Mr. Yoho was married to your assistant secretary, is married, correct?
Kristi Noem (04:14:01):
Yes, they are still married.
Thom Tillis (04:14:03):
All right. And Mr. Yoho also ran an ad campaign for you in your gubernatorial campaign, correct?
Kristi Noem (04:14:09):
Yes.
Thom Tillis (04:14:10):
And he also attended your inauguration?
Kristi Noem (04:14:13):
Yes.
Thom Tillis (04:14:14):
And Mr. Yoho received eight and a half million dollars or his company did from the taxpayers of South Dakota when you ran an ad promotion showing you doing various jobs like a plumber and a dentist, correct?
Kristi Noem (04:14:27):
Again, that was done according to the law and processes at the State of South Dakota.
Thom Tillis (04:14:31):
Understand, but this is a person that worked on your campaign. This is a person that worked on your media plan in South Dakota, when you were a governor, and this is a person who also worked on your memoir. Is that correct?
Kristi Noem (04:14:47):
On my memoir?
Thom Tillis (04:14:48):
And he worked with Mr. Lewandowski, is that correct?
Kristi Noem (04:14:52):
I don't know, sir. I don't know about the business arrangements they've had in the past.
Thom Tillis (04:14:56):
Mr. Lewandowski is your special advisor.
Kristi Noem (04:14:57):
Special government employee for the White House.
Thom Tillis (04:15:00):
And Mr. Lewandowski brought Mr. Yoho into your camp. They had worked on the Louisiana governor's campaign, correct?
Kristi Noem (04:15:09):
No, I knew Ben Yoho before that.
Thom Tillis (04:15:11):
All right. So the person that you knew, Mr. Yoho. The husband of your assistant secretary, is the person in the company that got the subcontract 11 days after this original company, Safe America was founded. That's the record. So I have a question. Did Mr. Lewandowski receive any compensation directly or indirectly from Safe America or from the strategy group?
Kristi Noem (04:15:47):
Senator, I don't have any information to that. I can't speak to that.
Thom Tillis (04:15:50):
Would that be of interest for you to find out?
Kristi Noem (04:15:52):
I don't think so. Sure.
Thom Tillis (04:15:56):
You asked Mr. Lewandowski, did he get any compensation directly or indirectly from these contracts?
Kristi Noem (04:16:04):
Are you asking me to go ask him?
Thom Tillis (04:16:05):
Yes, I am. Ask your special government advisor.
Kristi Noem (04:16:11):
I can do that.
Thom Tillis (04:16:12):
And you'll get back to us.
Kristi Noem (04:16:13):
Get back to you. Yes, absolutely.
Thom Tillis (04:16:15):
We will want that. Now, you said at a cabinet meeting on March 24th that we are going to eliminate FEMA, is that correct?
Kristi Noem (04:16:29):
Eliminate FEMA as we know it, that it was no longer going to be a politicized disaster response agency, that President Trump was going to ensure that it was there to respond on-
Thom Tillis (04:16:39):
We need FEMA reform. The people of Vermont have suffered. We had floods in July 14th of 2023, 2024, and 2025. We need local control. We can't have a FEMA that is abolished or a secretary that promotes abolishing FEMA in not providing services that our citizens in all our states need when they're on the receiving end of a monster storm.
Kristi Noem (04:17:06):
FEMA has been responding twice as fast than it ever has in history and empowering states and local emergency management directors to respond. And we come in and support them as well.
Thom Tillis (04:17:18):
I saw the graph that Senator Tillis held up, and that's not what that graph says. Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. Grassley (04:17:25):
Okay. Three things before I call on senator. Did you have a couple minutes you wanted to address something or should I go on?
Kristi Noem (04:17:34):
No, that's fine. I just would like to say that FEMA has gone forward and done 60 different emergency disasters, 41 major disasters. They have overwhelmingly responded and taken care of American citizens and removed the politicization that Joe Biden put into the agency. I'm proud of the work that FEMA has done. They've deployed dollars immediately and responded and partnered with other agencies to save people, such as the Coast Guard and CBP in the flooding situations in Texas, and have continued to make sure that while local emergencies are executed at the local level, that they're managed by states and that the federal government is there to support.
Mr. Grassley (04:18:13):
The Department of Homeland Security shutdown is now in its third week. It should come as no surprise that the Democrats opposed enforcement of our immigration laws. They did so for four years when they controlled the White House. Just last week, they refused to stand and support President Trump's call to protect American people during the State of the Union, but Homeland Security includes other critical entities like Secret Service, FEMA, TSA, Coast Guard that Democrats refuse to fund and whose workers aren't getting paid. The primary responsibility of the federal government is to keep the American people safe, so it's critical that Democrats fund DHS in the end of this reckless political exercise.
(04:19:03)
The hearing record will remain open for one week. Members should get their questions to the secretary at the end of the week. My expectation is that the department will answer the committee's questions for the record. Secretary Noem, Senator Cruz is going to adjourn this meeting.
Kristi Noem (04:19:28):
Okay.
Mr. Grassley (04:19:28):
I'm going to go to another meeting. I thank you for your appearance today. Senator Cruz.
Kristi Noem (04:19:33):
Thank you.
Senator Klobuchar (04:19:35):
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Madam Secretary.
Kristi Noem (04:19:38):
Yes. Hi, Senator.
Senator Klobuchar (04:19:38):
Congratulations on a grueling morning. I am the last thing between you and returning to work. Let me start by saying thank you. Thank you for your service. Thank you for accepting the charge to protect this nation at a time of enormous peril and at a time, sadly, of far too much politicization and demonization of the Department of Homeland Security.
(04:20:07)
Department of Homeland Security was founded in the wake of the September 11th attacks, after nearly 3,000 Americans were murdered on our soil. It exists because we learned at terrible cost that vigilance is not optional, and the success of vigilance is quiet and often ignored. It is measured not in headlines, but the absence of them. The flights that land safely, the plots that never materialize, the threats that are intercepted before they reach our communities. Like sentinels standing watch at the walls of a city, the men and women of DHS guard the homeland day and night with extraordinary dedication and professionalism. And yet, over the past 18 days, Democrats have shut down the very department tasked with that mission, weaponizing the budget process to advance political disagreements. The same voices that once called to abolish ICE and defund the police have now left the sentinels unsupported and the watchtower dark. That is what the Democrat shutdown has done.
(04:21:32)
Let's get to the truth. For the American people, this oversight hearing is about three things. Where we were, what has been accomplished, and where we need to go next. Let's start with where we were. Secretary Noem, when you walked into DHS, what was the state of operational control at the southern border that you inherited?
Kristi Noem (04:21:54):
There was no operational control. In fact, our border patrol agents and federal officers were being forced to help facilitate the invasion of dangerous criminals and aliens into our country.
Senator Klobuchar (04:22:07):
Were daily encounters at or near historic highs?
Kristi Noem (04:22:10):
Yes, they absolutely were at historic highs. The worst we've ever seen.
Senator Klobuchar (04:22:17):
Between 2021 and 2024, the Biden administration released more than 13 million illegal aliens into this country, after encountering them at the southern border. Is that correct?
Kristi Noem (04:22:30):
Yes, that we know of. There could be millions more.
Senator Klobuchar (04:22:35):
DHS data reflects during this period of mass releases into the interior, crimes committed by foreign nationals included at least 15,000 homicides and more than 20,000 sexual assaults. Is that correct?
Kristi Noem (04:22:50):
That is correct.
Senator Klobuchar (04:22:53):
And I will say these numbers are not abstractions. And I will say to all the angel families here, thank you for being here. Thank you for holding the photographs of your children, of your spouses, of your parents, of your brothers and sisters who should be with you. Names like Jocelyn Nungaray and Laken Riley and Rachel Morin. Jocelyn, just 12 years old, was killed just miles from my house, raped and murdered by two Venezuelan gang members that the United States government had apprehended and then released. And when they were released, they traveled to Houston, Texas, and they kidnapped a 12-year-old girl and raped and murdered her. In your time at DHS, has anyone in the leadership of the previous administration explained why the hell they let so many violent criminals free in our country?
Kristi Noem (04:24:23):
No, they haven't. In fact, under the Biden administration and Mayorkas' leadership, they closed the victim's office at ICE, the VOICE's office that would help families that suffered a loss like Jocelyn's family and Laken's family and Rachel's family. They had no resources, no way to track court appearances or to get counseling services, no support whatsoever. They purposely closed that down to punish these families even more.
Senator Klobuchar (04:24:49):
So it wasn't just murderers and rapists that were being released in this country. The open border under the Democrats also became a pipeline for poison, killing our children. Secretary Noem, when you took office, is it correct that fentanyl was the leading cause of death for Americans between the age of 18 and 45?
Kristi Noem (04:25:08):
That's correct.
Senator Klobuchar (04:25:09):
Was the volume of fentanyl crossing our southern border at or near record levels?
Kristi Noem (04:25:14):
Yes, it was.
Senator Klobuchar (04:25:15):
And would you agree that when operational control collapses, cartels exploit that chaos?
Kristi Noem (04:25:22):
They exploit it and they become enriched from it.
Senator Klobuchar (04:25:30):
So now let's talk about what has been accomplished under President Trump's leadership. Under President Trump's leadership, we have had zero illegal aliens released for 10 straight months. Is that correct?
Kristi Noem (04:25:42):
That is correct.
Senator Klobuchar (04:25:44):
In President Trump's first year back in office, how many illegal aliens have left the United States?
Kristi Noem (04:25:51):
Two point five million have left voluntarily, and we have arrested, detained, and removed close to 700,000 now.
Senator Klobuchar (04:26:00):
And how many known or suspected terrorists have been removed?
Kristi Noem (04:26:04):
We have over 1,500 now today that have been apprehended and are being brought to justice.
Senator Klobuchar (04:26:11):
In the first 100 days of the second Trump administration, is it correct that daily border encounters decreased by approximately 93%?
Kristi Noem (04:26:18):
Yes, that is correct.
Senator Klobuchar (04:26:20):
That encounters with got-aways, those who are escaping apprehension decreased by roughly 95%?
Kristi Noem (04:26:29):
That is correct.
Senator Klobuchar (04:26:31):
And that illegal crossings overall fell by 99%?
Kristi Noem (04:26:37):
That is correct.
Senator Klobuchar (04:26:39):
And how much in illegal drugs are we interdicting at the border?
Kristi Noem (04:26:43):
Well, fentanyl has dropped by 56% in just the last year. From 2024, where there was historic highs coming into the country to historic lows in 2025 under President Trump's leadership.
Senator Klobuchar (04:26:57):
And I would note that securing the border, targeting narco terrorists, arresting and prosecuting Nicolas Maduro, all of those have had extraordinary effects. Is it correct that nationwide, the murder rate has decreased 20% in the last year?
Kristi Noem (04:27:18):
It has. It's at a historic low. In the last 125 years, we are at the lowest murder rate that our country's experienced.
Senator Klobuchar (04:27:26):
Is it also correct that the number of drug overdose deaths in America has decreased 20% in the last year?
Kristi Noem (04:27:36):
That is correct.
Senator Klobuchar (04:27:38):
That literally means there are thousands of Americans who are alive today, who would not be alive if President Trump had not been reelected and if Republicans had not won control of Congress. Would you agree with that?
Kristi Noem (04:27:52):
That is correct.
Senator Klobuchar (04:27:54):
It means tragically that had the Democrats' open border policies continued, there would be more and more rows of people, Americans holding pictures of loved ones. We don't know who the loved ones are that weren't murdered this last year. We don't know who the loved ones were that didn't die of fentanyl overdoses, but we know that many more Americans are dead. Is that correct?
Kristi Noem (04:28:23):
That is correct.
Senator Klobuchar (04:28:24):
And I will tell you a particularly infuriating illustration. Several weeks ago, the Houston Chronicle had a front page story, top of the fold. Banner headline. Murder rate in Houston, Texas decreases by 18%. And Heidi, my wife, handed me the article because she knew it would piss me off, and she was correct. The article says the murder rate has dropped 18%. Experts are baffled as to why, and we can think of no reason whatsoever why the murder rate would drop. It clearly is not connected to anything that is happening anywhere. Madam Secretary, is it a reasonable inference that arresting and deporting murderers and gang bangers results in fewer murders?
Kristi Noem (04:29:14):
That is correct. Yes, sir.
Senator Klobuchar (04:29:16):
And that arresting and deporting drug traffickers and stopping narco traffickers results in fewer people dying of drug overdoses?
Kristi Noem (04:29:24):
That's correct.
Senator Klobuchar (04:29:25):
It is amazing that cause and effect is so difficult to figure out. Now, where do we go from here? As we sit here today, are there border patrol agents right now working with zero pay?
Kristi Noem (04:29:40):
The agents and law enforcement officers are being paid. Some of the support staff and administrative staff is not able to.
Senator Klobuchar (04:29:47):
Is the shutdown making it harder to sustain the enforcement gains that the American people demanded?
Kristi Noem (04:29:52):
Yes, it is.
Senator Klobuchar (04:29:55):
Does the funding instability affect morale within the department?
Kristi Noem (04:29:59):
It does. Overwhelmingly, people at the Department of Homeland Security love their jobs and come to work recognizing how important their mission is, but they become discouraged when they can't pay their bills and can't feed their families. And especially when they have multiple shutdowns, which tells them that members of this body and the Democratic Party don't think they're important enough to get paid for the work that they do.
Senator Klobuchar (04:30:20):
Now, we are right now engaged in military conflict with Iran. At this time, do you assess that there is a real danger and risk of terrorism in the United States?
Kristi Noem (04:30:36):
Every day there's a real danger and risk of it, but it is elevated at this time with the conflicts that we see going on overseas.
Senator Klobuchar (04:30:43):
And tragically, this past Sunday in Austin, Texas, we saw that unfold. A mass murderer who arrived wearing a sweatshirt that said property of Allah, who was wearing a T-shirt with a flag of Iran, who had a Quran in his car, opened fire on a bar in Austin, Texas. Among those murdered, Ryder Harrington, age 19. Savitha Shan, age 21 and Jorge Pederson, age 30. Secretary Noem, is it correct that this mass murderer was born in Senegal?
Kristi Noem (04:31:37):
He was, and then he was naturalized during the Obama administration.
Senator Klobuchar (04:31:43):
He was naturalized in 2013. Would you agree that weaknesses in screening, vetting, or oversight, even in years in the past, can reverberate years later with deadly consequences?
Kristi Noem (04:31:58):
Yes, absolutely. That's why in green cards and naturalization purposes the last several years under the Biden administration, we are revetting individuals from countries of concern.
Senator Klobuchar (04:32:11):
And despite the risk of more terrorism, of more Americans being murdered by radical Islamic terrorists, Democrats are nonetheless voting over and over again to cut off funding to the Department of Homeland Security.
Kristi Noem (04:32:30):
Mm-hmm. And encouraging resistance against our law enforcement, encouraging violent rioters to continue to resist us and to protest against ICE and the operations that we do to uphold the law.
Senator Klobuchar (04:32:47):
It wasn't long ago that common sense prevailed, that there was bipartisan agreement, that we agreed, we all support the police, we all support law enforcement. We all want to see criminals in jail. We believe murderers should be in jail. We believe rapists should be in jail. We believe child molesters should be in jail. We believe gang bangers should be in jail. Today, tragically, the Democrat Party has decided they are the party of illegal immigrants. They are the party of murderers and rapists and child molesters and gang bangers.
(04:33:19)
And the men and women who are on the wall, the men and women who are defending us from these violent criminals, to the Democrats, they are the enemy. And they engage in rhetoric that is shameful, attacking border patrol agents, attacking ICE agents, calling them Nazis, calling them gestapo, calling them terrorists. Cheering on violence against law enforcement.
(04:33:48)
It is utterly shameful. I want to speak to the men and women in your department. I want to speak to those border patrol agents, those ICE agents, all the men and women who are on that line. I want to say thank you. We appreciate you, your service, your courage, 31 million Texans say thank you. And by the way, the violence is occurring in Democrat states where it's cheered on by Democrat politicians.
Kristi Noem (04:34:18):
Mm-hmm. It's true.
Senator Klobuchar (04:34:21):
It is shameful. And Secretary Noem, I want to say thank you for getting up and going in and doing your job every day. Thank you for making my family safer. Thank you for making the families of 31 million Texans safer. Thank you for the honorable work of the Department of Homeland Security and to everyone there. God bless you and again to the angel families. Thank you for speaking out and having the courage to say your loved ones mattered. They are not forgotten. I want to apologize on behalf of the federal government. Your loved ones should never have lost their lives. If the federal government had done its damn job, these murderers wouldn't be here. Thank you, Secretary Noem. And with that, I don't have a gavel, but this hearing is adjourned.
Kristi Noem (04:35:08):
Thank you. Thank you, Senator.
