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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testified before the House of Representatives on Wednesday. The leader of the Trump administration’s deportation push had a lot to answer for.
In a hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee, Democrats grilled Noem about the arrest of Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka; the deportation of citizen children along with their immigrant parents; and the Trump administration’s continued noncompliance with court orders mandating due process for migrants.
In one contentious moment, Noem defended the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man with a protection order preventing his removal to El Salvador — and whom the Trump administration admitted was deported in error. Multiple federal courts, including the Supreme Court, have since ruled that Abrego Garcia’s rights were violated. Instead of complying with court rulings ordering relief for Garcia, the administration has spent weeks accusing him of being a terrorist, child trafficking member of MS-13, while providing no evidence to support the claim.
Last month, President Donald Trump insisted during an interview with ABC News that an edited image of Abrego Garcia’s knuckle tattoos — over which the letters “MS-13” had been sloppily superimposed — was a real photo of his hand, and clear proof of his supposed gang affiliation. In a complete break with reality during Wednesday’s hearing, Noem repeatedly refused to acknowledge that the photo had been edited, instead doubling down on unsubstantiated claims that Abrego Garcia was a human trafficker and refusing to directly answer questions from Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.).
Swalwell — who had an enlarged copy of an image of Trump holding up a printout of the edited photo — repeatedly asked Noem to look at the photo and tell him if it had been doctored, while the secretary petulantly refused to look directly at the image. The exchange became so tense that at one point Swalwell had staff bring the large poster board down to the witness’ table so Noem could get a better look.
I don’t “have any knowledge of that photo you’re pointing to,” Noem claimed at one point.
“It’s so telling that you won’t look at the photo,” Swalwell said.
Swalwell wasn’t the only Democrat to press Noem about Abrego Garcia. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) asked her if she would “give Abrego Garcia the due process that the Supreme Court has required you to give him,” given the court’s ruling that the government needed to “facilitate” his return to the United States.
Abrego Garcia, “is an El Salvador resident” who has “been treated appropriately,” Noem said.
“How can you say that if the Supreme Court has ruled 9-0 that he hasn’t,” Goldman exclaimed. “Why does your opinion […] have more authority than the Supreme court?”
On the arrest of Baraka — the Newark, New Jersey, mayor the Trump administration arrested and accused of trespassing during a congressional visit to an ICE facility last week — Noem claimed the Democratic lawmakers’ visit to the detention center “was not oversight,” but “a political stunt that put the safety of our law-enforcement officers, our agents, our staff, and our detainees at risk.”
Noem claimed that three members of Congress — Reps. Robert Menendez, LaMonica McIver, and Bonnie Watson Coleman, all of New Jersey — attempted to “storm” the facility, and accused them of “slamming their bodies into our law-enforcement officers, shoving them, screaming profanities in their faces, striking them with their fists and otherwise assaulting law enforcement.”
On Tuesday night, Noem accused the lawmakers of “committing felonies” during a Fox News interview and called for Republicans in Congress to remove the representatives from their committee assignments. A video filmed at the gates of the facility shows a chaotic scene as ICE agents pushed and jostled lawmakers and protesters as they moved to arrest Baraka.
The secretary was also questioned about the deportation of a four-year-old citizen child who was sent to Honduras alongside their mother. Noem claimed that the mother had been given the option to take her child with her, an assertion attorneys for the family dispute. Swalwell questioned what Noem was doing to help the child, who was receiving treatment for stage 4 cancer, return to the U.S.
“For this child, medical care was confirmed in their home country, so that it was continued” Noem replied, referring to Honduras.
“That child’s home country is the United States,” Swalwell countered, asking Noem if she felt she had the “right to deport a U.S. citizen.”
Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.) added that Noem had just “stated under oath that the mother consented to having her U.S.-citizen children removed. But I have spoken with the attorney for that U.S.-citizen child with stage 4 cancer, [and she has] made numerous statements to the press in which she stated unequivocally that at no time did the mother consent to her U.S.-citizen children being removed.”
When Magaziner asked what evidence Noem had that the mother had agreed to the children’s removal, the secretary said she would get that information to lawmakers. “Please do,” Magaziner replied. “I understand it’s hard to keep them all straight because you’ve deported multiple U.S.-citizen children.”
“You have been sloppy,” the Democratic lawmaker added. “Your department has been sloppy. And instead of focusing on real criminals, you have allowed innocent children to be deported, while you fly around the country playing dress-up for the cameras. Instead of enforcing the laws, you have repeatedly broken them. You need to change course immediately before more innocent people are hurt on your watch.”
Noem has staged several photo ops in which she dons tactical gear and poses with ICE officers as they move to deport people. She has been mocked for accidentally pointing a gun toward an officer’s head, as well as for wearing a Rolex worth tens of thousands of dollars during a heavily-staged camera op in front of prisoners in El Salvador. Magaziner wasn’t the only Democrat to call out Noem’s dress-up act.
“I’m glad you found time among your many photo ops and costume changes to testify about why President Trump is seeking more taxpayer dollars, and what you plan to do with that money if you get it,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said early in the hearing. Swalwell also dunked on her publicity push around the administration’s deportation efforts. “I’m a former prosecutor,” he said. “I have put people away for life sentences who are gang members. I don’t need to wear costumes to show how tough I am. What makes me different from you is when I put those individuals away, I did it with the weight of the law behind me.”
