Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday — her first appearance since two Minneapolis shootings and amid a funding standoff that has left DHS partly unfunded. She faced questions on immigration enforcement, the department’s shutdown, and how global threats like the strikes on Iran affect homeland security.
Pretti, Good shootings
Democrats focused significantly on immigration efforts and the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.
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Noem offered her condolences to Pretti and Good’s families, but refused to retract previous statements calling them domestic terrorists.
She later denied calling Pretti a domestic terrorist, saying she said “it appeared to be an incident of.” Noem also shared that 650 Department of Homeland Security agents remain in Minnesota, including those investigating fraud cases.
Ongoing immigration concerns
Senators brought up additional concerns regarding immigration, citing specific cases of wrongful detentions.
“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?” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., asked.
Noem did not directly answer, just saying Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers conduct targeted operations.
Meanwhile, Sen. Chris Coons asked whether DHS has plans to deploy federal immigration officers to polling locations for the midterm elections.
“There are no plans to have ICE officers at our polling locations,” Noem said.
Homeland Security shutdown
Noem’s testimony comes after her department was partially shut down due to a funding lapse. Just over two weeks ago, Democrats blocked a spending bill after they said it didn’t do enough to limit immigration agents’ powers.
During Tuesday’s remarks, Noem said the shutdown “undermines the American national security and it harms the men and women who work at DHS and their families.”
The lapse, however, hasn’t had a significant impact on the department, as it received billions of dollars in funding from President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” The department has continued “essential work,” but many federal employees, including TSA and other airport security staff, are working without pay.
“As a result, critical national security missions, including border security, immigration enforcement, aviation security, disaster response, cyber security, and the protection of critical infrastructure are all being strained,” Noem said Tuesday.
There’s renewed pressure to pass a funding bill following the back-and-forth attacks between the U.S. and Iran. However, some Democrats say they still plan to push curbs on immigration enforcement, saying agents are carrying out “lawless actions” and need more restrictions.
Calls to remove Noem
One of the day’s more tense moments came when Sen. Thom Tillis criticized Noem’s leadership and called for her resignation. He pointed to a letter from the inspector general’s office, saying it 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.”
“That’s a failure of leadership, and that is why I’ve called for your resignation,” Noem said.
Sen. Cory Booker made similar comments, calling for Noem to step down and, if she doesn’t, be impeached.
“Either you are utterly incompetent or you are violating laws with impunity,” Booker said. “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.”
He called DHS a “reckless and out-of-control agency.”
Noem will face similar questioning during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday.
