Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blamed Democrats Tuesday for a funding standoff affecting her department during testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The hearing quickly turned confrontational when Republican Sen. Thom Tillis delivered a sustained attack on her leadership and renewed his call for her resignation.
Noem opened her remarks by accusing Democrats of forcing a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. She said the funding fight disrupts the agency responsible for border security and immigration enforcement.
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“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,” Noem said. She added that disrupting DHS operations “at a time when we produced the most secure border in history and removed nearly 3 million illegal aliens from our country… is indefensible.”
Tillis delivers harsh assessment
The most pointed criticism came from Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who is retiring and has already called for Noem to step down after a deadly immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis.
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Using his allotted time as what he called a “performance evaluation,” Tillis accused the department of detaining American citizens during immigration enforcement actions and sharply criticized its deportation strategy.
“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,” Tillis said. “And what we’ve seen is a disaster. Under your leadership, Miss Noem, a disaster. What we’ve seen is innocent people getting detained that turn out are American citizens.”
Tillis said he will place holds on Trump administration nominees unless he receives answers to questions he has submitted about immigration operations, including enforcement actions in Charlotte. He also warned he could deny quorum in several Senate committees to force responses.
Minneapolis operation remains flashpoint
The confrontation follows the immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis earlier this year in which two Americans, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were killed by federal officers. Tillis has argued the department has not acknowledged mistakes tied to the incident and has called for additional investigations.
During the hearing he also accused the department of blocking oversight. Tillis cited a letter from the DHS Office of Inspector General referencing multiple instances in which investigators said they were misled or prevented from pursuing inquiries.
“That is stonewalling, that’s a failure of leadership, and that is why I’ve called for your resignation,” Tillis said.
Senator raises memoir controversy
Tillis also turned to a passage in Noem’s 2024 memoir describing how she killed a 14-month-old dog she said was untrainable, along with a goat on her farm.
The senator, who said he trains dogs himself, argued the episode reflected poor judgment.
“I trained dogs, alright? And you are a farmer. You should know better,” Tillis told Noem. “You should know that if you’re going out to a hunting lodge and you’re putting pheasants out and you put 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 in training, and then you have the audacity to go into a book and say it’s a leadership lesson about tough choices.”
Tillis compared that story to what he described as rash decision-making inside the department, including the Minneapolis operation.
Noem spoke only briefly during Tillis’s time, confirming that White House border adviser Tom Homan reports directly to President Donald Trump.
Noem testifies in front of the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday.
