Judiciary Democrats Torch DHS Secretary Kristi Noem for Corrupting the Agency, Brutalizing Americans

Washington, D.C. (March 4, 2026)—Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, led Democrats in confronting Secretary Kristi Noem over her deadly mismanagement of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), transforming the agency into a cesspool of corruption, cruelty, and staggering incompetence. 

Under Secretary Kristi Noem, federal agents at DHS are being directed to beat, bloody, and kill Americans while systematically violating our most basic constitutional rights.

• Rep. Pramila Jayapal said: “DHS is supposed to be protecting our residents and upholding constitutional protections, but you’ve turned that on the head. You have actually turned the United States government against its own residents. And you’ve had multiple chances to take accountability, to apologize to these folks and others across the country, but you have failed to do it. Yours is a case of failed leadership. Secretary, you need to resign, or be fired, or be impeached.” 
   
• Rep. Eric Swalwell said: “Has a single ICE agent or CBP officer been disciplined since you’ve been Secretary of Homeland Security? As we’ve seen women dragged through their streets by their hair and thrown into unmarked cars, people chased through the fields and factories where they work, public executions happen in our streets, has a single ICE agent or CBP officer been disciplined?” Secretary Noem was unsure of any specific disciplinary action taken against agents in her own agency. 
   
• Rep. Chuy Garcia said: “You’ve led the campaign of terror by masked armed criminals in my district, in Chicagoland, and around the country. You celebrate the murder of American citizens with the same enthusiasm that you showed when you killed your own puppy. You symbolize the cruelty, corruption, and incompetence of this Administration and the Republican go-alongs. Your thugs at DHS brutalized the American people, and you lie and smear victims to cover up these crimes.” 
   
• Rep. Lou Correa said: “Secretary Noem, when I was growing up, [immigration] agents would stop me out in the street and they would ask me, ‘are you a U.S..citizen?’ And my answer would be ‘yes,’ and that was enough. Today, that’s not the case. So, what would you say? What do you suggest I tell my citizens back home, have a passport with you all the time?” Instead of responding directly, Secretary Noem said, nonsensically: “No. I would tell your citizens to be grateful they live in this country where President Trump is upholding the law.” 
   
• Rep. Steve Cohen said: “The facts show that most of the people that you have stopped and tried to deport have not committed any of those crimes. In fact, they’ve committed no crimes at all.”
   
• Referring to Rodney Taylor, a 47-year-old barber who entered the U.S. legally at two years old on a medical visa who has been held in ICE detention for over a year and subjected to inhumane treatment, Rep. Lucy McBath said: “We deserve an answer, and Rodney’s family definitely deserves an answer because this is inhumane treatment. And this leads me to believe that there are so many other detainees that are being treated exactly the same way. And this is despicable. [...] Rodney is not the ‘worst of the worst.’ This is truly a miscarriage of justice.” 

Under Secretary Noem, DHS is engaged in a massive cover up: lying to courts and violating judges’ orders, defying congressional oversight, and falsely labeling protestors as domestic terrorists.

• Ranking Member Raskin said: “Only a few hours after they were gunned down by your agents, you called Renée [Good] a ’domestic terrorist.’ You said Alex [Pretti] ’committed an act of domestic terrorism.’ [...] Now, I want to give you a chance before the entire country to correct your false and defamatory claim. Based on what you know today, Madam Secretary, were Renée Good and Alex Pretti domestic terrorists?” Secretary Noem refused to retract her false and harmful mischaracterization of two American citizens executed by federal agents.  
   
• Rep. Hank Johnson said: “Madam Secretary, it’s no mistake your department has a pattern of obstructing investigations. A federal judge has lambasted your ICE Director for lying in court. And the Inspector General just yesterday revealed to the public—your own Inspector General who was appointed by Trump—has revealed that your department has been obstructing his independent investigations into your department and into your department’s ability to investigate others.” 
   
• Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon said: “Time and again, we’ve seen this Administration use the full power of the government to silence or intimidate people who disagree with it and nowhere is that more true than with the Department of Homeland Security. When people have dared to speak out or push back, they’ve been assaulted, arrested, and now even killed.” 
   
• Rep. Becca Balint said: “A federal judge appointed by George W. Bush identified 210 times—210 times when your agency violated court orders. And one judge has said about ICE, ‘ICE has likely violated more court orders in January of 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.’ Now, Secretary Noem, you have said repeatedly that your department is, ‘following all court orders,’ but just because you keep saying it does not make it true and Americans aren’t stupid and they can see what is happening.” 
   
• Rep. Jared Moskowitz said: “Your policies have made [FEMA] slower. I didn’t think it was possible to make FEMA more bureaucratic, but boy, you have exceeded all my expectations.” Even Republican Members complained about the agency’s failure to distribute disaster funding. 
   
• Rep. Jasmine Crockett criticized Secretary Noem over an unlawful policy barring Members of Congress from making unannounced visits to DHS detention facilities: “You have lost more lives in detention than anybody else—that is your record right now, so I don’t expect that y’all are going to be the ones that are going to be best to keep [detainees] safe. This is why we are supposed to conduct oversight and not wait for you to give permission.” 
   
• Ranking Member Raskin asked Secretary Noem a series of basic legal questions relevant to recent abuses perpetrated by her agency: 
  • “Is it lawful for federal agents to shoot and kill a person for engaging in peaceful protest and nothing else? That’s a yes or no question.” Secretary Noem responded: “If each instance is in peaceful protest, no, it’s not okay.” 
  • “Is it lawful for federal agents to shoot and kill a person for filming them on a public street? Yes or no?” Secretary Noem responded: “No.”
  • “Is it lawful for federal agents to shoot and kill a person just because that person is lawfully carrying a holstered firearm under the second amendment in state law?” Secretary Noem responded: “No.”
  • “And finally, yes or no: is it lawful for federal agents to shoot an innocent person or even a criminal suspect just for driving away from them, according to the supreme court?” Secretary Noem responded: “No.” 

Americans have lost confidence in Secretary Noem, who has turned one of the largest civilian agencies in the federal government into a cesspool of corruption and incompetence.

• Rep. Jerrold Nadler said: “Secretary Noem, your agents are running amok, and you’re doing nothing to hold them accountable. Everything that we are seeing—the lies, chaos, and cruelty—that is all happening on your watch, on your name. You should be ashamed.” 
   
• Rep. Zoe Lofgren said: “There’s an old adage that states there are no bad dogs, just bad owners. One of the questions we have is, are there bad agencies or just bad owners and bad leadership?” 
   
• Rep. Ted Lieu said: “Now, the reason the overwhelming majority of Americans have turned against you is because you have engaged in corruption straight from your mission and abused your power. Masked anonymous federal agents have killed three Americans, federal agents are illegally conducting surveillance of Americans exercising their First and Second Amendment rights, and your agents are arresting people who should not be arrested.” 
   
• Rep. Joe Neguse pressed Secretary Noem about a suspicious $143 million ad campaign with contractor Safe America Media: “You want the American people to believe that this is all above board? That $143 million of taxpayer money just happened to go to this one company that doesn’t have a headquarters, doesn’t have a website, has never done work for the federal government before, and is registered, apparently, or attached to a residence from a political operative and, of course, one of the subcontractors of that contract, as you know, is a political firm that’s tied to you back when you were governor of South Dakota? The reason why I asked these questions is that this is taxpayer money.” 
   
• Rep. Deborah Ross slammed Secretary Noem over her policy requiring personal approval of DHS expenditures over $100,000, which has delayed FEMA reimbursements to states like North Carolina where residents are still recovering from devasting disasters: “Your new policy—and it is a new policy—requiring your personal sign off on expenditures over $100,000 has contributed to many of these delays, creating a bottleneck blocking reimbursement for hundreds of millions of dollars of disaster funding that stand directly between North Carolinians and that relief. [...] We shouldn’t have to have a U.S. senator or a representative or another representative come to you directly to get you to do your job.” 
   
• Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove said: “You are in charge of protecting the homeland. And so, your judgment and the judgment of your senior staff can be the difference between life and death. So, I think that judgment would need to be unassailable. Why then, is the question, have you made Corey Lewandowski your de facto chief of staff, who possesses an unchecked level of power at DHS under your leadership? [...] Does Corey Lewandowski have national security experience, military experience, law enforcement experience? No, he is a lobbyist, a failed campaign manager. [...] He now wields unchecked, unconfirmed, undisclosed power over your department.” 
   
• Rep. Dan Goldman said: “Do you think you have the constitutional authority to seize voting machines, to seize voter rolls, to prohibit mail in ballots? Do you believe you have that constitutional authority?” Secretary Noem was unsure. Rep. Goldman continued: “You’re the secretary of the department that is in charge of maintaining election security, you don’t know what your authority is or is not?” 

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