Noem faces continued lawmaker questioning
By Christopher Cann
USA Today
..... For the second day in a row, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testified on Capitol Hill, facing rebukes from democrats and applause fro Republicans.
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The March 4 [2026] House Judiciary Committee hearing was scheduled after Democrats demanded that Noem testify about the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. The panel's Senate counterpart had brought in Noem the day before.
..... House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, lauded Noem for her leadership. He celebrated the administration's hard-line stance on immigration and thanked Noem for reversing some Biden administration policies.
..... "It's an amazing record, Madame Secretary," he said.
..... Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the committee, gave a scathing opening statement that highlighted the repeated violation of court orders by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He slammed Noem's spending on "lavish ad campaigns" and use of a waterfront residence that should be for the U.S. Coast Guard.
..... Noem defended her handling of the agency, blasted the Biden administration and accused Democrats of taking "political potshots" based "on falsehoods and lies." She defended spending on ad campaigns urning undocumented immigrants to leave, calling it the "most effective media campaign in the history of this country."
..... For Noem's critics, the session was largely frustrating.
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The secretary again refused to apologize to the families of Pretti and Good for labeling them domestic terrorists, saying only, "I offer my condolences to those families."
..... Representative Ted Lieu, D-California, tried - and failed -t get Noem to commit to barring ICE agents from conducting operations at schools and bus drop-offs, after showing video of children running from agents. In one, a New Jersey man is shown in tears, saying "I watched forth - and filth-grade kids run away from our own government.
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Noem said that agents were simply doing enforcement operations and not intentionally targeting schools or places where children gathered.
..... Representative Thomas Massie, R-West Virginia, asked after body cameras and ICE entering homes without judicial warrants.
..... Noem previously said she intended to equip all federal immigration agents with body cameras. But at the hearing, she said DHS does not have the funds: "We maybe have 14,000 body cameras on agents that are out doing enforcement but clearly we need tends of thousands more." She defended ICE's policy of entering homes without a judge-signed warrant,s saying administrative warrants, which can be singed by ICE officers are "legal" and "justified."
..... Democrat Jerrold Nadler of New York accused Noem and her staff of acting improperly and even illegally in three recent controversial incidents.
..... In one, Nurul Amin Shah Alam, 56, a nearly blind refugee form Myanmar, died in Buffalo February 24, [2026] reportedly after being dropped off by Border Patrol agents at a closed coffee shop in the freezing cold. In another case, ICE agents used false pretense to arrest a student in her dorm at Columbia University, Nadler said.
..... "What I would say is some of your facts are wrong on some of those cases, but also that they are being reviewed," including by DHS's Office of Professional Responsibility, to "make sure that all protocols were followed," Noem told Nadler.
..... Democratic Representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee asked whether any rioters form the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol were on staff at HDS.
..... "Not hat I know of," Noem replied, saying she would review the matter
..... Contributing: Josh Meyer and Lauren Villagran, USA Today