U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem faced heated questioning from Democratic lawmakers over the Trump administration’s immigration policies during a U.S. House oversight hearing Tuesday.
The immediate crackdown by President Donald Trump on America’s overrun southern border has garnered political and legal backlash as thousands of migrants residing illegally in the United States, including hundreds of violent criminals, have been deported.
Noem pointed out that the Trump administration’s “whole of government approach” to border security has resulted in the most secure border in American history. The record low border encounters have allowed Border Patrol to zero in on drug traffickers, human traffickers and cartel violence, she said.
Some of the administration’s actions to that end include deploying 10,000 U.S. troops to the Southwest border, expediting construction of a border wall, stripping federal funding from noncompliant sanctuary cities, and rounding up and charging violent Tren de Aragua gang members in the U.S.
But Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, grilled Noem on claims that the Trump administration has deported a few U.S. citizen children in the process. Noem called the accusations a “false media narrative” that “simply isn’t true.” In both cases, she explained, the mothers illegally residing in the United States decided to take their children with them.
“The specific cases that you’re referencing with these children, it was the parents’ choice to take their children with them,” Noem told Escobar, who began to speak over her. “It is the policy of the Trump administration to keep families together. That is what we have continued to do,” Noem continued until Escobar cut her off.
Noem said the administration has not deported a single U.S. citizen, echoing the White House’s assurances that the “Maryland man,” Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, was an MS-13 gang member residing illegally in the U.S. Garcia was later transferred to a medium security prison.
Though Trump is currently targeting “the worst of the worst,” Noem said all noncitizens residing in America illegally “need to face consequences for that and go home.”
“They will face the consequences for breaking our law originally, but we want everybody to have the opportunity to be part of the American dream,” Noem said, referring to the DHS’ offer to purchase plane tickets for individuals to self-deport, and then have an opportunity to return legally. “If individuals who are here illegally wait until we have to go and find them…President Trump has been very clear: they will never get the chance to come back.”
