From PBS NewsHour.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made an opening statement Tuesday in an oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In her statement, Noem said that ICE officers “are facing a serious and escalating threat as a result of deliberate mischaracterizations of their heroic work and rhetoric that demonizes our law enforcement.”
“I recognize that members of this committee may hold differing views about immigration policy, but it’s important that we distinguish between disagreements over policy and the department’s operational responsibility to enforce existing law that has been passed by Congress,” she said.
She also criticized the current partial government shutdown affecting her department reckless, and unnecessary. “It undermines the American national security and it harms the men and women who work at DHS and their families,” Noem added.
Noem’s agency has been roiled by turmoil and public outcry in recent days. The shooting of two U.S. citizens by federal officers in Minneapolis prompted weeks of protests in the Twin Cities area. Trump officials, including Noem, accused the victims – Renee Good and Alex Pretti – of committing acts of “domestic terrorism.”
But bystander videos challenged the administration’s narrative of the high-profile shooting deaths, and documented DHS deploying other aggressive tactics. Greater scrutiny by Democrats into the ways the Trump administration has been carrying out his mass deportation agenda led to a lapse in the agency’s funding and partial government shutdown.
Congressional lawmakers have yet to reach a deal to fund the department, though there are areas of bipartisan agreement, such as a body camera requirement for immigration enforcement agents.
Noem will also field questions Wednesday from the House Judiciary Committee.
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