From PBS NewsHour.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday her agency’s law enforcement operations aren’t operating under any quotas — with one caveat.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said in an oversight hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee that Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and homeland security adviser, once told Fox News that there was a minimum goal of arresting 3,000 people a day for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Noem repeated that there were no quotas for DHS “when we do law enforcement operations, we do them on targeted enforcement.”

Coons said there may be value in putting out official guidance that rejected the use of numerical targets or quotas.

“I usually put out notices on things that are impacting our operations. There’s been no discussion or requirement on numerical quota targets,” she said. “Therefore, there would be no need to reject them in a memo unless I feared that they were being implemented, which they’re not.”

Noem’s agency has been roiled by turmoil and public outcry in recent days. 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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