At today's House Homeland Security Committee hearing, Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA) questioned DHS Sec. Kristi Noem about the deportation of U.S. children with their parents.
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00:00...sent to introduce the article from PBS NewsHour entitled Children Who Are U.S. Citizens Deported
00:06Along With Foreign Mothers, in which the attorney for that four-year-old U.S. citizen says that
00:11at no time did his mother consent to the child U.S. citizen being removed from the country.
00:16Without objection, so ordered, and I recognize Mr. Correa for five minutes of questions.
00:21Thank you, Mr. Secretary. First of all, Secretary Noem, welcome to this committee.
00:26I had the honor of hearing testimony from Secretary Kelly, Secretary Mayorkas, and, of course, you.
00:33Welcome. We all have the same interests, which are protecting Americans, American taxpayers,
00:40as we move forward in our jobs. And I want to say that your testimony, my colleague from Louisiana,
00:45myself, have the same interests, which are to protect Americans, especially to protect children,
00:52especially to protect American citizen children. That's where my concern is, Madam Secretary,
01:00that your administration, I believe, has consistently violated the law by denying due process
01:06to U.S.-born American children. Under your watch, you've deported American children, U.S.-born children.
01:16Some of the examples. I only have five minutes to talk about, but I'll come back to the case that
01:23was described or discussed a little while ago, which was two American children, four and seven,
01:28were put on a plane with their mother, sent to Honduras within 24 hours of being detained.
01:34There was an attorney involved, and we're debating right now the issue, as if you stated,
01:39that the mother wanted the child to go with her, but there was an attorney involved.
01:45That person was not consulted. That family was denied the opportunity to talk to that attorney.
01:53The attorney was there. What is wrong with asking the attorney? You've got a family that
01:59had been checking in, following ICE direction. Check in. Bring your family to check in.
02:07They weren't let out. That happens in my district all the time. Families check in to ICE.
02:12If ICE determines they should be deported, do you know what we do? I call ICE and I say,
02:19give them 30 days. Some of these families have been in this country 20, 30 years.
02:25Give them 30 days to get their situation in order. Make sure that they figure out how to keep their
02:30American children in the U.S. Make them, give them the opportunity to make an educated decision
02:37on the lives of American citizens. In this case and other cases, ma'am, you have split-second
02:45decisions to make a decision on those children. And you, Madam Secretary, also make split-second
02:53decisions based on whatever coerced discussion you're having with that mother. And I say coerced
02:59because when you're scared to death, your life is about to change, and you've got attorney next door
03:03that you will not permit that family to consult with that attorney, you've got an issue.
03:09Case number two, two-year-old American daughter also deported to Honduras.
03:14They were also denied access to their lawyers. According to her lawyer, ICE prevented the mother
03:20from speaking to the lawyer or anyone else in the family.
03:26Two-year-old American citizen. Can't we slow it down and just take a moment before
03:31they're deported in 24 hours? The mom didn't want the daughter to stay in the United States.
03:39They may have had relatives in the United States. Family.
03:43Even the own Trump-appointed federal judge overseeing this case has said that he had a
03:50strong suspicion that the government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful due process.
03:56Madam Secretary, I think we're all in agreement here. Let's go after MS-13. Let's go after drug dealers.
04:07Let's go after Trendria Grua, the bad folks who hurt my community as well as everybody else's community.
04:14But I failed to see where a child, two-year-old, four-year-old, seven-year-old children
04:20could be on your top of priorities for deportations. This is still America. Due process, the Fifth Amendment.
04:28Madam Secretary, I know ICE agents. I deal with them all the time. I've toured the southern border.
04:34Blue uniforms, green uniforms, talking to them about what they need to do the job.
04:40More than happy to have that discussion with you publicly or privately.
04:43But deporting U.S.-born children, ignoring their attorneys, take a deep breath.
04:53You've been here 20, 30 years.
04:56A lot of the times back home, when I ask the ICE agents, give them 30 days, you know what?
05:02Without fail, that person comes back or self-deports.
05:07We can do better. Madam Secretary, I'm going to ask you one last question in nine seconds.
05:14You're under oath. Have you fired, retired, dismissed any DSA agents that have not followed your policies?
05:24What kind of agents, sir?
05:26DHS, Homeland Security agents. Yes.
05:29Specific law enforcement officers?
05:30Yes, ma'am. Officers under your watch.
05:32I haven't given any specific orders to any law enforcement officers under the Department of Homeland Security.
05:38So there are, within the Department of Homeland Security, 280,000 employees.
05:4647,000 of them are Coast Guard individuals.
05:51So, you know, 230,000 individuals are employees, and we're very proud of the work that they do.
05:56Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for recognizing that it's police week.
05:59We have many agencies that have law enforcement officers in them that get up every single day to serve their communities
06:05and to make sure that our laws matter and that they're enforced appropriately
06:09and that no one is treated differently than someone else.
06:13The gentleman's time has expired. I now recognize Mr. Guest from Mississippi.
06:17Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to enter for the record.
06:21The Prince George's County Police Department gang field interview.