At Wednesday's House Homeland Security Committee hearing, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) slammed DHS Sec. Kristi Noem.
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00:00The gentleman yields. I think we've covered everyone. Mr. Ranking Member, you're recognized for a closing statement.
00:07Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And I'd like to associate myself with Mr. Garcia's statement.
00:16I can't believe that we would send somebody or anyone from our country somewhere else and say, well, we cut off all communication.
00:27We're a better country than that. And I just thank Mr. Garcia for raising that question.
00:39Secretary Noem, at the start of this hearing, you stood here and took an oath to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
00:47So help you God. Then you sat down and dodged the truth over and over and over for a little more than three hours.
00:59So help you God. You repeatedly testified that you and the Department of Homeland Security will follow the Constitution, the laws and the order of the Supreme Court.
01:12Well, the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution says that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.
01:26And yet a fellow court found that the Department of Homeland Security, under your watch, believes that it has a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process.
01:46So you did not tell the truth to this committee today when you said you would follow the Constitution and comply with due process.
01:57You also testified that you follow orders of the Supreme Court of the United States and all courts.
02:05But the Supreme Court unanimously directed the government to facilitate the return of Kilmer Garcia to the United States.
02:16But you just testified before this committee that Kilmer Garcia will never return to the United States.
02:25So you didn't tell the truth to this committee again when you said that you comply with court orders and decisions.
02:33You've overseen the deportation of U.S. citizen children and have claimed that their parents chose to take their children with them.
02:47But you produced no evidence that the mother, let alone both parents of those children, freely gave consent to have their children deported from the United States.
03:00In fact, everyone involved in those cases say that the mothers, in fact, did not want their children, especially their sick American children deported.
03:12In fact, your agency lured families to ICE appointments under false pretenses, lied to them, refused to let them speak with an attorney or children's father,
03:24and deported them before a court had time to even hear the case.
03:31You've given yourself the unilateral right to deport anyone you deem a threat.
03:37You refused to comply with court orders that try to stop you.
03:42That puts all of us at risk.
03:44Beyond your false testimony about the administration's deportation policies,
03:50you've falsely stated that the administration is focused on a full range of DHS's missions.
03:59Instead, your budget request appears to reflect a view that DHS's sole purpose is to be a border wall construction agency
04:10that deports U.S. citizen children with cancer.
04:14Your budget proposed cuts to cybersecurity, emergency preparedness, and aviation security.
04:21Even before asking Congress for these budget cuts,
04:25you've overseen mass reductions in the workforce at CISA and FEMA.
04:31Despite repeated requests from this committee on how many people have been fired or have been bullied into quitting before their tenure,
04:42DHS has refused to share that information.
04:47Such a worry of every American that we do not know how many people are left at FEMA to respond to disasters
04:56and how many cyber defenders still work at CISA as China and other adversaries attack our systems every day.
05:06And you've made clear in response to my questioning,
05:10you have no plan, written plan, for FEMA.
05:13It is very apparent that also there is no plan for CISA,
05:20where you are trying to gut the agency's funding and falsely claiming that CISA is a censorship agency.
05:28Since CISA never censored anyone,
05:32but now we are all paying the price for you buying into a baseless conspiracy theory.
05:38Secretary Noem, I'm glad that you finally came to testify before this committee.
05:45But I'm disappointed, along with a lot of my Democratic colleagues,
05:50that you stood here and took an oath to tell the truth,
05:54then repeatedly failed to do so to this committee.
05:58Let me just say, if you dance with the devil long enough,
06:02he's liable to follow you home.
06:04I hope that you will stop dancing around the truth
06:07and start telling the truth
06:09so this committee can do its work
06:12helping to defend DHS from the attacks you've launched against it.
06:18Let's share.