{"id":203230,"date":"2026-03-04T03:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T03:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/203230\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T03:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T03:20:12","slug":"senate-republicans-join-democrats-in-grilling-noem-over-ice-shooting-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/203230\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate Republicans join Democrats in grilling Noem over ICE shooting deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived at a Senate oversight hearing Tuesday ready to spar with Democrats in her first Capitol Hill appearance since federal agents fatally shot U.S. citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Good<\/a> in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

But some of the sharpest comments from the Judiciary Committee came from fellow Republicans, who questioned her leadership, criticized her spending practices and called on her to admit that she was wrong to call Pretti and Good <\/a>\u201cdomestic terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen is a disaster under your leadership, Ms. Noem, a disaster,\u201d Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said. \u201cThe fact is you can\u2019t even admit to a mistake. It looks like an investigation is going to prove that Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti probably should not have been shot in the face and in the back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tillis hardly questioned Noem on specifics, choosing instead to deliver a blistering, high-volume \u201cperformance evaluation,\u201d of the Homeland Security secretary. He accused Noem and Trump advisor Stephen Miller of prioritizing deportation quotas instead of investigating the \u201cvicious\u201d ICE agents involved in the Minnesota shootings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going after the people who did that damage at the expense of running numbers that Stephen Miller wants out of the White House,\u201d he said. \u201cWe just want numbers. We want 1,000 a day, 6,000 a day, 9,000 a day. Because numbers matter, right? No, they don\u2019t matter. Quality matters.\u201d <\/p>\n

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) also brought up Pretti and Good: \u201cDid you determine whether there was any basis for the sensational claim, a claim that proved to be utterly false, that these two victims were engaged in domestic terrorism?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

Noem used the hearing to defend a series of decisions now under bipartisan scrutiny. She said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers face \u201cserious and escalating threats\u201d due to what she called \u201cdeliberate mischaracterizations\u201d of their work. <\/p>\n

She called the Minneapolis deaths \u201ctragic situations,\u201d and said the phrase \u201cdomestic terrorists\u201d was based on early information she received from the agents from the city. \u201cIt was a chaotic scene,\u201d Noem said. She did not apologize for using the phrase or say it was inaccurate.<\/p>\n

Noem stood behind President Trump\u2019s mass deportation agenda and said ICE is focusing on the \u201cworst of the worst.\u201d Recent reporting<\/a> by the Cato Institute found that just 5% of ICE detainees have been convicted of violent offenses, and three-fourths have no criminal convictions at all. <\/p>\n

The hearing came amid a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, triggered last month when Senate Democrats blocked funding in a standoff over immigration enforcement practices. As tensions mount in Iran, lawmakers are increasingly concerned about the security risks of leaving the department unfunded.<\/p>\n

In her opening statement, Noem decried the shutdown as \u201creckless\u201d and \u201cunnecessary,\u201d and accused Democrats of putting U.S. security posture at risk. <\/p>\n

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) pointedly asked about a $200-million ad campaign promoting immigration enforcement \u2014 a campaign that features Noem and was awarded to a firm led by a friend. Such spending \u201ctroubles me,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cI just can\u2019t agree with that, Madam Secretary. My research shows you did not bid this out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noem maintained that Trump directed the messaging strategy and argued it has been \u201cextremely effective\u201d in deterring illegal immigration. She said she \u201cdidn\u2019t have anything to do with picking those contractors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The back-and-forth became increasingly heated as Kennedy also peppered Noem for characterizing Good and Pretti as domestic terrorists. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat got my attention was that you blamed those statements on Mr. Stephen Miller,\u201d Kennedy said, referencing an Axios report<\/a> quoting Noem.<\/p>\n

She dodged the line of questioning, saying the sources Axios used in the report were \u201canonymous,\u201d and, by her logic, not credible. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis wasn\u2019t anonymous. It was you,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cThey\u2019re quoting you on the record saying it was Stephen.\u201d<\/p>\n

On numerous occasions throughout the hearing, the secretary was asked about her purchase of two luxury Gulfstream G700 jets at a combined cost of $200 million in taxpayer funds. <\/p>\n

Reportedly designed by New York designer Peter Marino, the planes include private bedroom suites with queen-size beds, bathrooms with stand-up showers and electric bidets, and a lounge with a wet bar and wine chiller, according to images obtained by NBC. <\/p>\n

Noem argued the purchases were authorized by Congress for executive travel and deportation operations. <\/p>\n

In another testy exchange, Delaware Sen. Chris Coons pressed Noem over recent statements that she planned to station ICE officers at polling locations in November, to \u201cmake sure we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders.\u201d She said her department had no such plan in place but fell short of committing to ruling it out. <\/p>\n

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) endorsed investigations into ICE shootings, though his statements were largely designed to cast Noem in a favorable light. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to make sure if there was a bad shooting as documented as such, and people pay a price. But I will not apologize to anybody in this room to try to clean up the mess that Biden started, and you empowered,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Democrats, meanwhile, accused Noem of presiding over \u201cthuggish\u201d and \u201cillegal\u201d enforcement tactics and demanded independent investigations into several incidents throughout the U.S. <\/p>\n

Accusing Noem of routinely making false statements about ICE shooting victims while impeding state, local, and independent investigations, Schiff cited an episode in which immigration agents shot U.S. citizen and Chicago resident Marimar Martinez. In November, a federal judge raised concerns that agents mishandled or destroyed key physical evidence in the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur internal investigations are following the same policies as they always have,\u201d Noem responded.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill you take some responsibility?\u201d Schiff said. \u201cHow is the public supposed to believe anything your agency says or finds?\u201d<\/p>\n

Over 180 lawmakers have co-sponsored articles of impeachment against Noem. Tillis and Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski last month called for Noem to resign or face impeachment by Congress. <\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Tillis said her responses to the committee amounted to stonewalling. \u201cThat\u2019s a failure of leadership, and that is why I\u2019ve called for your resignation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived at a Senate oversight hearing Tuesday ready to spar with Democrats in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1751,6246,51735,9977,7084,94232,348,4737,48,52,51,2500,47,50,49,94234,4011,212,73937,3025,94233],"class_list":{"0":"post-203230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-democrats","9":"tag-department","10":"tag-domestic-terrorist","11":"tag-federal-agent","12":"tag-hearing","13":"tag-ice-shooting-death","14":"tag-investigation","15":"tag-kennedy","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-la-headlines","18":"tag-la-news","19":"tag-leadership","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","22":"tag-los-angeles-news","23":"tag-ms-good","24":"tag-noem","25":"tag-number","26":"tag-pretti","27":"tag-statement","28":"tag-tillis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}