Kristi Noem Grilled by Thom Tillis in Tense DHS Hearing

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had her ass handed to her during a congressional hearing on Tuesday — and not just by Democrats. In a shift from their usual coddling of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet members, some Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee laid into Noem, grilling her on her leadership at the agency amid growing public disapproval of the administration’s increasingly violent anti-immigration crackdown. 

Noem still got plenty of softballs from Republican lawmakers, but the pressure from other members of the GOP was notable given the degree to which Trump’s immigration policies could shape the midterm elections. 

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who is not running for reelection this year, berated Noem as the arbiter of a “disaster” for the federal government, taking her to task for everything from TK to shooting her dog. “I’m giving you a performance evaluation here — I’m not looking for a response,” he said.  

“Quality matters, not quantity,” Tillis said of the administration’s demand that DHS meet certain deportation quotas. “What we have seen is a disaster under your leadership Mrs. Noem, a disaster. What we’ve seen are innocent people getting detained that turn out are American citizens. … Time after time after time, I have been disappointed.” 

Tillis honed in on two major issues: DHS’ handling of FEMA disaster relief funding, and the ICE killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Minnesota, earlier this year. 

“We’re beginning to get the American people to think that deporting people is wrong — it’s the exact opposite,” Tillis said. “The way you’re going about deporting them is wrong, the fact that you can’t admit to a mistake — which looks like under investigation — it’s going to prove that Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti probably should not have been shot in the face and in the back. You don’t protect them by not looking after the facts. Not only should the FBI be investigating it, but every single law enforcement agency in that jurisdiction should be invited to it.”

Tillis also demanded answers as to why DHS has been slowwalking FEMA aid, particularly to his state of North Carolina, which is still recovering from the devastation brought by Hurricane Helene in 2024.  

DHS instituted a policy last year that requires Noem to sign off on any expenditure by the department over $100,000. “If you’re requesting a review of $100,000 and up, why would you be involved in that? Why would that be a policy?” Tillis said, displaying a chart showing that FEMA aid disbursement has plummeted under Noem’s tenure. 

“The Homeland Security Act of 2002 expressly prohibits the Secretary of Homeland Security from restricting or diverting FEMA resources from the agency’s mission. Based on your disaster response — [and] the chart that I just showed you — I have reason to believe that you’re violating the law.”

Tillis went on to say that he would be putting a hold “on any odd block nominations,” until he got a response from DHS about his inquiries into planned ICE operations in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. “And in two weeks, if I don’t get a response, I’m going to deny quorum and mark up in as many committees as I can until I get a response.”

Tillis was not the only Republican to turn the screws on Noem. During a comparatively mild round of questioning, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) questioned Noem on DHS spending over $220 million on advertising that prominently featured the secretary, and which was contracted to a firm owned by the husband of Noem’s former deputy press secretary. 

“It’s just hard for me to believe — knowing the president as I do —  that you said, ‘Mr. President, here’s some ads I’ve cut and I’m going to spend $220 million running them ,’ and that he would have agreed to that. I don’t think Russ Vought at OMB would have agreed to that,” Kennedy said. 

Noem claimed she had nothing to do with the selection of the firm that produced the ads, and that they had been a necessary and worthwhile expenditure that increased self-deportations. 

Kennedy also pressed Noem on her use of the term “domestic terrorism” to justify the shootings of Good and Pretti, and her subsequent effort to blame Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller for the choice of phrase. Noem claimed she had made her statements based on the information that was available at the time from a “chaotic scene on the ground.”’

“I was getting reports from the ground from agents at the scene, and I would say that it was a chaotic scene,” she  said. “As you’ve seen in Minneapolis and St. Paul, as immigration enforcement has gone forward, and we’ve worked at targeting the worst of the worst that many times our agents have been faced with violent protesters.”

Throughout the hearing, Noem attempted to defend her own record, repeatedly referencing the  families of individuals murdered by undocumented migrants that had been invited into the  hearing room, and casting aspersions on the Biden administration for their tolerance of a so-called “open border.” 

“I recognize that members of this committee may hold differing views about immigration policy,” Noem told lawmakers. “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. It’s our duty as a department to defend our homeland.”

The signs Noem may not be qualified to lead DHS have been visible since before her nomination. At one point, Tillis recalled how Noem in her memoir described shooting and killing a puppy because she had trouble training it. “A 14-month-old dog is basically a teenager in dog years. You decided to kill that dog because you had not invested the appropriate time in training, and then you have the audacity to go into a book and say it’s a leadership lesson about tough choices,” Tillis said.

“My point is, those are bad decisions made in the heat of the moment, not unlike what happened up in Minneapolis,” Tillis went on. “We’re an exceptional nation, and one of the reasons we’re exceptional is that   we expect exceptional leadership. You’ve demonstrated anything but that in the time that I’ve seen you responding to the emergency in North Carolina and across the Southeast, and acknowledging when mistakes are made [in] speaking too soon for the expedient of social media or whatever it is.”