Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem decried the use of deportation quotas, told Congress she has “no plans” to deploy ICE officers to the polls for this year’s elections, and took a conciliatory approach to angry lawmakers Tuesday, tacitly acknowledging her overzealous denunciations of Americans killed by her agents in Minneapolis.
Ms. Noem, in her first testimony since the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, declined repeated invitations to apologize directly to their families for labeling their protests domestic terrorism, but extended her condolences.
And she offered an explanation for her initial reactions, saying she was going by what her officers were telling her from the “chaotic scene.”
“We’re relying on reports on the ground and agents that are there, and [we] work to be transparent,” she told the Senate Judiciary Committee during four hours of questioning.
Several Republicans joined Democrats in criticizing her tenure at the helm of DHS.
Sen. Thom Tillis, North Carolina Republican, said the department has been “a total disaster” under her leadership.
And Sen. John Kennedy, Louisiana Republican, excoriated the secretary for her department’s approval of $220 million in contracts to run ads telling illegal immigrants to deport themselves — ads in which she prominently featured herself.
Mr. Kennedy was incredulous when Ms. Noem told him President Trump had given her the OK to go ahead with the ads.
“We had that conversation, yes, before I was put in this position,” she said.
“To me,” countered Mr. Kennedy, “it puts the president in a terribly awkward spot. I’m not saying you’re not telling the truth; it’s just hard for me to believe.”
The ads, and DHS’ purchase of airplanes, have added to Ms. Noem’s woes, particularly as photos of the interior of one plane showed a plush bedroom and lounge.
She said a law passed by Congress directed her to have a plane for command-and-control activities during emergencies, and she said she’s flown on the jet only once. She also said it’s being refurbished so it can be used for deportations.
More broadly, she said the fleet of deportation planes DHS is planning would replace the costlier network of contract aircraft used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement right now. She said flight costs would be cut by 40%.
“We have 737s that are being purchased by the department to replace contracts we have on ICE deportations,” she told the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Senators on both sides of the aisle questioned why a portion of the $220 million in ad contracts ended up with a firm run by the husband of Tricia McLaughlin, who until last week was the secretary’s chief spokeswoman and before that assisted Ms. Noem with work when she was a candidate and governor in South Dakota.
Amid the questions, Ms. Noem celebrated the stunning turnaround at the border from the Biden administration to now.
She said February marked the 10th straight month that the Border Patrol hasn’t caught and released a single migrant at the southwest border. During the previous administration, that tally regularly topped 100,000 a month.
Ms. Noem also said her department has deported 675,000 migrants, with an additional 2.5 million having left the U.S. through their own devices, or self-deported.
Ms. Noem said her agents and officers have secured 400,000 administrative arrest warrants to take someone into custody for deportation purposes.
She said in 28 of those cases, officers used the warrants to enter a private home.
She defended the practice as legal, saying Congress is the entity that created the administrative warrant instead of a judicial warrant for immigration cases.
“It’s the legal process we have that we follow,” she said.
The pace of deportations irked Democrats and Mr. Tillis, who said she was chasing big numbers, leading to some excesses.
“Quality matters, not quantity,” Mr. Tillis said.
He compared her handling of the shooting deaths in Minneapolis to her own tale in her memoir of killing her 14-month-old dog, Cricket, and an unruly goat.
She had cast those as examples of tough leadership decisions, but Mr. Tillis said both animal slayings were uncalled for and reflected Ms. Noem’s inability to anticipate situations.
“Those are bad decisions made in the heat of the moment — not unlike what happened up in Minnesota,” he said.
Several senators also confronted Ms. Noem with the comments of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who said he wanted to see a million deportations a year.
Ms. Noem, in response, said her agency isn’t pursuing numbers.
“We don’t have any quotas on our law enforcement officers,” she said.
A number of senators also prodded Ms. Noem on comments by Trump confidante Stephen Bannon, who said he hoped to see ICE officers deployed at polling places this year.
“There are no plans to have ICE officers at our polling locations,” Ms. Noem said.
She also celebrated the work of Homeland Security Investigations agents, who she said have located 145,000 migrants that came to the U.S. as children and got “lost” by the previous administration.
