Congress

Noem defiant as Democrats decry Trump administration treatment of migrants

Published

7 months ago

December 11, 2025

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem offered an uncompromising defense of the administration’s aggressive approach to immigration enforcement before lawmakers on Thursday, as questions swirl about her future in the Trump administration.

In her opening remarks at the House Homeland Security Committee’s annual threats hearing, Noem argued that the number of people who have left the United States voluntarily since President Donald Trump took office shows that the administration’s approach to immigration enforcement is working.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, DHS is securing our borders, we’re restoring the rule of law, and we’re protecting the homeland,” Noem said. “We have sent a strong message to criminal illegal aliens that we will find you, we will arrest you, and we will deport you.”

In the face of criticism from Democrats about alleged misconduct on the part of U.S. immigration officers, Noem also defended the conduct of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, arguing that Democrats were unfairly villainizing immigration officials and contributing to violence against them and their families.

The hearing, an annual occasion which sees Homeland Security secretaries and FBI and NCTC directors testify before congressional committees about the threats the country faces, came at a particularly precarious moment for Noem. While Trump reiterated confidence in Noem on Wednesday, Trump allies have floated the names of several potential replacements as frustrations have boiled over in recent months with how DHS has spent money intended to boost the government’s deportation efforts and how DHS has managed federal disaster relief money.

Democrats took advantage of the rare appearance by Noem on Capitol Hill to re-up allegations that Noem gave a $220 million contract to a firm tied to the spouse of DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin and argue that immigration enforcement officers have violated the civil rights and due process of unauthorized immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.

Ranking member Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and other Democrats called on Noem to resign, arguing that her tenure has been marked by incompetence, corruption and other malfeasance.

Democrats also noted it was only Noem’s second appearance before the House committee and one of the few times a DHS official had testified before the committee, as they slammed DHS for a lack of transparency with Congress. Thompson claimed that it had been very difficult to secure DHS officials as witnesses for hearings.

“Never in the history of the committee has a secretary of Homeland Security hidden from congressional oversight like you and your department have, Secretary Noem,” Thompson said at the start of the hearing.

House Homeland Security Chair Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.). also asked Noem to commit to providing more DHS officials to testify before the committee, which the secretary agreed to do.

Noem received most of the questions from Democrats and Republicans at the hearing, which also included fellow witnesses Michael Glasheen, the operations director of the FBI’s national security branch, and National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent. The two faced more questions once Noem left the hearing early to helm a FEMA-related meeting.

In a potential sign that Republicans see Noem’s position as relatively secure, GOP lawmakers went soft on Noem, voicing general satisfaction with the administration’s approach to immigration enforcement and homeland security broadly.

“The border is secure, the flow of drugs is slowing, and violent criminals are being taken off the streets. America is once again a symbol of global strength,” Garbarino said.

“Please go back to your agencies and thank the men and women that are serving every day and helping to keep this country safe,” said Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-Texas), who represents a district along the U.S.-Mexico border.

But Republicans did push Noem to help them conduct oversight of the department’s work. New York lawmakers from both parties asked Noem to explain why DHS decided to cut counterterrorism grants to the Empire State. Trump reversed that decision following advocacy from New York lawmakers.

Democrats also confronted Noem with videos and specific cases that they claim demonstrate the excesses of the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy toward unauthorized immigration.

Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.) pointed to a case where a Korean-born U.S. Marine who served in the U.S. invasion of Panama was deported to Korea earlier this year over drug possession charges from the 1990s. His staffer had the Marine join the hearing via Zoom and held up the livestream with the Marine over Magaziner’s shoulder while the Rhode Island Democrat questioned Noem.

“These people are not the worst of the worst,” Magaziner said. “You don’t seem to know how to tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys. Go after the bad guys. Go after the terrorists. Do not go after veterans, Marines, children, United States citizens.”

Noem pledged to review the individual cases brought up by Magaziner and Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.), but reiterated the Trump administration’s view that it cannot, and should not, make distinctions between the levels of criminal wrongdoing foreign nationals have committed.

“It is not my prerogative, my latitude, or my job to pick and choose which laws in this country and in which broad discretion of the secretary used to follow you can issue,” Noem said.

Democrats scoffed at that idea.

“You have broad discretion as the secretary,” Magaziner responded. “You can do all kinds of things. You’re choosing not to.”

Congress

Senate Ethics dismisses allegations against Ruben Gallego

Published

1 hour ago

June 29, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Senate Ethics Committee has dismissed allegations of misconduct levied against Sen. Ruben Gallego, who stood accused by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of “campaign finance violations and inappropriate conduct of a sexual nature.”

The charges came following the resignation of the Arizona Democrat’s longtime friend, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), who was forced to step down amid accusations of serious sexual misconduct. Luna, a Florida Republican, sought to implicate Gallego by claiming in an interview on CBS that a woman would come forward about an “incident that occurred between the two of them at the same time and the event was sexual in nature allegedly.”

But in a letter to Gallego sent Monday — which he shared in a public news release — the notoriously inactive Ethics Committee cited Gallego’s “prompt contact with the Committee following media reports of the allegations and appreciated your full cooperation with the Committee throughout the investigation.”

Gallego has maintained he was unaware of the allegations against Swalwell and said in a statement he was a victim of “right-wing conspiracies peddled by far-right activists like Anna Paulina Luna, the White House, and their allies.”

He continued, “I look forward to an apology from Rep. Luna for weaponizing the ethics process while refusing to investigate historic corruption that’s making life harder for families.”

Luna, in a post on X, defended her referral to the Senate Ethics Committee.

“The good news about DC is everyone talks, and eventually the reporters come forward with your texts,” Luna wrote on social media. “Do yourself a favor and keep raising for your legal defense fund. Once a creep always a creep, and you’re gonna need it.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report misstated Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s state. She represents Florida.

Congress

Rubio, Witkoff to brief Congress on Iran

Published

5 hours ago

June 29, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Top deputies of President Donald Trump will brief Congress on the Iran peace talks in a Monday conference call — the first time administration officials have addressed a broad group of lawmakers since Trump signed a “memorandum of understanding” with Tehran earlier this month.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, will lead the briefing for all House and Senate members at 4 p.m., according to seven people granted anonymity to discuss the private meeting.

Republicans and Democrats have called for more transparency about the 14-point agreement inked on June 18, which initiated a cease-fire between the two countries. Since then, the U.S. and Iran have continued to engage in hostilities.

Congress

Capitol agenda: Red, white and GOP hard-liner blues

Published

7 hours ago

June 29, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Republicans finally cleared a runway this week to finish some of their top legislative priorities before the July 4 recess.

That is, unless a small band of hard-liners trip up those plans at takeoff.

Speaker Mike Johnson is hoping to move quickly to pass fiscal 2027 appropriations legislation, the annual defense policy bill and a kids online safety bill that has been years in the making. The movement comes after President Donald Trump instructed GOP hard-liners to stop holding up a procedural vote amid a protest from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna and others that the Senate hadn’t passed Trump’s election security bill.

But Luna and other hard-liners are still threatening to tank the procedural vote that could delay the defense policy bill and other measures until they get concessions on the SAVE America Act, amid other demands.

Johnson, for example, had also promised hard-liners a vote before July 4 on a sweeping GOP immigration bill introduced in the prior Congress as H.R. 2, which is highly unlikely to happen.

Johnson for his part has said the House will “pass the SAVE America Act again” by folding parts of it into a third party-line reconciliation bill. But the slimmed-down version he’d need to pursue in order to meet strict Senate rules for the budget process is already being panned by hard-liners as insufficient.

That reconciliation bill is also already delayed. House Republicans aren’t on track to meet their goal of advancing its framework before the July 4 recess as members on the Budget panel balked over how to pay for the legislation in a closed-door meeting last week.

“Time is of the essence, given how many legislative days we have,” House Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie, who is sponsoring the kids online safety legislation, said in an interview last week. “If we lose a week, that would be important.”

Meanwhile, Democratic leadership is grappling with their own heated internal divisions this week. Members are split over supporting the adoption of an amendment to a fiscal 2027 spending bill from Rep. Thomas Massie that would end Israel aid and cut the overall foreign military aid program by $3.3 billion.

Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLauro did not instruct her colleagues on how to vote during a rare Sunday evening caucus call, two sources granted anonymity to discuss the private meeting tell Mia and Riley. Leaders did, however, criticize the amendment as poorly written.

One other item this week that could split members of each party: House lawmakers are also slated to vote on a rewritten war powers resolution from Rep. Rashida Tlaib to reign in Trump administration military actions in Lebanon. Leadership worked with Tlaib to come up with new language last month that is expected to garner more Dem support, but the resolution is still expected to fail without GOP votes.

What else we’re watching:

— SENATE GOP GETS ANTSY ABOUT NOMINATIONS: Some Republican senators are unsettled by Trump’s apparent lack of urgency in filling vacant posts, even as GOP control of the chamber beyond the midterms is increasingly in doubt. There are more than two dozen federal court vacancies. Labor secretary, FDA commissioner and scores of other open positions do not have nominees, and a senior White House official said Trump is in no rush to fill them. “We’re running short on time,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a member of Senate HELP, which oversees health, labor and other issues.

—RICK SCOTT SAYS HE’S JUST TRYING TO HELP: Fresh off his controversial Trump invite to a Senate GOP lunch last week, Sen. Rick Scott told Blue Light News in an interview he’s trying to make a mark — not trying to challenge Senate Majority Leader John Thune. Scott insists that neither his invitation to the president nor a letter he circulated afterward outlining how the Senate GOP should be preparing for the midterms should be seen as a prelude to a leadership challenge. The Florida Republican said he’s perfectly happy running the conference’s conservative Steering Committee and predicted Thune would easily secure another term as leader. What has become eminently clear in recent weeks is that Scott — after a long career in business, two terms as governor and nearly eight years as senator — just isn’t a back-bench kind of guy.

Meredith Lee Hill, Riley Rogerson, Alex Gangitano, Jordain Carney and Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.