Watch the top viral moments as DHS Secretary Noem’s hearing goes off the rails

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sparred with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday over the issue Trump administration Immigration Enforcement Crackdown, a long-awaited hearing after the agency has come under scrutiny in recent months over its hard-line immigration enforcement efforts and the fatal shootings of Rene Judd and Alex Peretti in January.

The department’s handling of the Minnesota unrest has put Noem and ICE officers squarely in Democrats’ crosshairs in recent weeks and prompted Democrats — and two Senate Republicans — to call on Noem to resign.

The hearing, which lasts for hours, comes in the Senate He’s still deadlocked about the plan To fully fund DHS through September. Senate Democrats previously outlined a list of 10 demands they said immigration officials must meet before they would agree to pass short-term funding measures.

Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and others criticized Noem for demanding that the Department of Homeland Security be fully funded despite the weeks that had passed between the two shootings in Minnesota and Noem’s testimony. Durbin previously said she “expects us to approve her record budget in the meantime.”

Republicans and Noem used Tuesday’s hearing to warn of the effects of the partial shutdown on the myriad federal departments and agencies under the sprawling DHS umbrella, including the Secret Service, the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Coast Guard, among others.

Here are the most important moments from Tuesday’s session.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during a hearing. (Graeme Sloan/Getty Images)

‘Reckless’ and ‘unnecessary’: Noem slams Senate Democrats over DHS shutdown

Noem focused her anger during Tuesday’s hearing on Senate Democrats, whom she blamed for failing to keep the Department of Homeland Security funded through September even after the House passed a bipartisan full-year funding bill.

“Despite the House’s approval of a bipartisan, bicameral, full-year funding bill for DHS, it is Senate Democrats who have chosen not to fund the Department and have held this Department hostage,” Noem said Tuesday, noting critical national security efforts that could be hampered as a result of a prolonged shutdown, including, but not limited to, border security issues, immigration enforcement, aviation security, and disaster response. Cyber ​​security And protect critical infrastructure.

She also noted the impact of the agency-wide shutdown on DHS employees in approximately 22 federal departments and agencies within DHS.

“More than 100,000 dedicated Department of Homeland Security employees are once again being asked to work without pay for the third time in just five months at a time when we have created the most secure border in history and removed nearly 3 million illegal aliens from our country,” she said.

“Disrupting the administration responsible for those gains is indefensible.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem talks about her firing, new video from Alex Peretti

Senator Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, speaks during a hearing in Washington on September 16, 2025 (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Durbin and Noem argue about criminal statistics and takedowns

Earlier Tuesday, Durbin pressed Noem to explain what he said was the Department of Homeland Security’s non-compliance with federal court orders that sought to block or halt some of the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration enforcement efforts and removals.

“Sir, we are making sure that we follow the law that applies to our administration, who we detain and who we deport to their home countries,” Noem told Durbin.

Durbin followed up by referring to a statistic from Trump’s first term that found 85% Of immigrants arrested by ICE “He did not have a violent criminal record.”

“Sir, when you talk about violent crimes, what you’re saying is that the crimes that don’t matter, that don’t count, are the ones that impact American families every day,” Noem responded. “You don’t count DUIs. You don’t count embezzlement. You don’t count theft. You don’t count other crimes against people and drug trafficking and the prevalence of that.”

” “If you count the crimes committed by these illegal aliens in this country, upwards of 65% to 70% of the individuals in custody today will have those crimes on their record. Along with the crime of being in this country illegally,” Noem said.

Democrats demanding ice reforms lose airport attendants in shutdown they sparked

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is recognized as President Donald Trump speaks during an event to announce new tariffs in the Rose Garden of the White House on April 2 in Washington. (AP/Mark Schiefelbein)

Noem: DHS has no plans to deploy ICE officers to polling sites on Election Day

In one notable moment, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., pressed Noem on whether DHS plans to deploy ICE officers to polling sites on Election Day, echoing a view recently supported by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.

When asked if she would rule out deploying ICE or CBP agents at polling places during the upcoming November midterm elections, Noem responded that “there are no plans to have ICE officers at our polling sites.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Kunz replied. “But are you ruling it out? Are you saying it won’t happen?”

In response, Noem responded, “Are you planning on illegal aliens voting in our elections?”

The moment was widely praised by conservative commentators on social media.

Anti-ICE protesters gather in Minnesota on February 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

Noem says the Biden administration “paid” for children to be smuggled into the United States

Noem also updated Grassley on the status of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Unaccompanied Children (UC) program, which, under the Biden administration, has placed more than 11,000 migrant children with unvetted sponsors to house children who are not a parent or legal guardian, according to information shared by his office. Grassley’s office previously submitted multiple oversight requests to DHS over the program, citing concerns that children were being placed with dangerous or unvetted sponsors and restricting the sharing of information with law enforcement.

Grassley and Trump’s Department of Homeland Security alleged that the Biden administration turned a blind eye to children who needed proper supervision and care, and cited concerns about failed background checks, lack of documentation in some cases and lax screening procedures that allowed migrant children to be “lost” in the program or released to dangerous sponsors.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General issued a Report on the programme Last year, Noem appeared to reference as much during her testimony on Tuesday.

Noem told lawmakers on Tuesday that 450,000 children who entered the United States as “unaccompanied alien children” were “lost by the Biden administration and have not been tracked.”

“We have located approximately 145,000 of them, and we have done so through investigative work conducted by our Homeland Security Investigations team,” Noem said.

“One thing that has been challenging is that under the Biden administration, the government has paid sponsors at the Department of Health and Human Services to host these children and these sponsors,” Noem continued. “A lot of times, we found cases where they trafficked these children themselves.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“So, under that administration, not only did we have children who were in this country as part of a program, but the government was paying individuals who were intentionally trafficking them and abusing them,” Noem said. “That has stopped. We have searched and found these children and returned them to their families when we have the opportunity to do so and with loved ones who will care for them.”

Related article