Kristi Noem testifies before Senate Judiciary as walls close in on DHS - MS NOW

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, as the department remains shut down and scrutiny mounts over the conduct of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents.

The Department of Homeland Security has been technically shut down since Feb. 14, as Democrats and Republicans spar over funding the department in the wake of the

fatal shootings of Alex Pretti

and Renee Goodby federal agents in Minneapolis in January. Democrats proposed significant reforms for ICE, and the White House offered a counterproposal that has not been made public.

Meanwhile, the more controversial DHS agencies, such as ICE and Customs and Border Protection, have continued operating. More than 90% of DHS employees are considered “excepted” from the government shutdown and will continue working without standard pay. DHS received billions of dollars from the GOP’s reconciliation bill last summer, some of which is reportedly being used to pay more than 57,000 CBP employees who have continued working. Others will miss their first paycheck on March 12.

Noem has called for Democrats to “end this shutdown now and let DHS get back to our mission of protecting the Homeland.”

During the hearing Tuesday, Noem will likely face questions about the death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a nearly blind refugee from Myanmar who Border Patrol agents dropped off outside a coffee shop in Buffalo, New York, last month, and who and was subsequently found dead. Asked about the incident by MS NOW, a Border Patrol spokesperson previously directed questions to the Buffalo Police Department.

Both Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., and Buffalo Mayor Sean M. Ryan demanded answers from** **the federal government in the wake of the man’s death.

That is far from the only recent controversy Noem will have to answer for.

Her testimony also comes a little more than a week after an ICE whistleblower testified at a congressional forum that the agency is “lying to Congress and the American people” about its training of new recruits. Also last month, an ICE spokesperson said federal prosecutors are investigating whether two of its officers lied under oath about the shooting of a migrant in Minneapolis last month. And a lawyer for a woman shot five times by a Border Patrol agent in Chicago in October said the agent is now under criminal investigation *— *though the Department of Justice in February declined to confirm the probe.