WASHINGTON, United States: US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) chief Kristi Noem came under withering criticism from Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday over the Trump administration´s sweeping immigration crackdown.
“Under your leadership, the Homeland Security Department has been devoid of any moral compass or respect for the rule of law,” Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, told Noem at a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing.
“DHS agents have wreaked havoc in our cities,” Durbin said. “They roam the streets in paramilitary gear and arrest and detain people based on the color of their skin, their accents and the language they speak.”
Immigration agents shot dead two Americans during protests in Minnesota recently and Noem leveled “baseless accusations of domestic terrorism” against them following their deaths, Durbin said.
Noem, making her first appearance before Congress since the shootings, expressed her condolences to the families over the “tragic” deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis and said she did not call them domestic terrorists. “I said it appeared to be an incident of (domestic terrorism),” she said.
