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FIRST ON FOX: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has agreed to appear before the House Judiciary Committee next month, marking her second commitment to testify before Congress amid heightened scrutiny of the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation agenda.
Noem will sit for a hearing with the House panel on March 4, Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital in a brief interview.
Jordan said Noem’s appearance was part of routine oversight of Cabinet members over whom his panel has jurisdiction. He noted that it was unrelated to committee Democrats’ recent demand letter to Jordan that he bring Noem in for questioning about the two high-profile killings of U.S. citizens in Minnesota during immigration operations.
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Both incidents are under investigation by the FBI, but the Democrats, led by ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., accused Noem of making premature remarks as a “cover-up” for her department’s mistakes.
Jordan said one of his focuses during the hearing will be on so-called sanctuary cities and states, which typically have policies in place that limit or block local law enforcement from notifying federal authorities about anyone who has been detained in a local jail who has a questionable immigration status.
Jordan said sanctuary jurisdictions raised a “fundamental question.”
“You’ve got a guy in your jail who’s done some bad thing — that’s why he’s in your jail. — and, oh, also happens to be here illegally, and you’re not going to work with ICE. … I think the vast majority of the country thinks that’s just stupid,” Jordan said. “So I think that’s a point we have to stress.”
Noem is also set to appear on March 3 before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Both testimonies come as DHS has been caught up in hundreds of court cases challenging arrests and detentions of suspected illegal immigrants.
It also comes after Noem initially said both Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the two U.S. citizens killed by immigration authorities during chaotic altercations in Minnesota, were “domestic terrorists.”
Noem and other Trump administration officials’ jump to make such comments on the killings before the conclusion of an investigation spurred backlash, including from some Republicans. President Donald Trump responded by rearranging immigration operations in Minnesota, pushing out their leader, Greg Bovino, and bringing in border czar Tom Homan.
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Federal authorities are continuing to investigate whether agents legally used lethal force in the two incidents.
Trump recently defended Noem in a Truth Social post, accusing “Radical Left Lunatics” of targeting her “because she is a woman, and has done a really GREAT JOB!”
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