Noem rips Dems for using families as ‘political weapons’ as DHS funding fight threatens life beyond ICE

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem warned that a potential lapse in DHS funding centered on Democrat demands for ICE overhauls would have sweeping ripple effects across the entire department — potentially disrupting everything from airport screening to FEMA disaster operations.

“I think they (Democrats) are using families as political weapons,” Noem told Fox News Digital in a phone interview. “And this is a little bit different, because when it’s the whole government that they shut down, they’re not necessarily just attacking security.”

“This feels like a direct attack on the security of our country, our homeland. And it’s almost as though they’ve gotten so extreme, they don’t care if we’re out there on the front lines keeping our country safe from terrorists, keeping our country safe from murderers and rapists,” the DHS secretary continued. 

DHS funding is in flux after lawmakers carved the department out of a larger funding package enacted earlier this month, following Democratic demands for immigration enforcement reforms. For now, DHS is operating under a short-term extension that expires Feb. 13.

REPUBLICANS WARN DEMOCRATS’ ICE REFORM PUSH IS COVER TO DEFUND BORDER ENFORCEMENT

Republicans have accused Democrats of holding DHS hostage as its funding deadline nears, while Democrats issued a series of 10 demands for reforms to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday, insisting they be added to the funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security.

As Democrats focus on forcing ICE reforms, a DHS funding lapse would ripple far beyond immigration enforcement, Noem told Fox Digital. ICE is about 11% of the department’s total budget and the other 89% would fall inside the blast radius. 

The Department of Homeland Security is one of Washington’s largest departments, made up of 23 agencies whose work touches daily life — from airport screening and travel to disaster response — while also carrying out core homeland security and immigration enforcement missions.

Just a handful of agencies within the Department of Homeland Security include: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Secret Service, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers, and the Federal Protective Service.

If DHS funding lapses, Americans will feel the impact quickly, Noem said, warning that Democrats’ focus on ICE would drag all 23 DHS agencies—and roughly 280,000 employees—into the fight.

NOEM DEPLOYS TO BOTH BORDERS, SAYS ICE WON’T BE DETERRED BY SANCTUARY OFFICIALS WHO ‘WANT TO CREATE CONFLICT’

She said FEMA’s role extends past disaster coordination — including continuity-of-government planning — while the Coast Guard’s operations would be strained if support staff were furloughed, potentially affecting maritime safety and commerce. Noem warned the funding lapse could trigger ripple effects for agencies like the Secret Service and the cyber-focused CISA, and said airport screening could be disrupted because TSA wouldn’t have other money to fall back on.

Much of the U.S. is enduring freezing temperatures and severe snowstorms that have blanketed portions of the nation, including Northeast ports, in ice. DHS oversees the Coast Guard, which has been crucial to breaking the ice in rivers and near ports to allow commerce to continue and protect against supply chain disruptions. 

“My job is to do everything I can in my power to make sure that doesn’t happen (lapse in funding), but it will be absolutely devastating to our country and our workforce if we don’t give our Department of Homeland Security every resource it needs to keep us safe,” Noem said. “This agency is the second-largest agency in the federal government outside the Department of War.”

The federal government emerged from its longest government shutdown on the books, at 43 days, in November, when travelers faced air travel delays as TSA agents, who fall under DHS’ umbrella, as well as air traffic controllers, who operate under the FAA, worked without pay. TSA would once again go unpaid if DHS faces a funding lapse.

“Those individuals every day are scanning hundreds of thousands of people that are traveling every year,” Noem said of TSA agents. “Tens of millions of folks that get on our airlines and planes and travel with our families and go from city to city. They make sure that it’s done so safely. They would not be funded.”

Democrats have railed against the Trump administration for its crackdown on illegal immigrants, most notably in the last two months as federal agents converged on Minnesota to carry out arrests of violent illegal immigrants. Two Americans were fatally shot amid separate confrontations with federal law enforcement in January, heightening protests and clashes targeting ICE and Border Patrol as Democrats claimed the government had blood on its hands over the deaths. 

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY: LITTLE LOVE IN THE AIR AS UNCERTAINTY SWIRLS ON THE HILL

“Federal immigration agents cannot continue to cause chaos in our cities while using taxpayer money that should be used to make life more affordable for working families. The American people rightfully expect their elected representatives to take action to rein in ICE and ensure no more lives are lost,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote in a letter to their Republican counterparts outlining 10 demands for ICE reforms in order to fund DHS.

The demands include ICE requiring agents to not wear masks, that the agency uphold use of force standards, ensure state and local coordination, and prohibit funds from being used to conduct enforcement at sensitive locations such as schools, among other demands. 

“This list of demands is incredible,” Noem said, also describing the demands as “extreme.” “I think the one that most everybody recognizes is a non-starter is the judicial warrants.”

Noem said there’s no established Title 8 process, which is the primary U.S. legal code governing immigration, for obtaining judicial warrants after final removal orders, and that courts have upheld the use of administrative warrants, arguing Democrats are demanding changes that don’t fit current law or practice.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt noted during Thursday’s briefing that a potential lapse in funding to DHS would rock an agency charged with overseeing security apparatuses far beyond just ICE, pointing to FEMA, the Coast Guard and the Secret Service that all fall under the DHS umbrella. 

“President Trump and his entire Administration have been clear: we will not waver when implementing the President’s electoral mandate to enforce federal immigration law,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fox Digital on Friday when asked about a potential lapse. “Democrats should not hold funding hostage for disaster relief as many Americans continue to recover from winter storms.”

NOEM SLAMS DEMS, BIDEN ADMINISTRATION FOR LACKING ‘COMPASSION’ AMID ANTI-ICE TENSIONS

Noem, who served in the U.S. Congress representing South Dakota for eight years before her tenure as the Mount Rushmore State’s governor, added that Democrats using the appropriations process to force policy changes was improper. She said if they want to change how the department operates, they should do it through stand-alone legislation and an open policy debate. 

“The appropriations process should be a funding and debate and budget process, which the House did. They did their appropriations bill and sent it to the Senate. Now the Democrats are trying to hijack that to do policy, and if they really want to have a debate and have policy and what the department is doing, the appropriate way to do that is through legislation, is to have the debate there,” she said.