‘Your Department Is Out Of Control’: Senator Unloads on DHS Chief
Connecticut Democrat criticizes Noem for ignoring the rule of law and US Constitution
An outspoken Democratic senator from Connecticut slammed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem this week when she appeared before a Senate subcommittee.
Sen Chris Murphy harshly criticized Noem and her department for ignoring the rights and due process for migrants in the United States, as well as for ignoring the power of the purse, a constitutional role of Congress.
Noem testified before senators Thursday on Donald Trump’s budget request for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for the forthcoming federal fiscal year.
Murphy slammed the administration for flagrantly ignoring money appropriated by Congress and the legal rights of immigrants, warning such actions undermine both the Constitution and the rule of law.
“I say this with seriousness and respect, but your department is out of control,” Murphy said. “You are spending like you don’t have a budget. You are on the verge of running out of money for the fiscal year. You are illegally refusing to spend funds that have been authorized by this Congress and appropriated by this committee. You are ignoring the immigration laws of this nation, implementing a brand-new immigration system that you have invented that has little relation to the statutes that you are required – that you are commanded – to follow as spelled out in your oath of office.
“You are routinely violating the rights of immigrants who may not be citizens, but whether you like it or not, have constitutional and statutory rights when they reside in the United States,” he added. “Your agency acts as if laws don’t matter, as if the election gave you some mandate to violate the Constitution and the laws passed by this Congress. It did not give you that mandate. You act as if your disagreement with the law – or even the public’s disagreement with the law – is relevant and gives you the ability to create your own law. It does not give you that ability.”
Murphy explained how Noem’s spending of federal funds is going to bankrupt DHS while leaving the nation vulnerable to cyber-attacks and putting communities at greater risk for severe storm damage.
“You're on track to trigger the Anti-Deficiency Act. That means you are going to spend more money than you have been allocated by Congress. This is a rare occurrence, and it is wildly illegal,” the senator said. “Your agency will be broke by July, over two months before the end of the fiscal year. You may not think that Congress has provided enough money to ICE, but the Constitution and the federal law doesn’t allow you to spend more money than you've been given, or to invent money.
“And this obsession with spending at the border, as the chairwoman mentioned, has left the country unprotected elsewhere,” Murphy added. “The security threats to the United States are higher, not lower, than before Trump came to office. To fund the border, you have illegally gutted spending for cybersecurity. As we speak, Russian and Chinese hackers are having a field day attacking our nation.
“You have withdrawn funds for disaster prevention. Storms are going to kill more people in this country because of your illegal withholding of these funds,” Murphy added. “Your myopia about the border, fueled by President Trump's prejudice against people who speak a different language, has shattered many of this country's most important defenses.”
Murphy also blasted the administration for targeting and deporting legal immigrants and student protesters without due process, including Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was whisked off the street by federal agents and wrongly imprisoned in a brutal prison in El Salvador.
The Trump administration has been ignoring a US Supreme Court order to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States.
“Finally, let's talk about these disappearances. In an autocratic society, people who the regime does not like, or people who are protesting the regime, they are just often picked up off the street, spirited away, sometimes to open-ended detention, sometimes they are never seen again,” Murphy said. “What you are doing, both to individuals who have legal rights to stay here, like Kilmar Abrego Garcia, or students, who are just protesting Trump’s policies, is immoral. And to follow the theme, it is illegal.
“You have no right to deport a student visa holder with no due process simply because they have spoken in a way that offends the president. You cannot remove migrants who a court has given humanitarian protection from removal. Now, reports suggest that you're planning to remove immigrants with no due process and send them to prisons in Libya,” Murphy added. “Libya is in the middle of a civil war. It is subject to a level four travel advisory, meaning we tell American citizens never to travel to Libya. We don't have an embassy there, because it is not safe for our diplomats.
“Sending migrants with pending asylum claims into a war zone just because it's cruel is so deeply disturbing.”
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