Homeland Security Secretary Noem defends Trump’s hard-line immigration policies during tense hearing

WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defiantly defended the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies on Thursday during a House committee hearing, portraying migrants as a major threat faced by the nation that justifies a crackdown that has seen widespread arrests, deportations and a dizzying pace of restrictions on foreigners.

Noem, who heads the agency central to President Donald Trump’s approach to immigration, received backup from Republicans on the panel but faced fierce questioning from Democrats — including many who called for her resignation over the mass deportation agenda.

The secretary's testimony was immediately interrupted by protesters shouting for her to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and “end deportations." They trailed her down the halls as she left early for another engagement, chanting, “Shame on you!”

But she vowed she “would not back down.”

“What keeps me up at night is that we don’t necessarily know all of the people that are in this country, who they are and what their intentions are,” Noem said.

The hearing was Noem's first public appearance before Congress in months, testifying at the House Committee on Homeland Security on “Worldwide Threats to the Homeland,” and it quickly grew heated as she emphasized how big a role she believed immigration played in those threats. It focused heavily on the Trump administration's immigration policies, whereas in years past the hearing has centered on issues such as cybersecurity, terrorism, China and border security.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the panel's ranking Democrat, said Noem has diverted vast taxpayer resources to carry out Trump’s “extreme” immigration agenda and failed to provide basic responses as Congress conducts its oversight.

“I call on you to resign,” the Mississippi congressman said. “Do a real service to the country.”

Trump returned to power with what the president says is a mandate to reshape immigration in the U.S. In the months since, the number of people in immigration detention has skyrocketed; the administration has continued to remove migrants to countries they are not from; and, in the wake of an Afghan national being accused of shooting two National Guard troops, Noem’s department has dramatically stepped up checks and screening of immigrants in the U.S.

Several Democrats repeatedly told Noem flatly that she was “lying” to them and to the public over claims they are focused on violent criminals. They presented cases of U.S. citizens being detained in immigration operations and families of American military veterans being torn apart by deportations of loved ones who have not committed serious crimes or other violations.

“You lie with impunity,” said Rep. Delia Rodriguez, D-Ill., who said Noem should resign or be impeached.

Republicans largely thanked Noem for the work the department is doing to keep the country safe and urged her to carry on.

“Deport them all,” said Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn.

Since Noem's last Congressional appearance in May, immigration enforcement operations, especially in Los Angeles and Chicago, have become increasingly contentious, with federal agents and activists frequently clashing over her department's tactics.

Noem did not address the calls to resign, but she tangled with the Democratic lawmakers -- interrupting some — and suggested that she and the department she leads weren’t going anywhere.

“We will never yield. We will never waver,” she said.

Noem, whose own family, including an infant granddaughter, was in the audience, praised the Trump administration’s efforts when it comes to immigration, saying, “We’re ending illegal immigration, returning sanity to our immigration system.”

During the hearing, a federal judge ordered the government to free Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose wrongful deportation to a notorious prison in El Salvador made him a flashpoint in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement. Noem did not address the judge’s order, nor was she asked about it during the hearing.

Noem left early, saying she was headed to a meeting of the Federal Emergency Management Agency review council. The meeting, however, was abruptly canceled with no reason given.

The worldwide threats hearing, usually held annually, is an opportunity for members of Congress to question the leaders of the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the National Counterterrorism Center.

FBI Director Kash Patel did not appear, but sent Michael Glasheen, operations director of the national security branch of the FBI.

Glasheen said the nation faces “serious and evolving” threats, and pointed to so-called antifa, and Trump's executive order designating the group as a domestic terror organization, as the “most immediate violent threat” facing the country.

Pressed by Thompson for details — where is antifa headquartered? How many members does it have? — the FBI's representative appeared unable to provide answers, saying it's “fluid” and investigations are “ongoing.”

And, notably, he did not identify immigration as among the most pressing concerns for the homeland.

Asked about the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast, Noem linked it to the Trump administration’s antidrug campaign in the region, saying cocaine had been kept from entering the U.S. as a result.

The hearing offered lawmakers a rare opportunity to hear directly from Noem, but many members of the panel used the bulk of their allotted time to either praise or lambast her handling of immigration enforcement.

During one sharp exchange, the secretary levied broad criticism for the program through which the man suspected of shooting two National Guard members last month came to the United States.

“Unfortunate accident?” Noem retorted after Thompson raised the issue. She called it a “terrorist attack.”

The program, Operation Allies Welcome, was created by then-President Joe Biden's Democratic administration after the 2021 decision to leave Afghanistan following 20 years of American intervention and billions of dollars in aid. Thompson pointed out that the Trump administration approved the asylum claim of the suspect in the National Guard attack.

Noem's department is under particular scrutiny because Congress in July passed legislation giving it roughly $165 billion to carry out its mass deportations agenda and secure the border. The department is getting more money to hire 10,000 more deportation officers, complete the wall between the U.S. and Mexico and increase detention and removal of foreigners from the country.

The secretary's appearance also comes as a federal judge is investigating whether she should face a contempt charge over flights carrying migrants to El Salvador.

From left, Joseph Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Michael Glasheen, operations director of the National Security Branch of the FBI, raise their arms before the House Committee on Homeland Security on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem leaves a hearing of the House Committee on Homeland Security on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appears before the House Committee on Homeland Security on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appears before the House Committee on Homeland Security on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem raise her arm before the House Committee on Homeland Security on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia and Ukraine traded deadly strikes overnight and on Saturday morning, killing 10 people and wounding several dozen more, officials on both sides said Saturday.

The attacks came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to Istanbul for talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He will also meet with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians.

“We are working to strengthen our partnership to ensure the real protection of lives, advance stability, and guarantee security in Europe and the Middle East. Joint efforts always yield the best results,” Zelenskyy said in a post on the messaging app Telegram after arriving in Istanbul.

Russia fired 286 drones at Ukraine overnight, 260 of which were downed, the Ukrainian Air Force said in an online statement.

Five people — three women and two men — were killed in the city of Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region, and 19 others were wounded, the head of the regional military administration Oleksandr Hanzha said. The attack damaged market stalls and a shop.

In the city of Sumy, not far from the border with Russia, a strike wounded 11 people, the National Police said. Residential areas were hit, and houses, cars and utility networks were damaged in the attack.

In the capital, Kyiv, a drone strike caused a fire on the first floor of a three-story office and warehouse building, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said. No casualties were reported.

In the partially occupied Donetsk region, a Russian drone strike hit a civilian car on the Kostyantynivka–Druzhkivka road on Saturday morning, killing one woman and wounding another, according to the head of the Kostyantynivka City Military Administration, Serhiy Horbunov.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed Saturday that its forces fired “long-range air- and ground-based precision weapons, as well as strike drones” at unspecified “military-industrial and energy facilities used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”

Meanwhile, the Russian-installed head of the occupied Luhansk region, Leonid Pasechnik, said Ukrainian forces hit railroad infrastructure in the region and private houses, killing a family of three — a couple and their 8-year-old child.

The Security Service of Ukraine, also known as the SBU, claimed it used drone strikes to halt production at a metallurgical plant in the Russian-occupied city of Alchevsk in the Luhansk region, most of which is controlled by the Russian forces.

The SBU said on its Facebook page that drone strikes damaged blast furnaces, key production workshops, distillation columns, gas pipelines and electrical substations that power the plant, which supplies Russia’s state tank and railroad car plant, Uralvagonzavod.

There was no immediate comment from Russian officials.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that the Russian military overnight shot down 85 Ukrainian drones over nine Russian regions, the annexed Crimea region and the Black Sea.

In Russia's Rostov region, on the border with Ukraine, one person was killed and four sustained injuries, according to the region's governor, Yuri Slyusar. The attack sparked a fire at a warehouse facility of an unspecified logistics company, and another fire on a dry-cargo vessel flying a foreign flag several kilometers from the shore, Slyusar said.

In the Samara region's city of Tolyatti, one person was wounded, Gov. Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said. The roof of a residential building was damaged and windows were shattered in several apartments, he said.

In this image made from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Saturday, April 4, 2026, a Russian T-72B3M tank fires towards Ukrainian position. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Saturday, April 4, 2026, rescue workers put out a fire of a residential building damaged following a Russian strike in Sumy, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Saturday, April 4, 2026, rescue workers put out a fire of a residential building damaged following a Russian strike in Sumy, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Saturday, April 4, 2026, rescue workers put out a fire of a residential building damaged following a Russian strike in Sumy, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Saturday, April 4, 2026, rescue workers put out a fire of a residential building damaged following a Russian strike in Sumy, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Saturday, April 4, 2026, rescue workers put out a fire of a residential building damaged following a Russian strike in Sumy, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)