DHS Secretary at Her Best? Says President Trump can deport who he wants, botches what ‘habeas corpus’ means
CNBC reports on the botch by Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem at a hearing before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee today. Noem was the governor of South Dakota and provoked controversy when she wrote in her book (No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward) that she had killed her dog Cricket. According to the DHS website, Noem was a member of Congress and was governor. “A South Dakota native, Secretary Noem is a rancher, farmer, small business owner, and proud mother and grandmother.”
Noem is clearly not a lawyer. At the Senate committee hearing, Senator Maggie Hassan (D-New Hampshire), who is a lawyer, asked Secretary Noem the following question:
“Secretary Noem, what is habeas corpus?”
“Well, habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country,” Noem replied.
“That’s incorrect,” Hassan interjected. “Habeas corpus is the foundational right that separates free societies like America from police states like North Korea.”
In response to a request for comment on Noem’s claim, DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin told CNBC, “Secretary Noem was right: Presidents have suspended habeas corpus in practice—Lincoln, Grant, FDR, and Bush—all during moments of crisis. Technically, Congress holds that power under the Constitution, but in reality, presidents have acted first, and legal authority followed. The precedent is real.”
Food for thought all the way around.
It has long been clear that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is wholly unqualified to uphold that responsibility, but nowhere was it more apparent than Tuesday on Capitol Hill.
♀️ https://t.co/X84ncE1Npo https://t.co/MLCvHY9LEg pic.twitter.com/RTZS6syc61
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) May 20, 2025
UPDATE (May 21):
There has been lots of piling on of Secretary Noem for the errors in her testimony. Hayes Brown’s criticism on MSNBC was particularly scathing about her lack of basic knowledge but went further of her dangers to the nation:
“Noem on paper reports to nobody but the president. Likewise, on paper she’s the one who has operational control over ICE and Customs and Border Protection. But it is obvious that when it comes to immigration, her marching orders come primarily from White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. And Miller hasn’t been shy about his belief that habeas could be suspended to fight the imagined invasion threat. . . . Noem’s willingness to perform as a White House puppet makes her much more dangerous than any other secretary in her department’s brief history. . . . Noem’s apparent ignorance is cause for mockery, yes, but also for alarm: the dread of seeing a loaded firearm in the hands of someone entirely unsure how it works.” (bold added).
Can Secretary Noem survive?
KJ