The US congresswoman Delia Ramirez, one of the most vocal pro-immigrant national lawmakers, pressed for the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kristi Noem, to resign during a “combative” closed-door meeting between the two on Wednesday, according to a Guardian interview with the representative and a follow-up letter submitted to Noem.
The meeting was the first one-on-one private meeting that Noem has had with a Democratic member of Congress since her tenure at the top of the DHS began last year.
Ramirez, a Democrat representing Illinois, has repeatedly called for Noem’s resignation throughout the second Trump administration and also took the first steps last month for Noem’s impeachment.
Ramirez said on Wednesday that the meeting in Washington DC earlier in the day turned “combative” after she brought up various criticisms of the DHS, including giving examples of its officers’ use of force against immigrants and protesters, lack of due process for people arrested, and violations of court orders. Noem started “playing dumb”, Ramirez said in an interview with the Guardian by phone.
“I needed to look at evil in the eye and make sure she understood that I will continue to work and ensure she no longer leads the department,” Ramirez said.
The meeting came as Washington grapples with a partial government shutdown affecting the DHS, as the White House and Senate Democrats battle over certain provisions to fund the department. Democrats are pushing for some changes to immigration enforcement tactics after federal officers killed two US citizen protesters during weeks of fierce clashes as it flooded Minneapolis with masked personnel in military garb.
The DHS has fallen under heightened scrutiny for its aggressive anti-immigrant crackdown throughout the country. Under Noem’s leadership, agencies within the department have escalated immigration enforcement operations nationwide, leading to a backlash from many voters and mass demonstrations.
The department has also received significant pushback from lawmakers and the public in response to recent killings by DHS officers during immigration arrest operations. In the past year, the Trump administration has also granted the DHS widespread powers to carry out immigration-related arrests and is in the process of expanding its immigrant detention network.
“It went as I expected it would go,” Ramirez said, adding that “my position on her leadership has not changed”, with the representative continuing to push for Noem’s resignation, impeachment or firing.
The DHS responded on Wednesday night.
“Secretary Noem meets with members of Congress, regardless of political party, on a regular basis,” a DHS spokesperson responded via email to the Guardian. “This meeting honored a commitment the Secretary made during her hearing in December.
“We hope that the Congresswoman puts the same amount of energy into funding DHS so we can do our work to protect Americans from threats from terrorists, criminals and public safety threats as she has writing letters to the Secretary to resign. Every day this shutdown continues, Democrat members continue to get paid while they put our national security second to politics,” the statement added.
According to Ramirez, Noem refused during the Wednesday meeting to recognize facts and “viciously lied” when the representative brought up various examples of DHS officials allegedly violating the law or engaging in tactics seen as extremely aggressive and out of the expected norm for confrontations with immigration targets or non-violent protesters.
“The secretary was unwilling to accept all the ways that she continues to violate due process, violate the constitution, violate court orders,” Ramirez said. “It was a conversation in which she lied about what her agents are doing on the ground.”
A number of other top DHS officials were present at the meeting, Ramirez said.
The DHS spokesperson did not respond to specific questions on whether Noem had lied in the meeting about conduct by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the border patrol during the meeting.
The congresswoman reiterated that Noem should resign, warning that if she did not, she would either be impeached by Democrats in Congress or would probably be fired by Donald Trump. Outlets have reported on internal strife within the department, with top officials at odds over specific enforcement tactics, which have only heightened after the two deadly shootings in Minneapolis.
“I think that she knows that her days are numbered,” Ramirez said, when asked about why Noem decided to meet with her. “I think she knows that I have been one of the most vocal about specific ways that she has violated due process, violated the rule of law, engaged in corruption, and I am one of the members that has really been intentional on leading the charge to an actual coordinated strategy to get her impeached.”
Ramirez and other Democrats have called for Noem to re-establish areas to be protected from immigration enforcement operations. Early in the Trump administration, the department issued a memo allowing immigration officials to enter what are typically “protected areas”, including churches, hospitals and schools. In Ramirez’s letter submitted to Noem after their meeting, she cited an example from Chicago when federal agents handcuffed a local official in a hospital when attempting to arrest someone there.
Ramirez also pressed Noem on use-of-force policies. When Ramirez discussed a teargassing incident outside a Chicago school, Noem “acted like she had no idea” it had happened, Ramirez said.
The DHS did not specifically respond to questions on Noem’s response to Ramirez’s quizzing.
Noem has previously dismissed calls for impeachment, accusing “radicals” of attacking her for “just doing her job”.
