"You Are INCOMPETENT!" Sen. Cory Booker Calls out DHS Secretary Noem in Explosive Senate Hearing

[0:00] thank you mr chairman secretary noem you're in charge of your agency the buck stops with you [0:06] correct i'm in charge of my agency what the buck stops with you yes correct and you had to swear [0:13] an oath uh to the constitution before you took this job right correct so one of the most sacrosanct [0:22] ideals of our nation enshrined in our constitution is freedom is liberty it is an idea that the [0:31] government has a very high standard should they take away liberty and freedom for an american [0:39] citizen how many u.s citizens has dhs detained as of last october uh senator if you're talking [0:50] about detained and arrested is that those that have been violating and obstructing our law enforcement [0:55] operations is that what you're referencing because it could be hundreds and hundreds we have faced [1:00] violent riots across the country you are specifically in portland the only people you've [1:06] detained are committing crimes but you and i both know i haven't said that so then how many people [1:12] referencing have you detained i can't give you an accurate number because we've literally detained [1:17] and arrested many for those obstruction of law enforcement operations but public records let me [1:22] tell you what my my staff research and then release may i may i continue public records are showing that [1:29] over 170 incidents of your agency unlawfully taking away the liberties and freedoms of american citizens [1:41] this includes 20 children 20 american kids that your agency detained how long can your agency detain an [1:53] american citizen we don't we don't detain children and separate them from their parents those parents [1:58] have chosen you're telling me to keep their child with them i just want to be clear you're telling me under [2:02] oath right now that your agency has not detained american children those parents have chosen to [2:08] keep their children with them we don't separate families like the biden administration let me [2:12] continue we keep them together and parents have the option on if they want their child with them or not [2:17] with them last when you detain an american citizen how long do they last we don't detain american citizens [2:24] and we if there's probable cause let me let me give you because you are not speaking truthfully under [2:30] oath isaiah's pena salcedo u.s citizen living in california was detained more than 70 hours almost three days [2:41] even after he showed ice agents his passport my colleague senator bluenthal gave you example after [2:49] example he brought people here who had something else we americans consider sacrosanct our home our property [2:58] your masked agents jumping out of unmarked cars have broken into considerable property damage occurring [3:06] into american citizens homes case after case of this and you sit here before me and claim the buck stops [3:15] with you but you don't even know the names of these individuals i ran new jersey's largest municipal police [3:21] department when my officers engaged in misconduct you can be damn well sure i knew about it and i [3:29] investigated it and yet you have situations where your officers are violating the sanctity of people's [3:37] homes arresting and detaining them arresting and detaining them and holding their children and [3:45] you're acting as if you don't know about it and saying that under oath miramar martinez who is here [3:54] right now on her way to church an american citizen going to church not just to worship but to donate clothing [4:06] your officers shot her multiple times the case was thrown out of court and you represent here that you [4:15] don't know about it in new jersey are you aware of your officers activities in places like schools are [4:26] you aware of your officers activities at our public schools sir we don't go into schools and do targeted [4:33] law enforcement operations we do targeted law enforcement operations like other agencies so you're [4:39] telling me that ice officers entered the grounds of a high school in Minneapolis that's a fact elementary [4:46] school children in new jersey are terrified of your agents when they came upon a school bus stop they [4:53] fled another school higher education columbia university your agents reportedly lied to students [5:00] told them they were searching for a missing person to gain access to private spaces to non-public areas of [5:06] campus secretary noem these are kids they're terrified in our communities how do you think that affects them [5:18] when children in my state go running fleeing and often you all pursue children throwing them to the [5:26] ground getting on their backs putting them in handcuffs i i want to talk to you about this incredible [5:37] empire of for-profit companies that are profiting at rates we've never seen and the way you're using [5:45] money let's let's let's let's drill down on the warehouses that dhs has been buying over the last several [5:53] months totaling hundreds of millions of dollars are you familiar with the acquisition of a warehouse [6:00] dhs recently bought in roxbury township new jersey yes you you are familiar with that i'm i'm familiar [6:08] how much you spent for it no sir i do not 129.3 million dollars do you know how much it was assessed for [6:18] in new jersey sir we're purchasing uh centers across the country to build efficiency into our detention [6:24] system efficiency so that we as a person who's run tight budgets before and had taxpayer dollars [6:31] you paid 129.3 million dollars for a facility in my state that was assessed at less than half of that [6:38] at 62 million dollars to work for a president says he's a great deal maker i can't believe he thinks that [6:45] you're a great deal maker but what's worse than that is that the roxbury township council comprised [6:52] entirely of republicans voted unanimously earlier this year to oppose that facility my office tried [6:59] to facilitate a meeting between dhs and local officials so that ice could hear their concerns [7:05] yet dhs did not even respond that is unacceptable that you all would enter a town you wouldn't even [7:13] follow environmental reviews or have conversations with local officials about the resources from emergency [7:21] resources to fire resources and more that you're going to pull down you didn't even have a conversation [7:26] so you know do you comply with court orders yes we do comply your agency complies with court orders [7:35] yes we have we we comply with we're saying under oath that you do and yet we know in january the [7:43] chief judge republican appointed for the federal district of minnesota find that ice had violated nearly [7:49] 100 100 court orders since january 1st alone in my state of new jersey last month the chief of staff [7:58] the deputy attorney general admitted in my state that new jersey district court in the new jersey [8:05] district court that the government had violated 52 separate court orders all involving cases where [8:12] immigrants successfully challenged the legality of their detention so is this again is a constitution that [8:20] you swore an oath to and one of the most important ideals is that no one is above the law you are [8:28] violating the separation of powers violating court orders and routinely violating the civil rights of [8:35] americans this is a reckless and out of control agency that you are responsible for you seem to have no [8:45] situational awareness whatsoever of some of the most egregious examples of americans being completely [8:55] attacked violated undermined in accordance with our laws by their own government and this is what is [9:04] phenomenal to me is immigration was your president's number one issue overwhelmingly popular with the [9:12] american people but now it's overwhelmingly unpopular and it's not because you are deporting dangerous [9:20] people that everybody here wants out of our country no it's because you're going into our schools [9:27] you're terrorizing our children you're detaining children you're arresting americans you're [9:33] breaking into our homes you're terrorizing our streets you're violating our rights to peacefully [9:39] protest again and again and again and then when a court tells you none of that is true and then [9:45] when a court you are trying to impede us from enforcing the law and getting dangerous criminals off of [9:51] our streets so we don't have more families like the ones that are sitting behind there and tell me [9:56] that you're responsible gone forever for the running of your agency when you're not even aware either [10:01] you are utterly incompetent or you are violating laws with impunity you should step down from your [10:08] position if you don't you should be removed by this president and if not congress should impeach you [10:14] i appreciate the encouragement