The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement refused to defend Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem when asked if she should resign during a heated House hearing where Democrats intensified calls for Noem to step down.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons was asked by Rep. Tim Kennedy (D-NY) during the House Homeland Security Committee’s first oversight hearings of immigration agencies in more than a year if Noem should leave her post atop the government’s third-largest department. Lyons would not comment on Noem.
“The American people are angry, and they’re demanding accountability and justice from those giving the orders,” Kennedy said. “Mr. Lyons, yes or no. Do you believe that Secretary Noem should resign?”
Lyons paused for a second then said, “I’m not going to comment on that, sir.”
“So you’re going to look the families of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in the eye and tell them Secretary Noem should keep her job after their loved ones were killed?” Kennedy said.
“Sir, the loss of any life is unacceptable,” Lyons said, later adding that he would not comment on ongoing investigations into the January deaths of two U.S. citizens shot by ICE and U.S. Customs an Border Protection employees in Minneapolis.
Democrats repeatedly lamented Noem’s role in the Trump administration throughout the hearing, beginning with ranking member Rep. Bennie Thompson’s (D-MS) statement at the opening of the hearing. Noem, a former congresswoman and South Dakota governor, was confirmed by the Senate in January 2025.
“Since being sworn in, Secretary Noem has enriched herself, abused the power of her office, obstructed congressional oversight, and violated her oath to the Constitution,” Thompson said. “Secretary Noem is a liar with no concern for the lives of Americans killed by the Department she runs. She must go.”
Democrats were expected to focus their questions on Lyons and CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott on the shootings; the instructions that federal agents and officers in Minneapolis were given while making arrests; and what led to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s mischaracterization of the Pretti shooting.
Noem, DHS special government employee Corey Lewandowski, and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller are supportive of arresting as many illegal immigrants as possible through more aggressive means, while White House border czar Tom Homan, Scott, Lyons, and other senior federal law enforcement within DHS want to focus on violent criminals and go about it more carefully and tactfully. The Trump administration recently pivoted to more restrained tactics after Homan took over the Minnesota operation two weeks ago.
Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI) said recent events were reasons that ICE should be abolished, and he highlighted a bill that he cosponsored to impeach Noem.
“I believe Kristi Noem must be impeached and this Congress must do everything in its power to carry out oversight actions,” Thanedar said.
Rep. Nellie Pou (D-NJ) called on Noem to “step down or be impeached by the House” on the basis that she had “destroyed an agency whose very mission is to protect our country.”
Rep. Al Green (D-TX) waited until the end of the more than four-hour hearing to question the witnesses and ended with an emphatic call to prosecute Noem for describing Good and Pretti as domestic terrorists in her initial statements after their deaths.
“The secretary should not only be investigated, the secretary should be prosecuted,” Green said. “And you persons associated with Trump immigration, say, ‘Lock her up.’ I say lock her up.”
The term was a reference to “lock her up” chants that President Donald Trump frequently repeated about 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton while on the campaign trail a decade ago.
Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), who was federally indicted last year for assaulting a federal law enforcement officer outside an ICE facility in her home state, asked Lyons if he anticipated facing moral consequences for his leadership of ICE.
“Mr. Lyons, do you consider yourself a religious man?” McIver asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” Lyons said.
“Well, how do you think Judgment Day will work for you with so much blood on your hands?” McIver said.
“I’m not going to entertain that question,” Lyons said.
“OK, of course. Do you think you’re going to hell, Mr. Lyons?” McIver shot back.
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“I’m not going to answer that,” Lyons said.
House Homeland Security Chairman Andrew Garbarino then interrupted McIver’s questioning to cut off her questions as her time expired.
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