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The Situation Room

National Security Officials Testify Before Congress. Aired 11- 11:30a ET

Aired December 11, 2025 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[11:00:00]

REP. LOU CORREA (D-CA): To serve and possibly give up their life for this country.

We will play a video on this as well, please.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Masked federal agents were filmed pinning a man to the ground and repeatedly striking him in the head and neck before putting him in an unmarked car. The man in the video has been identified as Narciso Barranco and is the father of two active duty Marines and one Marine veteran.

The Department of Homeland Security said an illegal alien was arrested by Border Patrol agents after he -- quote -- "assaulted federal law enforcement," adding that Barranco -- quote -- "swung a weedwacker directly at an agent's face."

Video shared by DHS and reviewed by CNN shows Barranco running with a weedwacker, but does not show him striking officers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORREA: I also have with us today Alex Barranco behind you, a retired Marine. That's his father.

And, Alex, on behalf of myself, members here, I want to thank you for your service to our country. And we also thank your brothers for serving our great country. Thank you very much.

Got another case, George Retes, 25-year-old, native of California, my home state. He's a U.S. citizen, Army veteran who served in Iraq. On his way to work, he came to an immigration checkpoint, pulled over. I don't know where. Officers deployed tear gas on him, broke his car window, pepper-spayed him and dragged him out of his car.

An American citizen held for 72 hours without any charges, wasn't even given the opportunity to shower, to wash off that pepper spray.

REP. ANDREW GARBARINO (R-NY): The gentleman's time has expired.

I now recognize the gentleman from Mississippi, Mr. Guest.

CORREA: Mr. Chairman, I have two articles I'd like to present for the record.

(CROSSTALK)

CORREA: Under President Trump, an agency intended to keep Americans safe has diverted resources from child abuse, trafficking and terrorism, immigration enforcement. Second is this letter from my Orange County sheriff, Don Barnes, essentially talking about all the individuals under Prop 50 referred to ICE, 20, 25 year today, 50 of them.

ICE never showed up to pick them up.

GARBARINO: Without objection.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Chairman...

(CROSSTALK)

GARBARINO: I will entertain -- I will entertain U.C.s at the end of the hearing. I will entertain all U.C. motions at the end of the hearing. We have witnesses. I want to make sure everybody has time. So, if we do this now, we do -- if a witness has to leave, you're just going to be taking time from other members.

But I will entertain U.C. motions at the end of this hearing.

I now recognize the gentleman from Mississippi, Mr. Guest, for five minutes.

REP. MICHAEL GUEST (R-MS): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Madam Secretary, it's great to see you again. Thanks for appearing before us again. I want to echo some of the remarks of Mr. McCaul. I want to first thank you. I want to thank the men and women who serve under your command for the incredible job that you have done over the last 12 months.

We have seen that you are active in enforcing the rule of law. We have seen a border that is as secure in our lifetime as we have ever seen. You mentioned in your opening statement, over the last four years, we saw somewhere between 15 to 20 million illegal immigrants enter the country.

Just looking at monthly statistical data, we know that, under the Biden/Harris administration, that, in December of 2024, that there were over 300,000 illegal immigrants who were encountered along the southern border in that month alone.

Recent statistics by the Department of Homeland Security for October, the most recent statistics we have, show that the number of border encounters for October of this year under your leadership have dropped to 11,000, a decrease of 90 -- over 95 percent.

And so I want to thank you for that. I want to thank you for the work that your men and women have done to protect our borders from illegal narcotics entering the country. We saw a press release the Coast Guard sent out this week regarding Operation Pacific Viper.

And they mentioned a specific seizure that occurred on December the 2nd by the Coast Guard cutter Monroe, in which, in a single incident of interdiction, that the Coast Guard had the largest maritime interdiction seizure in almost 20 years, seizing 20,000 pounds of cocaine in an individual seizure.

So I thank you for your aggressive actions in enforcing the law and for the incredible work that you and the men and women under your command are doing.

[11:05:05]

I want to talk about -- as we talk about threats, I want to talk about threats against law enforcement. Last week, this committee, we had a hearing. The hearing was entitled When Badges Become Targets.

And during that hearing, we talked about the threats to law enforcement, specifically federal law enforcement, and even specifically within federal law enforcement, the threats toward ICE agents, the threats toward you and other members of leadership within DHS.

We know that those threats and those incidents of physical attack have escalated dramatically, in some cases over 1000 percent. And part of the driving force, I believe, behind those threats is what I refer to as rhetoric against law enforcement. And I brought this up last week. I want to bring this up again with you and give you a chance to briefly address this.

These are just roughly 10 of the statements that I was able to easily find online by elected officials, governors, mayors, in many cases members of Congress, where they were spewing what I believe to be very harmful statements toward law enforcement.

Governor Pritzker from -- claimed that ICE is grabbing people off the street and disappearing them, that our country is becoming Nazi Germany. Representative Crockett compared ICE to slave patrols. Representative Garcia referred to ICE as thugs.

Representative Ramirez attacked ICE as a terror force, later a terrorist organization, and then later in the hearings said:"Let me be clear. The Department of Homeland Security, you can quote me on that, is the single biggest threat to public safety right now."

Representative Tlaib said ICE is terrorizing our community, turning our country into a fascist police state. Representative Jayapal has called ICE agents deranged and said is inspiring to obstruct immigration enforcement.

Governor Walz smeared ICE agents as modern-day Gestapo. Chicago Mayor Johnson accused ICE of being secret police and terrorizing our community. Representative Lynch referred to ICE agents as the Gestapo and nondescript thugs. And Representative (INAUDIBLE) compared ICE operations to some of the worst horrors and crimes against humanity in history. And, so Secretary Noem, I'd like to give you a few moments to, one,

address these statements and to speak to how these statements place the safety of our men and women of law enforcement at risk.

KRISTI NOEM, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Thank you, Congressman Guest. I appreciate you giving me the chance to talk about this, because I think the words that these elected officials have used to describe our law enforcement officers are horrific, shocking, and unacceptable.

Every single American citizen should find the words that they have used to describe these men and women that took an oath to keep us safe unacceptable, and needs to be pointed out that we are seeing the consequences of those words every single day by the violent attacks, 1000 percent increase in violent attacks...

GARBARINO: The gentleman's time has expired.

NOEM: ... 8000 percent in death threats. Unacceptable.

GARBARINO: Gentlemen's time expired.

I now recognize the gentlemen from Michigan Mr. Thanedar for five minutes.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: All right, we're going to take a quick break, and as we continue to monitor this hearing with the DHS secretary, Noem.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:13:02]

BROWN: All right, let's listen back in to this hearing with Secretary Noem of DHS and other law enforcement and intelligence officials.

GARBARINO: Witnesses are entitled to answer those questions. Members are entitled to reclaim their time. So let's -- we're going to have questions and answers. Please allow it. You can reclaim your time if you want. But witnesses are here voluntarily. Please at least give them a chance to answer the questions that you're asking.

I now recognize the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Pfluger for five minutes of questions.

REP. AUGUST PFLUGER (R-TX): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And it's unfortunate that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle for five straight years now have no concern for anything worldwide threats-wise, and have proven that.

We're supposed to be talking about worldwide threats. But, unfortunately, we're talking about homeland threats, threats in our homeland.

And, Director, can you just reaffirm the number for us of people that match the terror watch list that are in our country?

JOSEPH KENT, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL COUNTERTERRORISM CENTER: There's 18,000 known and suspected terrorists in the country right now that came in under Joe Biden's watch.

PFLUGER: Eighteen thousand.

KENT: Eighteen thousand.

PFLUGER: That's unbelievable. It's unbelievable.

KENT: And that's just what we know of, Congressman.

PFLUGER: Secretary, despite even members on this committee that have called our law enforcement and ICE and DHS and Border Patrol and other agents names and slandered them, I support you and I support what you're doing to secure the homeland.

The Working Families Tax Act allocated $13.5 billion to the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice to reimburse states for the cost of the Biden/Harris administration's open border policies. No state suffered more than Texas.

Fentanyl, drug and human trafficking, violent crime, stress on local emergency response services caused substantial damage to my district, to our state, to my constituents, to people that live and work in Texas. And in response, our state launched Operation Lone Star to secure the border when the Biden administration abdicated their responsibility to do that.

We built miles of border wall. We had other barriers. We deployed State Troopers, National Guard to deter the invasion that we suffered during this time period, which cost our state over $11 billion. And so as part of this Working Families Tax Act, we allocated $13.5 billion to reimburse those states.

[11:15:17]

Last month, along with our senators, I led the Republican Texas delegation in sending a letter to you and Attorney General Bondi highlighting this and requesting that the state of Texas be fully reimbursed.

And I wanted to get a status on that reimbursement today.

NOEM: Yes, thank you. And we are -- we still to this day remain incredibly grateful to the state of Texas for their leadership during that time. That was challenging times, devastating times for what we saw happening down there.

And Texas stepped up in a way that was absolutely incredible. So, yes, those dollars are being formulated and allocated. If you remember, many states deployed their National Guard down there. I was governor of South Dakota at that time, and my National Guard was deployed down there as well. So, reconciling the costs for every single state and looking at that

allocation, we're making sure we're doing due diligence to make sure that it's appropriated correctly.

PFLUGER: And just to be clear, I want to make sure that money does come in the form of the reimbursement to Texas.

NOEM: That's what we're working with the White House on doing, sir.

PFLUGER: OK.

What -- when it comes to what Director Kent talked about, these 18,000 people, can you give us an idea of who these people are, what type of threat they pose to us? We saw it wasn't some accident. This was an assassination and a murder. It was not an accident, despite my colleague saying that it was an accident.

It was a murder and an assassination of a National Guard hero. So what other types of threats are you tracking and preventing from happening?

NOEM: Yes, I would say, sir, that we face the terrorists that we have faced for years in ISIS, al Qaeda, Hamas, individuals that are here that are radicalized, but also we face the cartels as they have infiltrated our country under the last administration, their proliferation of human trafficking, drugs, and violence,going after Tren de Aragua as well, MS-13.

Those individuals are still a very real clear danger every day on the streets. And we encounter them, arrest them, and deport them, and bring them to justice each and every day. Beyond that, sir, you even have gangs in cities that are localized that are terrorist organizations.

The Latin Kings in Chicago are absolutely terrorists to their communities, and we work every day to make sure that we're protecting those communities. So I could not prioritize one over another because they're all killers. They're all killers. And they all are destroying families each and every day.

PFLUGER: For both of you and Director Kent, do terrorist organizations around the world, such as ISIS, al Qaeda, and others still have an intent to attack America, to attack our homeland, to utilize every method?

NOEM: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Our intelligence and our information that we deal with every single day is addressing those threats on our streets here in the United States.

PFLUGER: Director Kent, can you give us an idea of what those tactics, techniques, and procedures could be that we are -- need to stay alert of?

KENT: Honestly, the attacks of October 7, the decentralized and just barbaric nature of that, is the new terrorist playbook. They're not looking necessarily for a spectacular attack like we had

on 9/11, but targets of opportunity, like we tragically saw with the terrorist attack in Washington, D.C., these smaller cells or even individual operatives taking action.

That's what has us very concerned, combined with just the sheer volume.

PFLUGER: My time has expired. Secretary, thank you for your commitment to reimburse Texas.

I yield back.

GARBARINO: Gentlemen's time has expired. I now recognize the gentleman from Rhode Island, Ms. Magaziner, for five minutes of questions.

REP. SETH MAGAZINER (D-RI): Madam Secretary, how many United States military veterans have you deported?

NOEM: Sir, we have not deported U.S. citizens or military veterans.

MAGAZINER: I don't believe you have served in the military. I haven't either. But I think you and I can agree that, as Americans, we owe everything to those who have served our country in uniform, particularly those who have served in combat. Do you agree with that?

NOEM: Sir, I believe that people that are in this United States that are citizens have legal status here. Those...

MAGAZINER: Madam Secretary, we are joined on Zoom by a gentleman named Sae Joon Park. He is a United States Army combat veteran who was shot twice while serving our country in Panama in 1989.

Like many veterans, he struggled with PTSD and substance abuse after his service. He was arrested in the 1990s for some minor drug offenses, nothing serious. He never hurt anyone besides himself, and he's been clean and sober for 14 years.

He is a combat veteran, a Purple Heart recipient. He has sacrificed more for this country than most people ever have. Earlier this year, you deported him to Korea, a country he hasn't lived in since he was 7 years old.

Will you join me in thanking Mr. Park for his service to our country?

NOEM: Sir, I'm grateful for every single person that has served our country and follows our laws and knows that our law is important and every one of them needs to be enforced.

MAGAZINER: And can you please tell Mr. Park why you deported him?

[11:20:03]

But you understand that many veterans struggle with PTSD. Many veterans struggle with substance abuse challenges. This man took two bullets for our country. Will you -- you have broad authority, by the way, as secretary to issue humanitarian parole, to do deferred action.

Will you commit to at least looking at Mr. Park's case to see if you can help him find a pathway back to this country that he sacrificed so much for?

NOEM: I will absolutely look at his case.

But I want you to remember that our...

(CROSSTALK)

MAGAZINER: Madam Secretary, the man behind you -- please stand up, sir -- his name is Jim Brown from Troy, Missouri.

He is a Navy combat veteran who served our country in the Gulf. war he's married to a woman named Donna who came to our country legally from Ireland when she was 11 years old. She has lived here for 48 years. Because of you, Jim's wife, Donna, has been in prison for the last four months.

She did not come here illegally. And she has never committed any crime other than writing two bad checks totaling $80 10 years ago. She is currently in prison and facing deportation.

Ms. Noem, will you thank Mr. Brown for his service to our country?

NOEM: Thank you, Mr. Brown, for your service to our country.

MAGAZINER: Now, what possible explanation can there be for locking up his wife for four months when she has committed no crime other than writing a couple of bad checks for $80?

NOEM: Sir, it is not my prerogative my latitude or my job to pick and choose which laws in this country get enforced.

MAGAZINER: You have broad discretion as the secretary. You can issue parole. You can do all kinds of things.

NOEM: We need to follow the law and enforce the laws.

MAGAZINER: But you're choosing not to.

Will you commit again to just reviewing Donna's case and reuniting this combat veteran with his beloved wife, who also loves this country?

NOEM: I will review the case.

MAGAZINER: Now, Madam Secretary, you have already heard the story of Lance corporal Alejandro Barranco, the United States Marine veteran who is behind you who also has two brothers who are United States Marines.

Will you thank Lance Corporal Barranco for his service?

NOEM: Thank you for your service. MAGAZINER: His father, Narciso Barranco, is a landscaper in California who has lived peacefully in our country for 30 years and has no criminal record.

Last spring, while he was mowing the lawn at an IHOP, ICE agents tackled him in the street and imprisoned him for weeks, a peaceful, hardworking man who raised three sons to be United States Marines.

We need men of that character in this country. Again, as secretary, you have broad discretion. Will you consider Lance Corporal Barranco's father for parole in place to stay in our country, owing to the fact that he has contributed to our country by raising three United States Marines?

NOEM: This is an opportunity to remind everybody that every person that's in this country illegally has an opportunity to voluntarily go home and come back the right way.

MAGAZINER: Oh. Three -- he raised three United States Marines.

NOEM: Follow our laws and we will facilitate that.

MAGAZINER: He has been living here peacefully, doing his job for 30 years. You have discretion. You are choosing not to use it.

Madam Secretary, you promised America that you would go after the worst of the worst. But these people are not the worst of the worst, a Purple Heart recipient, a military spouse, the father of three Marines. And it's not just veterans and military families.

You are locking up and deporting children with cancer, mothers with babies in the NICU, United States citizens. You do -- there are many problems with your leadership, but the biggest problem is this. You don't seem to know how to tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys.

Go after the bad guys. Go after the terrorists. Do not go after veterans, Marines, children, United States citizens.

GARBARINO: The gentleman's time has expired.

MAGAZINER: I yield back.

GARBARINO: Gentleman's time has expired.

I now recognize the gentlelady...

BROWN: A fiery line of questioning there from Representative Magaziner.

We're going to take a quick break and we will be right

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:28:35] BROWN: All right, as we continue to monitor this hearing, we see Representative Greene there questioning DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, as well as other officials in the Trump administration.

So, as we continue to monitor this, I want to bring in senior reporter Daniel Dale to look at some of the facts and what has been said during this hearing.

And, Daniel, one of the things we have heard during this hearing from Kristi Noem is 15 to 20 million crossed the southern border under the Biden administration. Give us the facts.

DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: So that range is too high. We know that the number is in the millions. There was an influx of asylum seekers during the Biden administration.

But official federal data shows that there were under 11 million so- called encounters with migrants at the southern border during the Biden administration. And, critically, that includes millions who were rapidly expelled from the country, many of whom who tried more than once. So that's not even 11 million people.

Even if you add in these so-called got-aways, people who evaded detection, estimated by House Republicans at about 2.2 million under Biden, that still doesn't get you close to a 20 million number that Secretary Noem and President Trump keep using.

BROWN: Let's also go to the sound from Secretary Noem about American citizens and whether they have been detained or deported under the Trump administration. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAGAZINER: Madam Secretary, how many United States military veterans have you deported?

NOEM: Sir, we have not deported U.S. citizens or military veterans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: What can you tell us about that in terms of detaining and deporting Americans?