At today's House Homeland Security Committee hearing, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) questioned DHS Sec. Kristi Noem about ICE agents wearing masks.
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00:00I want to yield the rest of my time to the gentleman from New York.
00:04Gentleman Yields, Mr. Goldman is recognized.
00:07Thank you, Mr. Tenadar.
00:08Secretary Noem, your opening statement includes a lot of data and numbers,
00:12but it doesn't mention asylum.
00:15How many people have claimed asylum since January 21st of this year?
00:22I don't have that number readily available to me right now,
00:25but I can get that for you.
00:26Do you have a sense?
00:27I don't.
00:28Dozens, hundreds, thousands?
00:30I don't.
00:31You are aware, are you not, that asylum is a lawful pathway into the country?
00:37I am.
00:38And are you aware of how and why the United States implemented our asylum laws?
00:45We grant asylum to individuals who are feeling threatened,
00:49specifically by their government,
00:50through violent activities that are perpetuated in their own home countries.
00:56Right, and it was originally implemented because Jews fleeing from the Holocaust
01:03were not allowed to seek refuge in this country,
01:06even though they clearly had no country to go to and had nowhere else to go.
01:11And those Jews in the Holocaust were rounded up frequently by the Gestapo in Nazi Germany,
01:20a secret undercover police unit that we know rounded up the Jews and sent them to the gas chambers.
01:29One of the things that I want to address with you briefly is I think you said your testimony was that agents who are wearing masks do so as part of their undercover disguise.
01:42Is that right?
01:42I said if the need arises to where they have activities that require them to be undercover at times
01:48or to protect their identity to continue their work and their duties.
01:51So if an agent is conducting an arrest and approaches an individual without their mask on,
01:59and then when alerted to being videotaped, puts their mask on,
02:04that's not to protect their identity from the individual who's being arrested, right?
02:09It could be, Congressman.
02:11I don't know the specifics of the situation.
02:13Is it the policy of the Department of Homeland Security now that undercover ICE agents are permitted to wear face masks
02:22when executing their official duties?
02:25Sir, it is allowed that they can if protecting their identity is an imperative part of it.
02:28Is it in the policies?
02:29Do you address face masks in the policies?
02:31We'll have to look and see if it's in our written policies.
02:33Because it's quite ironic, and I agree with the administration,
02:36that it's trying to ban face masks from anti-Semitic protests on campus,
02:41and yet our own law enforcement are wearing face masks to hide their identities.
02:46We are implementing the exact same policies that Joe Biden had in place.
02:50That is not any policy that I was aware of when I worked with the Department of Homeland Security.
02:54The gentleman's time has expired.
02:56The gentleman's time has expired.
02:57I recognize Mr. Knott for five minutes of questioning.
03:00Thank you, Mr. Chair.
03:01Madam Secretary, thank you.