At Wednesday's House Homeland Security Committee hearing, Rep. Carlos A. Giménez (R-FL) questioned DHS Sec. Kristi Noem.
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00:00Thank you, Madam Secretary, for the fine work that you've done. I also want to thank you for
00:04approving the members on this side of the aisle, myself included, in our assertion through the
00:11last four years that what happened at the southern border was done willfully and purposely
00:18by the Biden administration because nobody could be that dumb. Do you share that opinion?
00:23Sir, I believe it was a decision made by the previous president to not enforce our laws
00:31and to allow an invasion of our country. So all the claims by the other side of the aisle that
00:36we needed more money for the Biden administration, more people, etc., do you believe that was accurate
00:41or do you believe that was inaccurate? No, sir, that was not true. That's absolutely because the
00:46numbers speak for themselves. And simply by enforcing our laws and having the will to enforce our laws,
00:51we've seen a dramatic fall in the number of crossings. And so I want to thank you for that.
00:56Now I want to switch over to FEMA. I used to be the mayor of Miami-Dade County. I used to represent
01:01and really it was my job to protect 2.8 million people in one of the most hurricane-prone areas
01:07of the United States. I was also a city manager of the city and I was a fire chief for the city of
01:11Miami. And at the time I was also on a FEMA advisory panel. And I can tell you that FEMA needs
01:17many, many reforms. I remember as mayor of Miami-Dade County in 2015, we were still processing claims
01:24through FEMA for Hurricane Katrina, which happened 10 years earlier. And so while I do support the efforts
01:32to reform FEMA, there are certain states and cities and counties that actually can respond a heck of a lot
01:38better than others. And we can't leave those that can't fend for themselves, you know, to fend for
01:45themselves. And so I would hope that that's part of your review and the reform of FEMA. Is that
01:52what you plan to do? Yes, sir. We know that every single state is not prepared today to take over their
01:57emergency operations. That's why the president has been clear that he wants to empower states and give
02:02them the opportunity to build out their response, to also sign MOUs with surrounding states and other
02:08resources they can use to best serve their people. He just doesn't believe that FEMA has been
02:12successful in being there in a time of crisis for people. And I can tell you, ma'am, as mayor of
02:18Miami-Dade County, that they haven't. Okay. And that I never, ever, when I talk to my people, I said,
02:23hey, we're going to have to do this ourselves. There is no cavalry coming from the federal government.
02:28We have to take care of ourselves. All we need from the federal government really is the money to
02:32reimburse us. And you're not even good at doing that. Okay. And so hopefully you can speed that process up.
02:38There are some people in my community that are a little bit concerned about the TPS rules and the suspension
02:46of TPS. I would hope, I would request that you can meet with myself, Representative Mario Diaz-Balart and
02:53Maria Salazar. So maybe we can do a little nuance to this so that we can put those concerns at rest.
02:58I also sent a letter to you concerning 100 Cuban oppressors. They're actually living in the United States.
03:05They were granted either asylum or entry into the United States that should have never been here.
03:10And we need to deport those. Have you received that letter? What's your department doing about
03:17looking into and vetting those 100 names that I gave you?
03:20Yes, sir. I received your letter and read it this week and will be responding to you. And that is
03:25something that President Trump is focused on, is adding integrity back to the programs that we have.
03:30Our immigration programs, our services like TPS, like the visa waiver program, our parole,
03:37our asylum programs, a lot of those got perverted and changed and misused and abused during the last
03:43administration. And adding integrity back to them is incredibly important for this administration.
03:48TPS was always meant to be a temporary program, built on giving people an opportunity to be safe from
03:55violence or environmental crisis that may be happening in their home country. Those individuals,
03:59we're working with them and we'll have a chance to meet with you and the other congressmen to to address
04:04their needs and see what their options are. They do have 60 days from the time it is published. Those
04:09individuals that you spoke to me about that still has not been published in the Federal Register. So they have
04:15several months here that we can work on the solutions to make sure that they're in a program
04:19that's appropriate for their situation. Fair enough, ma'am. I appreciate that. I hope we can
04:23have that meeting soon. Finally, I'm going to give you another example. When I was mayor of Miami-Dade
04:26County, there was then Senator Kamala Harris and a lot of other Democrats were demonstrating
04:32outside a homestead facility that was meant for children, saying how the bad the conditions were,
04:37et cetera, et cetera. Well, as mayor of Miami-Dade County, I asked to actually go in there. I viewed it. I went in
04:42there. Since I speak Spanish, I actually spoke to the children. They're all being treated great.
04:46There was nothing happening there that would make me ashamed to be an American.
04:50And so what was great about that, it was that we were actually taking care of those children,
04:55unlike what happened under the Biden administration, when we lost about 300,000 of them. With that,
04:59I yield back. Thank you. Thank you. Gentlemen, yields. I now recognize Mr.