Incoming Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem used her confirmation hearing to shatter Democrats' claims that she is a champion of immigrant children.
The drama came at the end of Friday's hearing, when Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) pushed back against Democrats' claims that President Donald Trump “separated” children from their parents during his first term. Ta.
She answered:
Senator, there was no family separation policy in the Trump administration. They had a zero tolerance policy. [border] The law will be obeyed.
I'm afraid it's over 300,000. [foreign] Children who went missing during the Biden administration. And when we talk about it, [migrant] As far as children and what they may be facing, the victims of the ongoing human trafficking in this country, there is a lack of appetite from this administration to find out where they are being victimized. [migrant] the children [and] What they are going through is alarming to me.
…
Senator, keeping families together is very important to me and to this country. I'm worried that Laken Riley's family is no more. [after her murder by a migrant]. I'm worried about the fact that we have [foreign] People in this country who don't know where their children are, or [foreign] People from other countries send their children here and are being disappeared by this regime. That's right, my focus is on keeping the family together… [and] Protect our children from the drug trafficking and drug epidemic that is plaguing this country.
Mr. Blumenthal declined to respond.
Noem also promised to shut down the semi-legal immigration pipeline created by President Joe Biden's lawmakers.
“If I had the opportunity to be secretary, CBP One would be shut down on day one,” Noem told Sen. Hawley (R-Missouri).
But the data will be preserved, she said. “There’s data and information there, and we store it in a way that makes sure we know… who’s already here and who we need to go find. .”
Noem also indicated that the Trump administration would end the parole program created by President Joe Biden's Border Commissioner Alejandro Mayorkas.
By January 1, Mr. Mayorkas had used CBP-One and his parole program to import approximately 1.5 million economic immigrants seeking housing and work, and otherwise the young, old, and sick. It was supposed to be available to all healthy Americans.
These two programs opened up a major loophole in border law by granting “humanitarian parole” to vast numbers of economic migrants.
The parole provisions in the current law were intended for a small number of emergencies, such as the illness of an airline passenger.
The administration said it would focus on deporting the 425,000 immigrants with criminal records, then those who were ordered by judges to return home or those who overstayed their visas. “We will continue to have conversations beyond that” about future priorities, she said.
While the senators were very friendly to Mr. Noem, they largely avoided the most contentious issues, such as the investor-driven outsourcing of white-collar jobs made possible by the H-1B visa program.
Noem rejected a plea from Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) to increase the number of foreign workers, including H-1B white-collar workers.
Mr. Slotkin asked: [foreign] For us, for our companies, for our economy, these are the people we need to get here in a legal and vetted way. So, do you believe in legal, vetted immigration, and do you believe we need more of it in the United States? ”
Nomu responded
We believe that we need to follow legal immigration laws and that they need to be scrutinized. We need more resources. I believe some of this element…[Immigration] This has always been part of our history and will always be part of our future. All we need to do is make sure we comply with the laws of the country.
Blumenthal urged Noem to do more to help H-1B migrants into the white-collar careers that their constituents and their growing children need.
What this country needs is comprehensive immigration reform. [amnesty]. We recognize the need for more H-1B visas and extensions for other types of visa programs to make more visas available to the United States. [white-collar] Workers who are desperately needed in certain parts of our country…We know it's possible because we did it in 2013.
Noem did not reject Blumenthal's radical demands, but she ignored his statements.
The issue of legal immigration and visa workers was almost completely ignored by senators, primarily because it exposed the widening gap between employers cutting wages and worried American families. This is because it becomes.
A recent surge in polls shows Americans expect President Trump to establish pro-American immigration policies, with many Republicans favoring legal immigration and white-collar H-1B immigration. It shows that they want to reduce immigration. for example, YouGov poll for January 8th It was found that 27% of Americans want the H-1B program to be reduced or eliminated, while only 17% want it increased. Forty percent of Republicans want to reduce or eliminate the program, while just 12% want to expand it.
But investors will continue to outsource white-collar jobs to people from India, China, Costa Rica, and many other countries until they are stopped by a politically influential and powerful U.S. white-collar movement. .
So far, President Trump has shown no intention to block white-collar outsourcing. Instead, he zigzags between his investor allies and the voters he needs in 2026.
