WASHINGTON, D.C.- U.S. Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) are demanding that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testify before the committee following the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens by federal law enforcement officials in Minneapolis this month. 

he senators previously sent a separate letter to Chairman Rand Paul, urging him to conduct oversight of DHS’ escalating use of excessive force. This week, Chairman Paul announced a committee hearing on Feb. 12 with the heads of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The senators are pressing for Secretary Noem to also testify publicly before the committee, as she is ultimately responsible for the department’s actions. 

“You have presided over an increasingly dangerous and untenable breakdown in trust in federal law enforcement across the country, and your actions in the wake of these tragedies have weakened the Department’s credibility, enflamed tensions, harmed public safety, and divided Americans,” wrote the senators. “You have authorized actions that have resulted in a vast overreach of the Department’s authorities and have cost innocent lives. Masked federal agents from DHS have violently assaulted peaceful protestors, arrested American citizens without cause, undermined protections under the Fourth Amendment, and shot and killed two Americans – Renee Good and Alex Pretti – who, contrary to your own baseless assertions, clearly did not pose a lethal threat.”