During Thursday’s Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) questioned DHS Secretary. Kristi Noem about the Trump Administration's deportation efforts.
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00:00Thank you. Vice Chair Murphy. Thank you very much. Madam Secretary, AI is an
00:07enormous growing industry critical to the future economic health of the country.
00:11We have had the benefit over the years of the top talent in AI, researchers,
00:15students coming to the United States to help us grow that industry. But for the
00:20first time in the last 15 years, there are more top-talented individuals and
00:27workers in AI leaving the country than coming here, and the reason is pretty
00:30simple. People who are coming here to work from overseas through the visa
00:34program are very uncertain about what their rights are, and that is because of
00:40the actions this administration has taken. So I think it's important to get on the
00:43record for those individuals who are here currently and those thinking of coming
00:47to the United States to work or to study to understand what their rights are. So
00:52let me ask you a series of pretty simple questions. Probably the key of right
00:59amongst the five freedoms is the right to free speech, the right to express your own
01:04personal opinion about politics, culture, the economy. Do you believe that you have
01:11the right to detain or deport a U.S. citizen for simply expressing their
01:18political opinion? A U.S. citizen? No. No. Do you believe that you have the right to
01:23detain or deport a legal permanent resident for expressing their political
01:29opinion? I don't make decisions on legal status here in the United States. The
01:33Department of State does that, and I would say that as they've gone through an
01:37evaluation of who gets a visa, who gets legal status, green cards, they've been
01:43evaluating and discussing how that applies. Well, I acknowledge that you don't, I
01:48acknowledge you don't make, but if someone is a legal permanent resident of
01:53the United States, I'm not talking about an H-1B or a student visa holder, I'm
01:57talking about a legal permanent resident. If you are a legal permanent resident, do
02:02you have the right to detain or deport that person simply for expressing their
02:06political opinion? The Department of State makes those decisions. No, no, no, they don't. You make that, you make that, you make that, you make that
02:13decision about who you have the right to detain or deport. So do you, you are
02:19involved in that, do you believe the United States, do you believe the law
02:22allows? The Department of Homeland Security under the Trump administration is
02:25enforcing the law following the constitutional rights of folks who are
02:29here as citizens, those who are here legally, and those who are here illegally. So
02:35a legal permanent resident is by definition here legally. Do you believe, I mean I think
02:40this is really troubling if you can't answer this simple question, do you
02:43believe that the U.S. government can detain and deport a legal permanent resident
02:49for expressing a political opinion that the Department, that the administration
02:55disagrees with? The determination you're asking for is based on things that you
03:01are determining that the Secretary of State has considered and evaluated. We don't
03:05evaluate that, the administration, along with the partnership with the Department of State, on
03:09what is political speech and what's an affiliation with a foreign terrorist
03:12organization. Do you believe, that's the difference between the two that you're
03:15asking? Do you believe that you can detain and deport a legal permanent resident for expressing a political opinion? We have not detained or we have not deported anybody who's a legal permanent resident or a citizen of the United States.
03:27Okay, then say you don't have the ability to do that. Clarify that for the millions of
03:34That is exactly what I'm doing, is that we have followed exactly what the law is and that
03:38we have not detained or deported anybody who's a citizen or has legal status in this country. We are focused on the worst of the worst dangerous criminals to get them out of the country.
03:46You do not believe you have the ability to do that. You do not believe you have the ability to do that. We have not done that at all and the Trump administration has no plans to do that.
03:53Well, just because you haven't done it doesn't mean that you won't do it in the future. We are following the federal law to ensure that we are doing the exact appropriate thing in partnership with the Department of State and in partnership with the Trump administration.
04:05administration.