Sen. Thom Tillis unloaded on Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday, saying she’s failed as a leader, and he threatened to hinder Senate business until she produces information about immigration arrests.
The North Carolina Republican said he will refuse to let some nominations go through the Senate floor and will try to block quorums to conduct committee business until Ms. Noem provides the breakdown of criminals among the arrests during an immigration enforcement surge last year in Charlotte.
Mr. Tillis said Ms. Noem has shown a “failure of leadership” in her handling of the deaths of two Americans in Minneapolis at the hands of her officers and agents — and he starkly tied that back to the secretary’s revelation in her book that she killed a 14-month-old dog, Cricket, and an unruly goat.
Mr. Tillis said both animal slayings were uncalled for and reflected Ms. Noem’s poor animal husbandry and her inability to anticipate situations.
“Those are bad decisions made in the heat of the moment — not unlike what happened up in Minnesota,” he said at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
The senator, who didn’t give Ms. Noem a chance to respond and cut her off the one time she started in, said Ms. Noem’s refusal to admit mistakes in the Minnesota shootings is hurting her own personnel.
“You’ve cast a pall on them by acting like we should investigate things differently,” he said.
He denounced White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller’s call for DHS to hit certain deportation targets, saying the drive to hit numbers also fueled problems.
“Quality matters, not quantity,” Mr. Tillis said. “What we’ve seen is a total disaster under your leadership, Ms. Noem. A disaster.”
