By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem , who heads the agency central to President Donald Trump’s mass deportations agenda, is expected to face fierce questioning from Democrats on Thursday as the public face of the Republican administration’s hard-line approach to immigration.

It has been months since Noem last appeared in Congress in May. Since then, immigration enforcement operations, especially in Los Angeles and Chicago, have become increasingly contentious, with federal agents and activists frequently clashing over her department’s tactics.

As prisoners stand looking out from a cell, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a tour of the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, March 26, 2025. (

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