Bulwark Takes - Chris Murphy Nukes Kristi Noem’s Out-of-Control DHS

Episode Date: May 9, 2025

Sen. Chris Murphy confronted DHS Secretary Kristi Noem about her agency's illegal overspending, immigration law violations, and mismanagement of funds.

Y'all, my man, Chris Murphy, Senator from Connecticut, just went totally ham on Kristi Noem. Well, at least we think it was Kristi Noem. It might have been a mannequin because her face doesn't move. But I want to play this full clip for you because, you know, a lot of times some of the stuff that Chris Murphy goes over with her gets lost in the wash here. It's like, it's hard to follow. The administration is breaking so many laws. They are so contemptuous of the rule of law that it becomes kind of like

the grownups in the peanuts noise, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. And I think Chris Murphy does a good job of just clearly and succinctly breaking it down for all of us. Here are the things that the administration is doing that's against the law with regards to immigration, with regards to its treatment of immigrants. We talk about that a lot here, but there's some other stuff we don't talk about that much. Here's how the Department of Homeland Security right now is running out of money

because they're spending way more than they've been allocated on ICE and on border enforcement and on detainment of college students for writing op eds. So DHS is going to run out of money. Remember that Doge, how these guys chose to save money. DHS is about to run out of money because they are illegally spending more

money than they have been allocated by Congress, which still has the power of the purse. Last time I checked. Meanwhile, there's there. This is how much they're overspending. There's another bucket of money that has been allocated by Congress that they're not spending, helping people become citizens. You know, I thought, remember that old line about how the MAGA Republicans, they support

legal immigration. They support people to come here the right way. It's just the illegals that they don't support. Well, they've cut the funding for the people that have gotten in line and are doing it the right way. We're trying to become citizens. So that I think betrays the reality of these guys' immigration position, which is basically they hate everybody from any other countries unless you're a white South African. So they hate the American dream. They hate everything this country stands for, actually, as I mentioned in an earlier episode this week, they're the flag burners. So you combine all that together. They are not following the rule of law and the treatment of migrants.

They are way overspending what they've been allocated on border enforcement and ICE and all the other security-related stuff. They are not spending what they have been constitutionally required to spend via bipartisan budgets passed by Congress. You put all that together, and it is just a rogue agency that is totally outside the bounds of the law. And Chris Murphy holds Kristi Noem's feet to the fire on this. I think it's important to keep talking about this because these guys need to know they are breaking the law. And one of these days, they're not going to have full power of Washington anymore. Okay. And they will be held to account. I want you to listen to Chris Murphy cook right here.

I say this with seriousness and respect, but your department is out of control. You are spending like you don't have a budget. You're on the verge of running out of money for the fiscal year. You are illegally refusing to spend funds that have been authorized by this Congress and appropriated by this committee. You are ignoring the immigration laws of this nation, implementing a brand new immigration system that you have invented that has little relation to the statutes that you are required, that you are commanded to follow, as spelled out in your oath of office. You are routinely violating the rights of immigrants who may not be citizens, but whether you like it or not, they have constitutional and statutory rights when they reside in the United States. Your agency acts as if laws don't matter,

as if the election gave you some mandate to violate the Constitution and the laws passed by this Congress. It did not give you that mandate. You act as if your disagreement with the law, or even the public's disagreement with the law, is relevant and gives you the ability to create your own law. It does not give you that ability. Let's start with your spending. You are on track to trigger the Anti-Deficiency Act. That means you are going to spend more money than you've been allocated by Congress. This is a rare occurrence and it is wildly illegal. Your agency will be broke by July, over two months before the end of the fiscal year. You may not think that Congress has provided enough money to ICE, but the Constitution and

the federal law does not allow you to spend more money than you have been given or to invent money. And this obsession with spending at the border, as the chairwoman mentioned, has left the country unprotected elsewhere. The security threats to the United States are higher, not lower, than when before Trump came to office. To fund the border, you have illegally gutted spending for cybersecurity. As we speak, Russian and Chinese hackers are having a field day attacking our nation. You've withdrawn funds for disaster prevention. Storms are going to kill more people in this country

because of your illegal withholding of these funds. Your myopia about the border, fueled by President Trump's prejudice against people who speak a different language, has shattered many of this country's most important defenses. Now let's talk about the impoundments. When Congress appropriates funds for a specific purpose, the administration has no discretion as to whether to spend or not spend that money unless you go through a very specific process with this committee. Let me give you two of many instances of this illegal impoundment. The first is a shelter and services program. Senator Britt may want to zero that

account out, but that account is funded and it was funded in a bipartisan way. You don't like the program. Your policy is to treat migrants badly. I think that's abhorrent, but it doesn't matter that you don't like the program. You cannot cancel spending in this program, and you cannot use the funds as you have to fund other things like ICE. You have also canceled citizenship and integration grants, which help lawful permanent residents become citizens, helping them take the citizenship test. I know your goal is to try to make life as hard as possible for immigrants, but that goal is not broadly shared by the American public. That's why Congress, in a bipartisan way, for decades has funded this program to help immigrants in this country become citizens.

Now let's talk about why encounters at the southern border are down so much. This is clearly going to be your primary talking point today. You will tell us that it represents a success. But the primary reason why encounters are down is because you are brazenly violating the law every hour of every day. You are refusing to allow people showing up at the southern border to apply for asylum. I acknowledge that you don't believe that people should be able to apply for asylum, but you don't get to choose that. The White House doesn't get to choose that. The law requires you

to process people who are showing up at the border and who claim asylum. Why? Because our asylum law is a bipartisan commitment, an effort to correct for our nation's unconscionable decision to deny entry to Jews to this country who were being hunted and killed by the Nazis. Our nation, Republicans and Democrats, decided, wrote it into law, that we would not repeat that horror ever again, and thus we would allow for people who were fleeing terror and torture to come here, arrive at the border, and make a case for asylum. Finally, let's talk about these disappearances. In an autocratic society, people who the regime does not like are people who are protesting the regime. They are just often picked up off the street, spirited away, sometimes to open into detention, sometimes

they're never seen again. What you are doing, both the individuals who have legal rights to stay here, like Kilmar Abrego-Garcia, or students who are just protesting Trump's policies is immoral. And to follow the theme, it is illegal. You have no right to deport a student visa holder with no due process, simply because they have spoken in a way that offends the president. You can't remove migrants who a court has given humanitarian protection from removal. Now, reports suggest that you are planning to remove immigrants with no due process and send them to prisons in Libya. Libya is in the middle of a civil war. It is subject to a level four travel advisory, meaning we tell American citizens never to travel to Libya. We don't have an embassy there because it is not

safe for our diplomats. Sending migrants with pending asylum claims into a war zone just because it's cruel is so deeply disturbing. Listen, I understand that my Republican colleagues on this committee don't view the policy the way that I do. My Republican colleagues don't share my level of concern for the way that this administration treats immigrants. That's fine. But what I don't understand is why we don't have consensus in the Senate and on this committee on the decision by this administration to impound the spending that we have decided together to allocate in defense of this nation. We as an Appropriations Committee,

we work interminable hours to write and pass a budget. This budget is really hard to write and pass. And so we make ourselves irrelevant when we allow the administration to ignore what we have decided. And then when we look the other way, when the administration rounds up immigrants who are here illegally and have committed no offenses worthy of detainment, we also do potential irreversible damage to the Constitution. These should not be partisan concerns, destroying the power of

Congress, eroding individuals' constitutional rights. This should matter to both parties.