FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 29, 2026

Jalelah Sofia Ahmed

[email protected]

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 (DHS) 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. The senators previously sent a separate letter to Chairman Rand Paul, urging him to conduct desperately needed oversight of DHS' escalating use of excessive force. This week, Chairman Paul announced a committee hearing on February 12^th with the heads of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). 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."

The senators continued: "The fact that you have doubled down to justify these indefensible killings in the face of widespread public outrage has caused DHS to lose credibility and calls into question your ability to lead this Department and its tens of thousands of federal agents entrusted to ensure public safety and to protect the homeland. Since your confirmation, you have failed to appear before this Committee for its annual hearing on threats to the homeland - even though you appeared before the House Committee on Homeland Security and have reportedly agreed to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the coming weeks. As the Secretary of Homeland Security, you have an obligation to appear before the Senate Committee with jurisdiction over DHS and the security of our homeland, as the urgency of this moment requires."

In addition to calling on Secretary Noem's immediate testimony, the senator's letter serves as a formal notice for DHS to preserve all records related to the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, as well as all other instances of excessive use of force by federal agents conducting immigration enforcement under this administration.

The full text of the letter can be found here.

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