The Pose of Security

Kristi Noem sits before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Tuesday, March 3, 2026. It is her first hearing since two people were shot in Minneapolis. Renee Good on January 7. Alex Pretti on January 24. Both were citizens. Both are dead. Those are the facts in the room before a single word is spoken. Noem is head of the Department of Homeland Security, the boss. That means everything Immigration and Customs Enforcement does, everything Customs and Border Protection does, runs under her responsibility. This is not abstract. These are people. In Minneapolis, Trump had ordered what was called Operation Metro Surge - hundreds of agents were supposed to look for fraud cases. Then they stayed. They did more than that.

Chaos in the Senate Judiciary Committee as DHS Secretary Kristi Noem appeared for her hearing to defend the brutal conduct of ICE agents. A former FEMA employee stood up and shouted: “Kristi Noem, you should be ashamed.”

What happened next is documented. There are videos. There are eyewitnesses. Renee Good was shot by an ICE agent. She was protesting. That is not disputed. Alex Pretti was filming the operations, as people do, as they do everywhere - with a cellphone. A CBP agent fired. That is not disputed either. Noem said something afterward. She said both had been aggressive. She said they had acted as aggressors. That is the pose. That is what you say when you do not want to admit that something went wrong. Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the committee, had videos. Had eyewitness accounts. Durbin told Noem: You and your agency hastily labeled these victims as terrorists. That is false. And it has caused families pain that does not go away.

Durbin said something else that matters. He told Noem: You had videos. You had eyewitnesses. You knew what you were saying was wrong. And you said it anyway. That is the point. This is not about a mistake. It is not about a misunderstanding. It is about saying something while knowing it is not true. That is the pose being described here.

Senator DURBIN: Do you believe it calms the situation to brand victims like Alex Pretti as “domestic terrorists”?

Noem: It is a tragic loss of life.

Durbin: Is it so hard to say that you were wrong?

Noem: I strive for facts.

Durbin: When you fail, do you admit it? Will you do so now?

Noem responded: I received reports from officers on the ground. Minneapolis was chaotic. St. Paul as well. My officers targeted the worst individuals. They were often attacked. That is the narrative. That is what is always said. The officers did their job. The people on the ground were chaotic. The problems arose because Democratic politicians incited people against the work ICE and CBP wanted to do. That is not wrong and not right. It is a simplification. One into which everything fits: If officers fire, it was chaos. If people protest, politicians made them do it. If two people die, they were aggressive. The logic works in one direction.

But here is what is happening in parallel. The weekend before, there was a shooting in a bar in Texas. It is being investigated as a possible terror act. Tensions with Iran are escalating. Across the country, that could have consequences. That is also the context. Trump wants mass deportations. That requires force. That requires agents. That requires a narrative that works: We protect America. Period. Noem said something else in the Senate. She said Democrats were driving a shutdown of Homeland Security. Reckless. Unnecessary. Damaging national security. Damaging officers and their families. That is not wrong. That is also true. Funding is blocked. A spending measure from last year gave her a large sum for mass deportations. But now the money is running out. That is real.

What is also real: Tom Homan, the Border Czar, had to travel to Minneapolis. Not because everything was going well. But because it was going so badly that Trump himself had to intervene. Homan announced that fewer agents would be sent to Minnesota. Operation Metro Surge would be reduced. But the mass deportations continue, we see that daily. Noem will testify the next day before a House committee. She will sit there again. She will say again that her agents did their job. That there was chaos. That people were attacking them. That is the pose that holds.

But Renee Good is still dead. Alex Pretti is still dead. Five others are dead as well. They are not widely discussed, and yet justice is being sought for those cases too, if such a thing exists for lost lives at all.

Ruben Ray Martinez – South Padre Island, Texas
Silverio Villegas González – Franklin Park, Illinois
Jaime Alanis – Südkalifornien
Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdez – Südkalifornien
Josué Castro Rivera – Virginia

That does not change through hearings. It does not change through narratives. These are people who no longer breathe. That is not negotiable. What is also real: People in Minneapolis are afraid. They organize. They position themselves in their neighborhoods. They warn one another. They bring food to people who are afraid to leave their homes. That is not organization by politicians. That is what happens when people believe something is wrong. When neighbors stand up for one another.

But it is only Tuesday. On Wednesday Noem will sit before a House committee. Another hearing. Different questions, probably. The same system. Noem will not resign. That will not happen. She will get through these hearings. The mass deportations will continue. Tom Homan will adjust the operations, but not end them. Trump will say everything is going right. And people in Minneapolis will continue to be afraid. This is not drama. It is everyday life under a certain style of governance. It is what it means when security becomes a pose. When the work of agencies consists above all in telling the right story. And when two people die, in that story they are aggressive. Period. Renee Good was a name. Alex Pretti was a name. They are now statistics. They are elements of a narrative. But for the people who knew them, they are more. And that is what is not said in such hearings. It is too uncomfortable. It does not fit the structure.

Durbin knew that. That is why he spoke about the families. About their pain. About what Noem’s words had caused. That was not rhetorical. It was a marker. It was an attempt to say: There are not only politicians sitting here. There are people whose children are no longer here. Noem heard that. She responded with chaos. With reports from officers. With violence by protesters. That is the answer when there is no other. That is the pose that remains. The system moves on. Noem goes into the next room, answers the next questions, says the same things. And in Minneapolis there are two empty spaces. Not symbolic. Real. And tomorrow Noem will sit somewhere again and explain why it was necessary.

We fight daily for human rights, doing everything we can to get innocent people out of ICE detention. Sometimes it feels like fighting windmills - for every person you get out, two new case files land on the desk. But we will not be discouraged, like all others who stand up for human rights. If you want to help us, support our work: Human rights must know no borders.