Show Notes: The Noem Hearing
Senate Judiciary Committee Oversight Hearing, Department of Homeland Security
Five Hours of Testimony, Ten Hours of Analysis
What follows is a full written record of the most critical, documented, and damning revelations from the Senate Judiciary Committee’s oversight hearing with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. This document is intended as a reference tool. Share it. Save it. Use it.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part One: The Surveillance Apparatus
Subpoenaing Social Media to Silence Dissent
Part Two: Deaths in Custody and the Cover-Up
The Death of Heraldo Lunas Campos
The Broader Detention Death Record
Part Three: American Citizens Detained
Senator Booker’s Documented Record
The Case of Isaiah Pena Salcedo
Part Four: Schools, Campuses, and Children
ICE Enters a Minneapolis High School
The Columbia University Deception
Children Fleeing Bus Stops
Part Five: War Profiteering and Financial Corruption
The Roxbury Township Warehouse
The 220 Million Dollar Ad Campaign
The Luxury Jet
Part Six: The Shooting of Marramar Martinez
Part Seven: The Unconstitutional Warrant Memo
Part Eight: Senator Tillis’s Rebuke
Part Nine: The Oval Office Cutaway and Operation Midnight Hammer
Part Ten: Armed Agents at the Polls
Part Eleven: Senator Booker’s Closing
What This Means and What to Do
The Pattern
Minnesota: Submit Your Evidence
Protect Your Digital Footprint
Map the Dragnet in Your Community
Build Community Networks
Key Figures Referenced in This Episode
Glossary of Key Terms and Entities
PART ONE: THE SURVEILLANCE APPARATUS
Subpoenaing Social Media to Silence Dissent
One of the most alarming revelations of the entire hearing was the confirmation that the Department of Homeland Security is actively issuing subpoenas to social media companies for the purpose of identifying Americans who have publicly criticized ICE. This is not a program targeting foreign nationals, suspected terrorists, or international criminal networks. The targets are American citizens exercising their First Amendment right to political speech.
The process works as follows. ICE identifies accounts that have posted criticism of the agency or its operations. They issue subpoenas to the platforms hosting those accounts to obtain the real identities and physical addresses behind those accounts. Once they have that information, agents show up at those people’s homes. Not to arrest them on criminal charges. To intimidate them. To make them aware they are being watched. To send a message to anyone else considering speaking out.
This is the architecture of a surveillance state turned inward. It is the use of federal law enforcement infrastructure not to protect the public from crime, but to protect an agency from criticism. It is the weaponization of the subpoena power against the First Amendment, and it is happening right now, in real time, in our neighborhoods.
This pattern of targeting domestic political dissent is precisely why secure, decentralized communication and community organization has become a matter of civil survival, not just preference. When the government can subpoena your identity from a social media post, your digital footprint is not private by default. It has to be actively protected.
PART TWO: DEATHS IN CUSTODY AND THE COVER-UP
The Death of Heraldo Lunas Campos
Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, brought the case of Heraldo Lunas Campos to the floor of the hearing. Campos died while in the custody of ICE at a federal detention facility. The Department of Homeland Security’s initial official position was that Campos had died by suicide.
An independent medical examiner conducted a separate review of the death and reached a contradictory conclusion. The independent examiner ruled the death a homicide by manual strangulation. Witnesses who were present at the facility at the time of Campos’s death reported that he had been choked to death by guards employed at the facility.
The Department of Homeland Security’s response to an independent homicide ruling was not to open an internal affairs investigation. It was not to cooperate with outside investigators. It was to move immediately to deport the witnesses to the crime before any investigation could be conducted. In other words, the agency attempted to physically remove from U.S. jurisdiction the only people who could testify to what they saw. A federal judge had to intervene with a court order specifically blocking ICE from deporting those witnesses in order to preserve the possibility of any investigation at all.
When Senator Durbin confronted Secretary Noem with these facts under oath, she stated that she was not aware of the case and could not speak to the details.
The Secretary of Homeland Security was unaware that one of her agency’s detainees had been ruled a homicide victim by an independent examiner, and that her own agency had attempted to deport the witnesses before an investigation could take place.
The Broader Detention Death Record
Senator Alex Padilla of California entered into the record the full scope of deaths in ICE custody over the recent period. Thirty-two people died in ICE detention during the previous year. In just the first seven weeks of the current year, eight more people died in ICE custody. That is a rate of death that, if sustained, would significantly exceed the prior year’s total.
Senator Padilla documented that congressional oversight requests regarding detention conditions had been repeatedly denied. Court orders issued by federal judges mandating specific conditions or reviews of ICE detention facilities had been ignored. The picture Senator Padilla presented was not of an agency struggling to comply with its obligations. It was of an agency that has decided those obligations do not apply to it.
Senator Padilla concluded his remarks by calling on Secretary Noem to resign, and by stating that if she would not, impeachment proceedings were the appropriate response to what the record showed.
His remarks were being delivered live when major television news networks cut away from the Senate hearing room to broadcast a White House press conference. The significance of that timing is addressed separately below.
PART THREE: AMERICAN CITIZENS DETAINED
Senator Booker’s Documented Record
Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey arrived at the hearing with extensive documentation of incidents in which ICE unlawfully detained American citizens. His record covered more than 170 separate documented incidents. These were not cases involving disputed immigration status. These were cases involving people with legal citizenship who were detained by ICE agents in violation of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution.
Among those 170-plus documented incidents, twenty involved American children.
Secretary Noem testified under oath, directly to Senator Booker, that ICE does not detain American citizens.
The Case of Isaiah Pena Salcedo
Senator Booker immediately responded to Noem’s denial by presenting the specific case of Isaiah Pena Salcedo. Salcedo is a United States citizen residing in California. He was detained by ICE agents. During his detention, he presented the agents with his United States passport as proof of citizenship. The agents detained him anyway. He was held for more than seventy hours, nearly three full days, before being released. No criminal charges were filed. No immigration violation was identified. He was a U.S. citizen with a U.S. passport who was held for three days because ICE agents chose to ignore his documentation.
This case is not an aberration. It is one entry in a documented record of more than 170 similar incidents. The Secretary of Homeland Security denied under oath that any such thing happens.
PART FOUR: SCHOOLS, CAMPUSES, AND CHILDREN
ICE Enters a Minneapolis High School
Senator Booker documented that ICE officers entered the grounds of a high school in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The presence of armed federal immigration agents on the grounds of a public school is not a routine law enforcement action. It is the extension of a mass enforcement operation into spaces that have historically been treated as protected environments for children, regardless of their immigration status or that of their families.
The Columbia University Deception
At Columbia University in New York, ICE agents reportedly gained access to private, non-public areas of the campus by telling students and staff that they were searching for a missing person. This was a pretext. The agents were not searching for a missing person. They used a false story about a missing person to gain entry to spaces that would not otherwise have been accessible to them, and then used that access to locate and detain individuals.
This is a documented use of deception by federal law enforcement agents to circumvent restrictions on their access to private property. It is not an isolated tactic. It is a pattern.
Children Fleeing Bus Stops
Senator Booker also raised the documented reality that children in affected communities are now fleeing school bus stops when they see unmarked vehicles. The fear of federal agents has become a feature of the daily experience of children getting to and from school. This is the lived reality on the ground in communities targeted by the current enforcement posture of DHS.
Secretary Noem testified that she had no situational awareness of any of these incidents.
PART FIVE: WAR PROFITEERING AND FINANCIAL CORRUPTION
The Roxbury Township Warehouse
Senator Booker presented detailed information about the Department of Homeland Security’s acquisition of a 470,000-square-foot warehouse facility in Roxbury Township, New Jersey, for conversion into a 1,500-bed ICE detention center. The acquisition and conversion of this facility proceeded over the unanimous objection of the local town council, which voted against it. The town council in question is entirely composed of Republican officials. Their unanimous opposition was disregarded.
DHS refused to conduct any environmental impact review of the facility or its intended use. DHS also refused to take any meeting with local fire departments, emergency medical services, or emergency management officials to coordinate on safety protocols for a large detention population in their jurisdiction.
The facility was independently assessed at a market value of 62 million dollars. The Department of Homeland Security paid 129.3 million dollars for it. The agency paid more than double the independently assessed market value to a private entity, over the objection of the local Republican community, without environmental review, without coordination with local emergency services.
The 220 Million Dollar Ad Campaign
Senator Peter Welch of Vermont pressed Secretary Noem on a DHS-funded television advertising campaign with a total budget of 220 million dollars. The campaign prominently features Secretary Noem herself. This is a taxpayer-funded campaign that serves simultaneously as government messaging and as a personal political platform for the Secretary.
The contracting history of this campaign is as follows. A company called Safe America Media was incorporated eleven days before it received a 143 million dollar no-bid contract from the Department of Homeland Security. No competitive bidding process was conducted. The company, which had existed for less than two weeks, was awarded one of the largest media contracts in DHS history without competition.
Safe America Media then immediately subcontracted the actual work to a separate firm. That firm is operated by the husband of Secretary Noem’s former top spokesperson. The firm also has documented close ties to Corey Lewandowski, who serves as one of Noem’s top advisors.
In summary: a company called Safe America Media, created eleven days before receiving a no-bid nine-figure contract, immediately directed that money to a firm run by a person personally connected to Noem’s inner circle, and to a firm connected to her top political advisor.
Secretary Noem testified under oath that this was a coincidence and that she had nothing to do with any part of the contracting decision.
The Luxury Jet
In addition to the Roxbury overpayment and the no-bid ad contract, DHS has spent 70 million dollars of taxpayer funds on a luxury Boeing VIP aircraft outfitted with a queen-size bed. This expenditure occurred in the same period in which detainees were dying in federal custody and requests for congressional oversight of detention conditions were being denied.
PART SIX: THE SHOOTING OF MARRAMAR MARTINEZ
Marramar Martinez is a United States citizen and Chicago teaching assistant. She was driving to donate clothes to her church when her vehicle was sideswiped by an unmarked car. Three masked individuals exited the vehicle. They were federal agents. The agent who fired was Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum. He shot her five times.
Martinez was subsequently charged with a crime. Those charges were dropped with prejudice, meaning the prosecution was barred from bringing the same charges again. The reason the charges were dropped is that bodycam footage from the scene proved that the federal agents were the aggressors. The footage contradicted the agents’ account of the encounter and vindicated Martinez’s account entirely.
During the hearing, a senator read into the congressional record evidence unsealed by Judge Georgia Alexakis, which included Exum’s own messages in a group text following the shooting. Exum wrote that he had fired five rounds and that she had seven holes, invited others to put that in a book, and stated that he was ready for another round. These were not idle comments. They were written by an active federal agent about shooting an American citizen, distributed to others, and treated as a source of pride.
Secretary Noem was asked directly and under oath whether she would commit to removing Agent Exum’s firearm given his conduct and his documented statements about it. She refused to make that commitment.
PART SEVEN: THE UNCONSTITUTIONAL WARRANT MEMO
During the hearing, a senator raised a leaked internal memorandum issued by acting ICE director Todd Lyons. The memo instructs ICE agents to enter people’s homes without a judicial warrant. The document directs agents to use administrative warrants instead.
The distinction here is not procedural. It is constitutional. A judicial warrant is issued by a judge. It requires a showing of probable cause that a crime has been committed. It is reviewed by an independent member of the judiciary before it authorizes government entry into a private home. The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution requires this process for a reason.
An administrative warrant is an entirely different document. It is not signed by a judge. It does not require any showing of probable cause of criminal activity. It is signed by another ICE officer, inside an ICE office, and it authorizes the same forcible entry into a private residence that a judicial warrant would authorize, without any of the constitutional safeguards a judicial warrant requires.
The Lyons memo instructs agents that this piece of internal paperwork is sufficient legal authority to break down a front door.
When confronted with this directive under oath, Secretary Noem defended it. She argued that administrative warrants constitute sufficient legal authority for home entry. She did not acknowledge the Fourth Amendment implications. She did not commit to revising the policy. She defended it.
PART EIGHT: SENATOR TILLIS’S REBUKE
The single most explosive exchange of the five-hour hearing came not from a Democrat, but from retiring Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina.
Senator Tillis raised the story Secretary Noem herself wrote in her memoir, in which she describes taking her 14-month-old puppy, a dog named Cricket, to a gravel pit and shooting it in the head because the dog was difficult to train and had not performed as she expected during a hunting trip. She describes then returning to the same location and shooting a goat in the same session, because the goat was also behaving in ways she found unacceptable.
Noem framed these events in her book as an illustration of tough leadership, specifically of her willingness to make hard decisions.
Senator Tillis, who is himself an experienced dog trainer, rejected that framing directly. He stated that she did not execute Cricket because of tough leadership. She executed Cricket because she was unwilling to invest the time and effort required to train the dog properly. He called it a failure of patience and a failure of responsibility, not an act of strength.
But Tillis did not stop at the gravel pit. He connected the story to the agency she now leads. He told Secretary Noem explicitly that the same impulsive, consequence-free decision-making that led her to shoot a puppy out of frustration is the same quality driving the conduct of her agents in Minneapolis and elsewhere. He described her decisions as bad decisions made in the heat of the moment, and he said that pattern was not unlike what was happening on American streets under her leadership. He called her leadership a complete disaster.
This was a sitting Republican senator, in the final days of his career, looking at a cabinet secretary of his own party and making a direct parallel between her willingness to execute an animal out of frustration and the behavior of federal agents shooting American citizens in their cars.
PART NINE: THE OVAL OFFICE CUTAWAY AND OPERATION MIDNIGHT HAMMER
As Senator Alex Padilla was delivering his closing remarks documenting deaths in ICE custody and calling for Noem’s removal, major television news networks cut away from the Senate hearing room to carry a live Oval Office press conference.
At that press conference, the President of the United States confirmed the following on live television.
The United States launched a preemptive military strike against Iran. The operation was given the name Midnight Hammer. The President confirmed this name and confirmed the preemptive nature of the strike himself.
The President confirmed that the U.S. has arranged to extract 100 million barrels of oil from Venezuela, with the stated purpose of using the proceeds to finance the cost of the war.
The President issued a threat of a total economic embargo against Spain, citing Spain’s failure to meet his specific NATO funding demands as the reason.
When a reporter asked the President about the thousands of American citizens who are currently stranded in the Middle East because commercial airspace in the region has been completely shut down in the aftermath of the strike, the President responded with three words: “We attacked first.”
There is no announced evacuation plan for American citizens stranded in a war zone that the United States government created. The Commander in Chief acknowledged the situation with three words and moved on.
The networks carried this press conference for approximately thirty minutes. During those thirty minutes, Senator Padilla’s remarks and the conclusion of the Senate Judiciary hearing were not broadcast to the country.
PART TEN: ARMED AGENTS AT THE POLLS
Near the conclusion of the hearing, Senator Chris Coons of Delaware asked Secretary Noem a direct and specific question about the upcoming midterm elections. He asked her to rule out the deployment of armed ICE agents to polling locations.
She refused to rule it out.
She did not say it would not happen. She did not say it was not being considered. She did not say it would be inappropriate or unconstitutional. She deflected the question without providing the one-sentence answer that would have put the matter to rest.
The context in which this refusal sits is not abstract. The hearing had already established that DHS is subpoenaing social media companies to identify and track critics of ICE. That agents have shown up at the homes of peaceful protesters. That citizens have been detained without cause. That agents have used deception to access private spaces. That a memo exists instructing agents to enter homes without judicial warrants.
The deployment of armed federal agents to voting locations would be the logical culmination of everything the hearing had already documented. And the Secretary of Homeland Security would not rule it out.
PART ELEVEN: SENATOR BOOKER’S CLOSING
Senator Cory Booker delivered the closing statement of the hearing. He looked directly at Secretary Noem and laid out what the five hours of testimony had produced. He told her that one of two things was true. Either she was utterly incompetent and had no control over or awareness of what her own agency was doing, or she was knowingly violating the law with complete impunity and hiding behind a wall of plausible deniability. He told her that neither option was acceptable. He told her it was time to resign.
Secretary Noem smiled and said, “I appreciate the encouragement.”
WHAT THIS MEANS AND WHAT TO DO
The Pattern
The hearing did not reveal isolated incidents of misconduct. It revealed a pattern. Surveillance of political speech. Detention of citizens without cause. Deception to access private spaces. A homicide cover-up. Witness intimidation through threatened deportation. Unconstitutional warrants. An agent who shot a civilian and bragged about it online. A contracting structure that funneled hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to political insiders. A refusal to rule out armed agents at polling locations.
These are not separate stories. They are connected features of the same operating posture. The agency has decided that oversight does not apply to it, that the Constitution is a procedural inconvenience, and that accountability is something that happens to other people.
Minnesota: Submit Your Evidence
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty is actively building state-level criminal cases against federal agents involved in what has been designated Operation Metro Surge. This is one of the most significant legal avenues currently open for accountability at any level of government. The Hennepin County Transparency and Accountability Project portal, known as the TAP portal, is the direct public submission point for video footage, photographs, and written witness testimony. If you witnessed or recorded any federal agent activity in Minnesota, submit it now. The link is in the show notes below.
Protect Your Digital Footprint
Given the confirmed use of social media subpoenas to identify and track critics of ICE, protecting your digital presence is no longer optional for anyone who participates in public political speech. Resources on how to do this are available on our Substack and in the Starve The Beast wiki. This includes guidance on encrypted communications, account security, and understanding what data social media companies hold and what a subpoena can reach.
Map the Dragnet in Your Community
Flock camera networks are logging vehicle movements in cities and towns across the country. Knowing where those cameras are is the first step to understanding the surveillance infrastructure in your own neighborhood. Mapping resources and community coordination tools are available through our Reddit communities and the Starve The Beast wiki.
Build Community Networks
When federal agencies target individuals through isolation and intimidation, the most effective countermeasure is community. Knowing your neighbors, building mutual support networks, and sharing information locally are not just good civic practices. Right now, they are civil rights infrastructure.
KEY FIGURES REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE
All links go to official government pages.
Secretary Kristi Noem, Department of Homeland Security
Senator Dick Durbin, Illinois, Senate Judiciary Committee
Senator Cory Booker, New Jersey, Senate Judiciary Committee
Senator Peter Welch, Vermont, Senate Judiciary Committee
Senator Thom Tillis, North Carolina, Senate Judiciary Committee
Senator Alex Padilla, California, Senate Judiciary Committee
Senator Chris Coons, Delaware, Senate Judiciary Committee
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
GLOSSARY OF KEY TERMS AND ENTITIES
Administrative Warrant: A document used by ICE to authorize entry into a private residence. Unlike a judicial warrant, it is not signed by a judge, does not require a showing of probable cause that a crime has been committed, and is issued by ICE staff internally. Secretary Noem defended its use as sufficient authority for home entry. Civil liberties attorneys and constitutional scholars broadly reject this position as a violation of Fourth Amendment protections.
Border Patrol / CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection): The federal agency responsible for securing U.S. borders. Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum, who shot Marramar Martinez, is a CBP employee. CBP operates under the Department of Homeland Security.
DHS (Department of Homeland Security): The cabinet-level federal agency responsible for domestic security, border enforcement, disaster response, and immigration enforcement. Currently led by Secretary Kristi Noem. Houses ICE, CBP, FEMA, the Secret Service, and other agencies.
Digital Footprint: The trail of data a person leaves through their online activity, including social media posts, account registrations, IP addresses, and location data. DHS has used subpoenas to social media companies to convert public digital footprints into real-world identity and home address information.
Dropped with Prejudice: A legal term meaning criminal charges were dismissed and the prosecution is permanently barred from refiling the same charges. In the Martinez case, charges were dropped with prejudice after bodycam footage contradicted the federal agents’ account.
Flock Safety Cameras: A brand of automated license plate reader cameras deployed across public roads and neighborhoods by local governments and law enforcement agencies. These cameras log the movement of vehicles over time, creating a searchable record of where a specific vehicle has been. The Eyes on Intel community tracks Flock camera locations to help people understand where surveillance infrastructure exists in their neighborhoods.
Fourth Amendment: The amendment to the United States Constitution that protects citizens against unreasonable searches and seizures. It requires that warrants be issued by judges, supported by probable cause, and describe specifically what is to be searched or seized. The Lyons memo’s use of administrative warrants to authorize home entry is widely viewed as a circumvention of Fourth Amendment protections.
Homicide by Manual Strangulation: The cause of death determined by an independent medical examiner in the case of Heraldo Lunas Campos, who died in ICE custody. DHS had initially classified his death as a suicide.
ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement): The federal agency within DHS responsible for immigration enforcement in the interior of the United States. ICE conducts deportation operations, manages immigration detention facilities, and investigates immigration violations. Acting Director Todd Lyons issued the internal memo directing agents to use administrative warrants for home entry.
Judicial Warrant: A warrant issued by a judge or magistrate after a showing of probable cause. Required by the Fourth Amendment for searches and seizures of private property. Distinct from an administrative warrant in that it involves independent judicial review.
No-Bid Contract: A government contract awarded to a vendor without a competitive bidding process. The 143 million dollar contract awarded to Safe America Media was a no-bid contract, meaning no other companies were given the opportunity to compete for it.
Operation Midnight Hammer: The name of the U.S. military strike against Iran confirmed by the President during the Oval Office press conference that aired while the Senate Judiciary hearing was ongoing.
Operation Metro Surge: The name given to the federal enforcement operation in Minnesota that is the subject of state-level criminal investigations by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty.
Safe America Media: The media company incorporated eleven days before receiving a 143 million dollar no-bid DHS contract for a television advertising campaign featuring Secretary Noem. Safe America Media subsequently subcontracted the work to a firm connected to Noem’s inner circle and her top advisor Corey Lewandowski.
Senate Judiciary Committee: The U.S. Senate committee with jurisdiction over the federal judiciary, constitutional law, and federal law enforcement agencies including the Department of Homeland Security. The committee conducted the oversight hearing covered in this episode.
Starve The Beast Wiki: A community-maintained open-source intelligence resource operated by the Eyes on Intel community. Contains tools, guides, and collaborative mapping of surveillance infrastructure, corporate collaborators, and civil rights resources.
Subpoena: A legal order compelling a person or organization to produce documents or testimony. DHS has issued subpoenas to social media companies to force the disclosure of the real identities and home addresses of users who have publicly criticized ICE.
TAP Portal (Transparency and Accountability Project): The public evidence submission portal operated by Hennepin County, Minnesota. County Attorney Mary Moriarty is using submitted video, photographs, and witness testimony to build state-level criminal cases against federal agents involved in Operation Metro Surge.
Wrongful Detention: The unlawful detention of a person by law enforcement without legal authority or cause. Senator Booker documented more than 170 incidents of ICE wrongfully detaining American citizens, including 20 children.
Eyes on Intel. Open hearts, open minds.
