Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas repeatedly spoke over Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem Tuesday as the Trump official responded to a question regarding the administration’s deportation policy concerning minors.
Escobar said, “Reclaiming my time” to Noem four times within 20 seconds while the secretary testified before the House Oversight Committee.
The representative’s question to Noem concerned whether a specific Immigration and Customs Enforcement form was filled out in the case of three children of illegal immigrants, who are U.S. citizens, presumably because they were born in the country.
Escobar asked if ICE Form 71-078, Caregiver Designation at Arrest, was completed.
“The specific cases that you’re referencing with these children, it was the parents’ choice to take their children with them,” Noem answered.
Escobar interjected, “Did ICE follow through on the policy?”
Noem continued with her answer, “which it is a policy of the Trump administration to keep families together.”
“Reclaiming my time,” the congresswoman then said.
.@Sec_Noem completely destroys @RepEscobar for pushing the Fake News that the Trump administration deported U.S. citizen children:
“The specific cases that you’re referencing with these children, it was the parents’ choice to take their children, which it is the policy of the… pic.twitter.com/5CS6ScUVjb
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 6, 2025
Do you approve of what the Trump administration has done at the border?
Escobar proceeded to instruct Noem that her questions only require a yes or no answer. “Was that form used in any of those cases?” the congresswoman asked.
“I will get back to you on that specific form. I don’t know the number, but I do know these mothers were on the record, filling out paperwork and in interviews reiterating they wanted to keep their children with them,” Noem responded.
Even before she had completed her answer, Escobar once again interrupted, saying, “Ma’am, reclaiming my time,” and restated it two more times.
“I’d like you to avoid the filibuster so I can get to all my questions,” Escobar said.
“I’m answering your questions with facts,” Noem countered.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio faced a similar question from NBC’s Kristen Welker last month while appearing on “Meet the Press,” when questioned about a Washington Post story saying the administration had deported three U.S. citizen children.
“That’s a misleading headline,” Rubio said. “Three U.S. citizens, ages 4, 7 and 2, were not deported. Their mothers, who are illegally in this country, were deported. The children went with their mothers. Those children are U.S. citizens. They can come back into the United States, if there’s their father or someone here who wants to assume them.”
“You guys make it sound like ICE agents kicked down the door and grabbed the two-year-old and threw him on an airplane. That’s misleading. That’s just not true,” he added.
The headline about three U.S. citizens ages 7, 4, and 2 being deported was very misleading.
It was their mothers, who were in this country illegally, who were deported. The decision on whether or not their children go with them is the choice of the parents. pic.twitter.com/iHIhcLO4sX
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) April 28, 2025
Welker followed up asking whether people are being deported without due process.
“If someone’s in this country, unlawfully, illegally, that person gets deported,” Rubio answered.
“If that person is with a 2-year-old child or has a 2-year-old child, and says, ‘I want to take my child with me,’ well, now you have two choices. You can say, ‘Yes, of course you can take your child, whether they’re a citizen or not, because it’s your child,’ Or you can say, ‘Yes you can go, but your child must stay behind.’ And then your headlines would read, ‘U.S. holding hostage, 2-year-old, 4-year-old, 7-year-old while mother deported,’” the secretary said.
He reiterated, “So the parents make that choice.”
Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children or ICE will place the children with someone the parent designates. In this case, the parent stated they wanted to be removed with the children.
We take our responsibility to protect children seriously and will… https://t.co/HmsNziMM2M
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) April 26, 2025
According to Border “czar” Tom Homan, the Trump administration is also working to locate 300,000 minors who crossed the southern border illegally and unaccompanied, but were lost during the Biden administration.
He said, “Already about 5,000 found. Rescued. Some of these were with relatives, but some weren’t. Some were in forced labor,” adding it is a hard job, because they do not have the digital footprint that adults do, but “we’re not going to rest until every single one of them is found and rescued.”
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