The Justice Department is reviewing allegations that Corey Lewandowski, a former top adviser to then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, used his power for personal financial gain.
The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General referred its investigation of Lewandowski to the Justice Department after examining his role in the DHS' $220 million advertising campaign. The probe later widened to allegations that Lewandowski shook down a company pursuing government contracts while he served as Noem's top adviser.
'If they're not going to be honest, they have to be prosecuted.'
Lewandowski has not been charged with a crime related to this investigation and denies wrongdoing.
The allegations involve personal financial profit tied to contracts established during Noem's tenure as DHS secretary, a source told CBS News. The OIG shared its findings with the Justice Department in recent weeks. Fox News described the referral as "criminal."
Lewandowski served at the DHS as a special government employee and acted as Noem's senior adviser and de facto chief of staff. He left the department in March after President Donald Trump removed Noem as secretary following questions about her lavish spending and Lewandowski's role in choosing contractors.
Current DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin testified at his March confirmation hearing that the inspector general was reviewing the advertising contract.
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The probe is also examining allegations that Lewandowski demanded money from GEO Group, a company pursuing unrelated government contracts, in exchange for lobbying for its interests in Washington.
A Lewandowski spokesperson denied that account in March.
"This is absolutely false and did not happen — Mr. Lewandowski never demanded any payment or compensation from the GEO Group, at any time," the spokesperson said.
Noem publicly acknowledged that she personally approved the ad contracts and said Trump was aware of her involvement. Trump said otherwise after her removal.
"I wasn't thrilled with it," Trump told reporters at the time. "I spent less money than that to become president. I didn't know about it."
Under Noem, contracts, grants, and funding obligations above $100,000 required her personal written approval, according to CBS. Some officials said the policy created significant backlogs, especially within the Federal Emergency Management Agency and disaster relief funding generally.
Trump addressed the investigation Thursday.
"I heard something about it, but I don't know exactly what it is," Trump told reporters. "All I know is I want my people to be honest, and if they're not going to be honest, they have to be prosecuted."
"I will never do anything to stop the prosecution of someone who's dishonest," Trump said.
He went farther in remarks reported by Fox News.
"They are stealing from me," Trump said. "So I want my people to be honest. And if they're not honest, I'll have my DOJ go and do whatever they have to do."
Lewandowski's attorney, Adam Trigg, responded in a statement posted to Lewandowski's X account.
"Mr. Lewandowski has not been contacted by the Justice Department regarding any investigation, and he denies any wrongdoing when he was proudly serving his country in a voluntary capacity," Trigg said.
Longtime Trump ally Roger Stone weighed in on X.
"I hired him. Probably the biggest mistake I ever made. He's a talentless piece of human garbage."
Lewandowski managed Trump's 2016 presidential campaign until he was fired that June. He later advised Trump's 2020 and 2024 campaigns.
No inspector general report has been made public.
The Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and Lewandowski's lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.
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Federal agents shot and arrested a "criminal illegal alien" in the Bronx on Thursday, according to the Department of Homeland Security, after he allegedly rammed into them during a law enforcement operation despite having his young son in the vehicle.
Democrats and the liberal media rushed to paint the nonfatal shooting of 28-year-old Dominican national Oscar Bengal as terroristic or at the very least as unwarranted, and the alien — whose deportation was temporarily blocked on Friday by an Obama judge — as a misunderstood, music-loving "New Yorker."
'I am angry tonight.'
It appears that Democrats and their fellow travelers have once again rallied behind a dangerous foreign thug who has had numerous run-ins with the law.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement intelligence shows that "Bengal traveled to the southern border as part of a caravan seeking to exploit the Biden administration’s disastrous open border," a DHS spokesman told Blaze News. "He and countless others successfully snuck into our country at an unknown place and time."
After stealing into the U.S., Bengal continued to break American law.
He was, for instance, arrested in New York City in 2023 and charged with two counts of petit larceny, two counts of third-degree robbery, two counts of criminal possession of a weapon with intention to use, grand larceny, two counts criminal possession of stolen property, two counts of menacing, and two counts of menacing with a weapon.
Bengal ultimately pleaded guilty to fourth-degree grand larceny and was sentenced to five years' probation. The DHS indicated that he was cut loose before ICE could lodge a detainer.
Bengal was then arrested in August 2025 after allegedly selling fentanyl, cocaine, and heroin to an undercover cop on multiple occasions.
According to court documents reviewed by the New York Daily News, the Dominican was indicted in December on one count of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the second degree and nine counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance in third degree.
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A spokesperson for the New York City Special Narcotics Prosecutor's Office told the Daily News that at the time he was shot last week, Bengal had "been out on supervised release" for the drug charges. Court records show that his next scheduled appearance in the drug case is Dec. 2.
Bengal also faces active charges in New York for alleged assault and robbery, had protection orders lodged against him twice in January, and is allegedly a "documented associate of the notorious Trinitario street gang in the Bronx, NY," according to the DHS.
A DHS spokesman told Blaze News that on Sept. 18, ICE attempted to apprehend Bengal in the Bronx.
"He disobeyed ICE officers’ lawful commands and fled law enforcement. For the safety of the general public, ICE stood down and did not pursue him that day," said the spokesman.
When ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers positively identified Bengal driving on Thursday, they "used their vehicles to conduct a vehicle stop and approached Bengal's vehicle on foot," said the DHS.
The DHS alleged that Bengal "then rammed the ICE vehicles and appeared that he intended to strike officers on foot."
Evidently believing that their lives were in jeopardy, one ICE officer opened fire, grazing Bengal's neck.
"Bengal refused lawful orders to exit his vehicle. He then accelerated his vehicle, smashing into two of our ICE vehicles. He then weaponized his vehicle and proceeded to accelerate his vehicle toward other officers," said ICE ERO Executive Director Marcos Charles. "Our officer, believing that their life, the lives of their partners, and the lives of the general public were in danger, used their training and fired their weapon."
Bengal's lawyers did not respond to Blaze News' request for comment by deadline.
At the time of the shooting, Bengal's young son was in his vehicle.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin emphasized that "Oscar put his child at risk when he chose to accelerate, hit two federal vehicles, and also weaponize the vehicle and move towards at an accelerated rate towards officers that were trying to apprehend him."
Mullin noted that his agency knew that this was going to be a "contentious arrest" and that precautions were taken to maximize safety at the time it was conducted.
Bodycam footage released by the New York Police Department shows police taking Bengal from the officers who had administered first aid and transporting the convict to the hospital, where he received attention for what the DHS described as a "superficial" injury.
After the shooting, a mob soon gathered outside New York Presbyterian Allen Hospital to protest ICE, trapping federal officers inside the building, reported the New York Daily News.
In the hours and days that followed Bengal's arrest, the anti-ICE protests turned violent.
Leftist officials and the liberal media helped feed the mob's rage and misconceptions, namely that ICE had targeted a "New Yorker" and that the shooting was unjustified.
New York City Democrat Mayor Zohran Mamdani rushed to condemn the incident, tweeting, "This is an unconscionable and incredibly serious situation. I have called the President; when we speak I will demand that he ends all ICE enforcement actions in our city. I will not stand by while ICE agents terrorize our communities."
"Our thoughts are with the injured New Yorker and his family tonight. We are praying for his recovery," added the democratic socialist mayor.
Mamdani, who tried to negotiate the convict's release, later stated, "I am angry tonight. Because today ICE shot a New Yorker. They shot a New Yorker while his five year old child was in the car. ICE makes this city less safe."
Carmen De La Rosa, a Democrat New York City Council member who was born in the Dominican Republic, attacked ICE, stating that "no matter what DHS alleges this adult male did, that does not warrant a death sentence."
"This is a rogue, untrained, unprofessional agency and a dastardly strain on the country," said the foreign-born leftist. "It must be abolished."
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) noted on Thursday that she had spoken with President Donald Trump and Mullin and "expressed outrage on behalf of New Yorkers and urged them to halt ICE enforcement operations in New York."
The following day, Hochul insinuated that ICE — not the criminal alien — had put Bengal's son at risk and suggested after speaking to the boy's mother that "all I wanted to do was give her a hug and tell her this never should have happened to her family."
Democratic Socialists of America called the shooting a "horrifying demonstration of the terror ICE brings into our communities."
When similarly melting down, Darializa Avila Chevalier — the Islamic anti-police, anti-Israel, anti-border socialist now poised to win a congressional seat in New York as a Democrat — initially referred to the criminal noncitizen as a "member of our community."
After New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tish publicly referred to Bengal's thuggish history, Chevalier told Hasan Piker that Bengal's criminal record and immigration status "doesn't even matter."
"Police Commissioner Tisch came out, and I understand that it is her role to provide more information, and that is why she comes to these press conferences," said the congressional candidate. "But rather than, you know, condemn ICE, rather than condemn the shooting or the events that had just taken place, she started to villainize Oscar, right?"
Chevalier suggested further that the thug's alleged efforts to evade and attack law enforcement constituted self-defense and stressed that "he needs to be released."
The New York Times, of course, did its part by painting Bengal as a "friendly," music-loving neighbor.
While his name has appeared with multiple spellings in court documents and recent reports, the DHS confirmed that the proper spelling is "Bengal."
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On Columbus Day, Homeland Security Investigations showed up before dawn at Minnesota Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar's Washington, D.C., residence with a court-authorized search warrant. That fact does not prove Omar committed a crime, and it does not by itself answer the Democrats' charge that politics infected the investigation. It does mean the Justice Department put enough evidence before a judge to establish probable cause that evidence of a crime would be found there.
That is not nothing.
The standard should be simple: No political enemy gets convicted by press release, and no member of Congress gets sanctuary by title.
We are still short on details, which is normal at this stage. The Justice Department has confirmed only that the search was part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation. Multiple reports say the probe concerns immigration paperwork connected to Omar's family, but the government has not publicly laid out its theory or disclosed what agents were seeking.
The investigation has a long history. In September, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was an ongoing probe and claimed, “We know that she married her brother to try to bring him into the United States.” Omar has long denied that allegation, and the government has not publicly produced evidence establishing it. Mullin also suggested investigators were looking more broadly at the family's immigration history.
Omar's finances have drawn separate scrutiny. A 2024 congressional disclosure appeared to value assets tied largely to her husband's businesses at between $6 million and $30 million. Later disclosures and corrections put the couple’s assets dramatically lower, with Omar's office blaming an “accounting error” that overstated the value of the businesses. Fox News reported revised figures between roughly $18,000 and $95,000. Quite a discrepancy.
In January, the Oversight Project flagged more than $1 million in earmarks pushed by Omar and Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) for Minneapolis nonprofits whose operations raised serious questions. The money was removed from the spending bill, and Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) asked the Justice Department to investigate.
So now we wait. But whatever investigators presented was enough to get a warrant. To borrow Omar's much-debated 2019 phrase about 9/11 and the civil liberties backlash that followed, “some people did something.” Here, the Justice Department did something more concrete: It put its evidence before a court and got permission to search.
House Democrat leaders immediately called the raid “corrupt weaponization” and a “rogue abuse of power.” They are certainly free to make that case. But Trump's hostility toward Omar does not make evidence disappear. The proper test is the evidence, not the defendant's politics or job title.
I have been a tough critic of the Department of Homeland Security for failing to deliver the mass-deportation agenda voters were promised. If Monday’s search is part of a legitimate criminal case, the DHS deserves credit for pursuing it without treating a member of Congress as untouchable.
A broader political problem also extends beyond Omar: the rise of socialism. Too many elected officials increasingly treat ethnic identity and foreign attachment as competing sources of political allegiance, while attacking the institutions charged with enforcing immigration law.
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Take Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.). Last year, after remarks she delivered in Spanish in Mexico City, we argued that she had put Guatemalan identity ahead of American allegiance. She has now gone farther in policy terms: pushing mass amnesty and gutting enforcement. Her Reimagining Safety Act would dismantle the Department of Homeland Security and abolish ICE while moving some existing functions into a new department.
Or look at Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.), who faces federal charges arising from a confrontation at the Delaney Hall immigration detention facility. She argued that congressional oversight and the Speech or Debate Clause insulated her from prosecution. In August, the Third Circuit blew that argument out of the water. McIver denies wrongdoing, but the legal theory that a member's oversight role makes ordinary criminal law disappear has already failed in court.
Republicans are not immune from this politics either. Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) recently released an ad attacking Trump's immigration enforcement as having “gone too far” and warned that Hispanic voters who backed him in 2024 “feel betrayed.” It is yet another example of a politician speaking as representatives of an ethnic voting bloc first and as advocates of a uniform immigration law second.
RELATED: The mass-deportation promise is disappearing
Congress should respond to this problem carefully, not with ticky-tack retaliation over political speech. Disagreeing with America's immigration laws, criticizing ICE, or invoking an ethnic heritage are not crimes. Declaring allegiance to a foreign country and flagrantly violating constitutional oaths is another matter.
That is why Monday's search should be treated neither as a conviction nor as a meaningless political stunt. A warrant is not a verdict. If the investigation ultimately produces evidence that Omar committed immigration fraud, made material false statements, or engaged in other serious criminal conduct, Congress should act under its own rules rather than hide behind the slow pace of criminal litigation.
Committee assignments and access to sensitive government information are privileges Congress controls. Due process does not require institutional paralysis. The standard should be simple: No political enemy gets convicted by press release, and no member of Congress gets sanctuary by title.
The "ongoing criminal investigation" into Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) seems to have escalated Monday morning, as Homeland Security Investigations agents raided her residence in Washington, D.C., Fox News has reported.
Fox News reported that agents raided Omar's residence in connection with the immigration paperwork Omar's late father filled out on her behalf when she was a child.
'This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.'
Omar was born in Somalia in October 1982, according to her congressional biography. She claimed in a 2018 interview that she became a naturalized U.S. citizen before she turned 18.
Rumors have swirled for nearly a decade that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is Omar's biological brother and that she married him to help him remain in the U.S.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin even seemed to confirm those rumors during the Republican midterm convention last month.
"We know that she married her brother to try to bring him to the United States," Mullin told podcaster Benny Johnson September 10. "We know he lives now in London."
Mullin confirmed an "investigation" into Omar and that "something's gonna happen."
RELATED: DHS secretary: Ilhan Omar married her brother, and consequences are coming
A few days after Mullin's comments to Johnson, border czar Tom Homan confirmed the "ongoing criminal investigation" into Omar.
"If someone committed immigration violation, if someone committed marriage fraud or anything like that, regardless if they're a congressman or not, no one's above the law," Homan said September 13.
According to Fox News, multiple people wearing HSI jackets were seen outside Omar's D.C. residence Monday morning at around 6 a.m. The DHS and the DOJ are both involved in the investigation, Fox said.
"Today in the Washington, D.C., area, Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice. This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal investigation," a DOJ spokesperson told the outlet in a statement.
A TV broadcast of the report had a slightly different statement: "This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation."
Fox could not confirm whether Omar was at the residence at the time of the raid.
Multiple attempts to reach Omar's office were unsuccessful. Omar's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
This is a breaking story.
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America's most prominent libertarian think tank released a report on Monday concern-mongering over the drastic drop in legal immigration from third-world Muslim nations under President Donald Trump.
The Cato Institute — admittedly a big supporter of immigration and longtime opponent of the president's border wall — is fretting over an apparent 96% drop in immigrant visa issuances and refugee admissions from majority-Muslim countries such as Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Libya, Pakistan, and Somalia.
'We’ve come so far on these issues.'
Meanwhile, prominent voices in the MAGA movement are celebrating the news from Cato.
The White House's rapid response account even shared a Cato Institute graph showing the decline in migration from Muslim countries.
In response to the graph, Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet wrote, "I couldn't love this stat and this graphic any more. This is actually exactly what I voted for."
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said, "Coming to America means committing to America: our Constitution, our laws, our freedoms. Tougher vetting under POTUS Trump has cut admissions from high-risk countries by 96%. We owe Americans nothing less than knowing exactly who we let in."
Texas Rep. Brandon Gill (R) noted, "Absolutely incredible victory for the American people, thanks to POTUS."
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The libertarian think tank underscored that Trump and his administration are directly responsible for the drop in admissions of refugees and migrants from nations, highlighting:
Many of the administration's actions have been challenged and in some cases blocked in the courts. The State Department's pause on visa processing from 75 countries, for instance, is no longer in effect as of Aug. 21, owing to a court order.
Nevertheless, these actions have proven impactful.
The libertarian think tank's analysis of State Department data shows incredible drops in migration from various Muslim terrorist hot spots.
Whereas, for example, 5,563 immigrants and refugees from Afghanistan were admitted by the U.S. in former President Joe Biden's final month in office, there were only nine in February 2026 — a decline of 99.8%. Whereas 3,026 Pakistani refugees and migrants were admitted in December 2024, only 63 were admitted in February 2026. Similarly dramatic declines were observed among admissions from various other Muslim nations.
"If the current pace continues, the fiscal year 2026 (which started in October) would see the fewest immigrants and refugees from majority-Muslim countries in at least 30 years," said the Cato Institute report.
'Of course, there are immigrants who don’t work and commit crimes.'
The report noted further that if these levels continue for the rest of this fiscal year, "then only about 40,000 immigrants and refugees from these countries will have immigrated that year. This would be down nearly 80 percent from 2024 and even about 30 percent lower than 2020, when the first Trump administration used the pandemic as an excuse to cut off legal immigration."
The libertarian outfit also questioned the administration's justification for the 40-country entry ban on the basis of security, claiming that "only two of the ten majority Muslim countries on that list have ever carried out a deadly terrorist attack in the United States."
The Cato Institute further characterized immigrants from Muslim nations as hard workers who have a positive effect on government budgets and as "much more highly educated than the US-born."
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Minnesota is among the states that has had a different experience on the ground with some of these supposed scholarly and industrious imports.
The Center for Immigration Studies reported in December that approximately 54% of Somali-headed households in Minnesota received food stamps and 73% of Somali households had at least one member on Medicaid. By way of comparison, the figures for native households were 7% and 18%, respectively. The CIS also noted that 58.2% of working-age Somalis do not speak English very well and 39% have no high school diploma.
Trump shared a graph on Jan. 4 titled "Immigrant Welfare Recipient Rates by Country of Origin," which showed that the percentages of immigrant households on assistance from Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Pakistan, South Sudan, and Yemen were all over 40% and went as high as 75%.
The Cato Institute's report claimed, "Of course, there are immigrants who don’t work and commit crimes. But they are the minority. The vast majority of immigrants — including those from majority-Muslim countries — want to contribute to the United States, and they have contributed to it."
The libertarian think tank implored Congress to "go further to protect Americans’ right to associate freely with people born in other countries, regardless of their countries of origin."
William Wolfe, the executive director of the Center for Baptist Leadership, tweeted, "To see an official White House account celebrating a decrease in 1) legal immigration and from 2) explicitly Muslim-Majority countries is truly amazing. We’ve come so far on these issues. Some of the young guys don’t know that, but it did not used to be like this."
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Cabaña Mexican Grill in Garden City, Kansas, temporarily closed last week as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted operations across the southwestern part of the state.
In a bilingual Facebook post featuring a Mexican flag, the restaurant said, “ICE is in our community, and fear is spreading through the families who work hard every day to keep businesses like ours running.”
Establishment Republicans, always preferring business interests over their voters, may not get the message by midterms. They may not ever get it. But the voters certainly do.
The post urged other businesses to stand with their employees: “People before profit. Community before business. Together.”
Kansas Republican U.S. Sens. Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran responded by stressing coordination between federal agents and local law enforcement.
“When ICE operates in Kansas, it needs to coordinate with our local law enforcement,” Marshall posted to X. “Our sheriffs and police know these communities better than anyone, and working together keeps officers and residents safe.”
Marshall said he was closely following events and had been in direct contact with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and local authorities “as ICE executes warrants in order to keep Kansans safe.”
Moran added that he had spoken with Mullin and stressed “the importance of DHS working with our local law enforcement to safely execute these warrants.”
He also relayed an assurance from Mullin that the warrants were “only for the purpose of arresting individuals who have been charged with criminal activities.”
Democratic Senate candidate Adam Hamilton struck much the same note. He said immigration agents should focus on serious criminals, coordinate with local officials, and avoid leaving Kansas families afraid.
How strange that the Republicans and the Democrat should sound so similar, especially to voters who expect Republicans to offer an unapologetic defense of immigration enforcement.
Donald Trump campaigned in 2024 on carrying out what he called “the largest deportation operation in American history.” More than 77 million Americans voted for him, and he carried Kansas by 16 points.
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Yet when federal immigration agents arrived in Southwest Kansas, the state’s two Republican senators did not lead with a defense of the administration’s enforcement authority. They led with concerns about coordination, local knowledge, and public safety — language strikingly similar to Hamilton’s.
That distinction is worth getting right.
ICE routinely works with state and local law enforcement, including through its 287(g) partnerships. Asking federal agents to communicate with sheriffs and police is not, by itself, a sanctuary policy, nor does local government possess a veto over federal immigration enforcement.
The real question is what Moran and Marshall believe ICE should be enforcing.
ICE is not merely a federal version of a local police department. Immigration enforcement is itself at the core of its mission. Removal does not depend in every case on a separate violent-crime conviction.
When Moran and Marshall say that ICE should be focusing on public safety or illegal aliens charged with criminal activity, what they seem to mean is that the overwhelming majority of illegal aliens should receive enforcement amnesty. That’s madness.
I don’t think it is even worth pointing out to either Republican senator that it is illegal for illegal aliens to work under the table in the United States, and usually that implicates other crimes, including identity theft and document fraud.
Logic cannot prevail when we are hearing Democratic talking points from the mouths of Republicans. This is particularly troubling at a time when some Democrats, including Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), are openly calling to abolish the Department of Homeland Security.
RELATED: The mass-deportation promise is disappearing
Establishment Republicans, always preferring business interests over their voters, may not get the message by midterms. They may not ever get it. But the voters certainly do, particularly in areas that have been transformed by mass immigration, both legal and illegal.
Comments responding to a KSN story included blunt reactions: “The businesses hiring them should be fined and arrested,” “Sounds like they need to stay closed if they can’t hire Americans,” and from one Western Kansas resident, “I voted for this!!!”
Those comments are not a scientific sample of Kansas opinion, obviously. They are, however, a reminder of the constituency Republican politicians helped create when they spent years promising tougher immigration enforcement and failed to deliver.
Now that enforcement has arrived in Southwest Kansas, voters can see clearly how their elected officials respond.
The Trump administration has fired back a scathing response to a Democrat congresswoman who called for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be abolished.
Democrat Rep. Delia Ramirez of Illinois said the bill she announced Wednesday would dismantle the Department of Homeland Security, abolish ICE, and reroute their funding to a new department pushing community-based justice policies.
'Our 270,000 DHS patriots are keeping Americans SAFE — unlike this open borders politician who refuses to prioritize Americans over illegal aliens.'
The DHS Sec. Markwayne Mullin replied in a statement to Blaze News.
"Radical leftists are calling to defund the police and abolish DHS. It’s NEVER going to happen," said the secretary. "Our 270,000 DHS patriots are keeping Americans SAFE — unlike this open borders politician who refuses to prioritize Americans over illegal aliens."
A spokesperson for the DHS also responded to Ramirez with a list of the worst illegal alien criminals ICE has deported from the U.S.
"Representative Ramirez should be thanking our law enforcement for removing these dangerous criminals from her district — NOT vilifying law enforcement," the spokesperson said.
Ramirez replied in a lengthy statement to Blaze News via email.
"Every day, Americans wake up with a new reason to dismantle DHS, reimagine safety, and build something that honors our shared humanity," the Democrat said.
"The people have the power to reshape the government: instead of the weapon DHS has proven to be, we need a department built on the best parts of who we are and can be, and the best examples of how we can take care of each other in hard times," she added.
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"My Reimagining Safety Act PROTECTS [the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency], [the Transportation Security Administration], the Coast Guard, and Customs functions, expands [the Federal Emergency Management Agency], and delivers funding back to our communities," Ramirez continued. "Markwayne and DHS will keep spreading cheap lies and fearmongering in a desperate attempt to save face because dismantling DHS and building something new is part of how we hold them accountable, stop corruption, and end their lawlessness."
Ramirez had previously said the new criminal justice department would be "human- and community-centered" rather than be centered on "surveillance" and "terrorizing people."
She had also earned the scorn of many when she said she was a "proud Guatemalan" first and an American second.
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An individual identified by the Department of Homeland Security as an illegal alien from Venezuela was shot on Sunday during an immigration enforcement operation in Austin, Texas.
Democratic officials and the liberal media rushed to vilify Immigration and Customs Enforcement and characterize 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez as a victim who has been subjected to inhumane treatment at the hands of federal authorities.
'He entered illegally under the Biden Administration.'
The DHS has, however, cast doubt on the veracity of the anti-ICE crowd's various claims regarding Perez's case.
"Sanctuary politicians and the mainstream media have wasted no time in spreading lies about an ICE officer-involved shooting of an illegal alien in Austin, Texas," DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement.
"Contrary to their claims, this person is an illegal alien who has no legal status to be here and has been given some of the best medical care he’s ever received in his life," continued Mullin. "No amount of smears and false narratives will slow down ICE from doing its job by removing dangerous illegal aliens from our communities and making America safe again."
The DHS fact-checked numerous claims that have been advanced by Democrats and/or the liberal media since the incident.
RELATED: Texas shuts down rioters, Democrats fan the flames after ICE shooting
Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro (D) and multiple news outlets pushed the claim by Perez's immigration attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, that the Venezuelan was issued a work permit.
The DHS countered that Perez's "work permit expired in 2025" and noted that "a work permit does NOT grant legal status."
As for Goldfinch's complaint that Perez was ordered removed in absentia, the DHS replied, "Yes. This is why aliens must show up to their removal proceedings. Legal obligations do not end because someone’s address changed."
The DHS similarly rejected the suggestion by Castro and others that Perez lawfully entered the United States and is here legally, stating, "He entered illegally under the Biden administration. The illegal alien had no valid work permit, had no protective status, and had a final order of removal from a Department of Justice (DOJ) Immigration Judge."
In a letter to Sec. Mullin dated Tuesday, Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) and about 100 other Democratic lawmakers also claimed that Perez "is not receiving the care he needs in detention," has received no pain medication, and was forced to sleep on the floor.
The DHS said instead that Perez "is receiving medical care around the clock, including pain medication," and that he "was released from the hospital and arrived at the detention facility just a few hours later, where he slept on a bed."
Democrats further claimed in the letter that "there is no indication Mr. Garces Perez posed a threat to officers." However, newly released footage appears to show a car matching the description of Perez's vehicle speeding away from law enforcement.
"Resisting officers and evading arrest is dangerous for our officers, illegal aliens, and the public," said the DHS. "We remind the public that resisting officers and evading arrest is a felony and a federal crime."
His translator at a news conference Monday said, "He asked the ICE officer if he could please at least pull over so that they could detain him. They said no, and they side-swiped him, basically. He did a U-turn to try and find a spot to park so that he could go with them, and they basically ran into him and then shot him."
Perez is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 30 in connection to his attorney's effort to challenge his deportation.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Thursday that it has revoked or terminated the immigration status of about 2.2 million illegals since President Donald Trump came into office, setting them up for removal from the United States. In doing so, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) ended categorical parole programs, which the Biden administration […]
It is not misinformation, disinformation, or a crime to echo Democrats’ longheld view that election machines are vulnerable to manipulation.
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