WATCH: Blumenthal and Noem spar over family separation at the border | Trump confirmation hearings
January 17, 2025
10,336
55
0.53%
Search the Record
IndexedEvery word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
Amna Nawaz Episodes Around January 17, 2025
See what was published immediately before and after this episode.
2:26Now PlayingWATCH: Blumenthal and Noem spar over family separation at the border | Trump confirmation hearings
YouTube Description
as posted by the channelSen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Ct., and homeland security secretary nominee Kristi Noem argued in a confirmation hearing Friday held by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs about President-elect Donald Trump’s policy that separated families at the U.S.-Mexico border during his first administration.
Blumenthal said he wanted “to call attention” to legislation he’s sponsored called the Keep Families Together Act and the Families Belong Together Act, which he says would prevent children from being separated from their parents at ports of entry and reunite children who were separated from their parents in 2017 and 2018.
In response, Noem said, “The Trump administration never had a family separation policy. They had a 'zero tolerance' policy, which said that our laws would be followed.” During the Trump administration, more than 2,600 children were separated from their parents, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Noem, the Republican governor of South Dakota, is a rancher and a former member of Congress. A close ally to Trump, Noem has called migration across the U.S. southern border “an invasion.” If confirmed, Noem would play a key role in carrying out his promised immigration crackdown by leading the Department of Homeland Security, one of the largest federal agencies.
Newsletters
PBS News podcasts
Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app
Find more from PBS News at
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Guests & Subjects Covered
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.