Commentary: Homeland Security says it doesn't detain citizens. These brave Californians prove it has

"During a congressional hearing Thursday, Noem, our secretary of Homeland Security and self-appointed Cruelty Barbie, reiterated her oft-used and patently false line that only the worst of the worst are being targeted by immigration authorities. That comes after weeks of her department posting online, on its ever-more far-right social media accounts, that claims of American citizens being rounded up and held incommunicado are "fake news" or a "hoax.""

"Their testimony accompanied the release of a congressional report by the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in which 22 American citizens, including a dozen from the Golden State, told their own shocking, terrifying tales of manhandling and detentions by what can only be described as secret police - armed agents who wouldn't identify themselves and often seemed to lack basic training required for safe urban policing."

"Call it an accident, call it the plan. But don't stoop to the reprehensible gaslighting of calling it a lie: It is fact that federal agents have detained and arrested dozens, if not hundreds, of United States citizens as part of immigration sweeps, regardless of what Kristi Noem would like us to believe. "Stop fear-mongering. ICE does NOT arrest or deport U.S. citizens," Homeland Security recently poste d on the former Twitter."

Federal agents have detained and arrested dozens, if not hundreds, of United States citizens during immigration sweeps. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has repeatedly claimed that only the "worst of the worst" are targeted, while departmental social accounts labeled reports of citizen detentions as fake. Multiple citizens testified to being seized by masked men, taken to holding cells, and denied phones, lawyers, medications, and other legal rights. A Senate Permanent Subcommittee report documented 22 American citizens' accounts, including many Californians, describing manhandling and detentions by armed, often unidentified agents. Immigration enforcement is expanding with increased funding.

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