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Committee debate on access to ICE facilities and censure resolution ends with procedural rulings
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Summary
Members debated a subpoena request for Secretary Kristy Noem and a House resolution to censure Representative MacGyver; the committee chair ruled the subpoena motion out of order for a business meeting and the censure resolution was entered into the record by unanimous consent after debate.
During the committee’s business meeting, members debated two oversight and accountability measures: a motion to subpoena Secretary Kristy Noem to answer questions about denying committee members access to an ICE facility, and a resolution (House Resolution 539) introduced to censure and remove Representative Lamonica MacGyver from the committee.
Representative (name not specified) moved to subpoena Secretary Kristy Noem, saying committee members had been denied statutorily authorized access to an ICE detention facility and citing section 527 of the 2024 appropriations law as the statutory basis for unannounced congressional oversight visits. The mover said the department denied an advance notice request and that a deputy field director later acknowledged migrants had been held at the facility for two nights or longer, which the mover argued fell within the statute’s scope. The chair ruled that a subpoena motion is a hearing-era motion under committee rules and therefore not in order during a business meeting; the chair advised the member to raise the matter at the next hearing.
Representative Higgins introduced House Resolution 539, a censure resolution regarding Representative MacGyver, and sought unanimous consent to enter it into the record. Members debated the appropriate response to pending criminal charges and the precedent around committee removal when a member is indicted. Several members stressed the principle that a person is “innocent until proven guilty” and cautioned against preemptive removals; others said censure or recusal from committee matters involving related subject areas is historically appropriate. The chair stated that unanimous consent to enter the resolution into the record was granted.
Later, the ranking member and other members entered letters and objections into the record concerning denied oversight access and urged Secretary Noem to answer questions outside the business-meeting setting. The chair closed the meeting after authorizing staff to make technical changes to reflect committee actions and setting a two-calendar‑day period for members to file supplemental views. No subpoena was issued during the business meeting; the censure resolution was entered into the record for committee consideration.
