Kristi Noem 'Humbled' After Being Caught Lying Under Oath To Congress About Deporting Veterans

A stunned House hearing on 11 December 2025 ended with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem publicly challenged over a statement about deported veterans, and a Purple Heart recipient appearing by Zoom to contradict her.

The exchange unfolded during the House Committee on Homeland Security's annual 'Worldwide Threats to the Homeland' hearing, when Representative Seth Magaziner asked whether DHS had deported any U.S. military veterans.

Secretary Noem replied, 'Sir, we have not deported U.S. citizens or military veterans.' Moments later Magaziner produced a live video link to Sae Joon Park, a Purple Heart recipient who was forced to leave the United States earlier this year, a direct refutation of Noem's claim.

What Happened In The Hearing

Noem appeared before the committee to testify about international and domestic threats, alongside senior intelligence and FBI officials, but immigration and deportations came to dominate the session.

Her prepared remarks, filed with the committee, set out DHS priorities, but the most widely watched moment came during the questioning period when the veteran's appearance exposed an apparent factual error in her oral testimony.

Representative Magaziner introduced Sae Joon Park by video, saying Park had been shot twice serving in Panama in 1989 and later ordered removed following decades-old drug convictions tied to PTSD.

Park, who had lived in the U.S. since he was a child and served in the Army, told the committee he had been given little choice but to 'self-deport' under threat of arrest and detention. Noem, confronted on the spot, said she would 'review the case' but otherwise defended aggressive enforcement of immigration laws.

Story Behind The Exchange

Park's case has been documented by legal clinics and senators pressing the department for answers. The University of Hawaiʻi's Refugee & Immigration Law Clinic has worked on his file and publicised the circumstances that led to his departure: a series of convictions two decades ago, a removal order, later deferred action due to his service, and an abrupt revocation of protections this year after the change in administration.

Park's lawyers argue his treatment demonstrates the harshness of current enforcement priorities toward immigrant veterans.

Senators Mazie Hirono and Richard Blumenthal wrote to Secretary Noem earlier this year demanding explanations for Park's forced self-deportation, calling the situation 'deeply troubling' and asking why someone who served and was wounded for the United States was made to leave after nearly fifty years of residency.

That correspondence, a formal congressional request for answers, is part of a growing body of primary documentation that frames Park's story not as an isolated news item but as evidence used by lawmakers in oversight of DHS policy and practice.

Legal And Policy Context

Under U.S. immigration law, lawful permanent residents (green-card holders) may be placed in removal proceedings for certain criminal convictions. Courts and advocates point out that many of the cases now reaching enforcement priority involve non-violent offences linked to mental-health conditions such as PTSD, conditions seeded in military service.

The Park case has catalysed criticism from veterans' groups, defence attorneys and members of Congress who say blanket enforcement without case-by-case discretion risks deporting people who sacrificed for the country.

From a legal perspective, the committee exchange does not itself prove criminal perjury; perjury requires willful falsification of a material fact under oath. But the optics are stark: an oral assertion to Congress that there have been no deported veterans was immediately contradicted by a witness who served in uniform and whose removal has been documented by legal clinics, local reporting and congressional correspondence.

Lawmakers on both sides framed the episode in stark terms; Democrats called it a lie under oath, while Republicans pointed to the department's obligation to enforce existing statutes.

For now, a humbled secretary pledged to review individual files; a Purple Heart veteran remains abroad.