Kristi Noem confronted over ‘inhumane’ treatment of Georgia ICE detainee

“He’s at the mercy of other detainees just to get food, since he can’t get himself to and from the cafeteria,” McBath told Noem while Danis-Taylor watched from the gallery. “This is despicable, Secretary.”

In an interview after the hearing, Danis-Taylor described the experience of watching McBath sharply question Noem as “electrifying” and “emotional,” and said she is hopeful that the secretary’s newfound awareness of her husband’s situation might result in him being released.

“I know ICE is not a department to lean on or trust, to be honest, but I will still hope that she has a human bone in her body,” Danis-Taylor said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“It’s hard to say it out loud,” she added. “He went in detention one way, and we don’t know what it’s going to be like when he gets out.”

Noem’s participation in the House oversight hearing followed a heated round of questioning by U.S. Senators on Tuesday, when the secretary received bipartisan criticism over her handling of the Trump administration’s immigration agenda — much of it centered on the two deadly shootings of U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis.

Wednesday’s House hearing was distinctly more partisan, with Republican committee members praising the administration’s border enforcement and expressing solidarity with the families of people killed by immigrants who are in the country illegally.

During her testimony, Noem touted the arrest of hundreds of thousands of unauthorized immigrants, including 1,500 “known or suspected terrorists.”

“We’re going to have to secure our border and make sure we’re going after dangerous criminal illegals and remove them from our country, and everyday we’re going to have to make tough decisions to uphold the law, but to make sure that the consequences for breaking the law are put in place as well,” Noem said.

Like the other Democratic lawmakers on hand Wednesday, McBath was harshly critical of Noem’s track record.

“Secretary Noem, you claim that you are going after the worst of the worst. If you were doing that, I would really be cheering you on. But this simply isn’t the case,” McBath said.

She added: “Rodney’s not the worst of the worst. This is truly a miscarriage of justice.”

The agency has kept Taylor in detention because of a felony burglary conviction to which he pleaded guilty as a teenager, and from which he was pardoned by the state of Georgia in 2010.

Taylor came to U.S. with medical visa

Born with severe disabilities to his legs and arms, Taylor, now 47, was brought from Liberia to the U.S. by his mother at age 2 under a medical visa, so he could receive treatment. The disabilities eventually led to his left leg being amputated above the knee and his right leg below the knee.

By the time of his arrest by ICE on Jan. 15, 2025, Taylor’s medical visa had long expired, though he had a valid work permit. He also had a pending application for a green card through his adult son, who is a U.S. citizen.

Since the beginning of his time in custody, Taylor’s lawyers and family members raised questions about ICE’s ability to safely detain people with serious disabilities. Among their grievances has been Taylor’s alleged inability to fully charge the prosthetics that help him walk, as well as his lack of access to the appropriate medicine to prevent chafing at one of the amputation areas.

Noem told McBath that she was unfamiliar with Taylor’s situation.

“I will certainly look into it and ensure that [the Stewart Detention Center] is held to the same standards as all as our federal detention standards, which are the highest in the nation,” Noem replied.

She also seemed to suggest, before being interrupted by McBath, that Taylor could be released from detention by accepting deportation.

McBath told Noem that she and 19 other House Democrats sent the secretary a letter last month laying out Taylor’s struggles inside Stewart. That letter mentioned some of Taylor’s more recent health complications, including high blood pressure and a diagnosis of bone spurs in his back, which cause severe pain.

Lawmakers also wrote that Taylor went six days without showering at Stewart because the facility lacked shower stools. When he was given a stool, Taylor had to allegedly crawl through a bathroom floor covered in feces and bodily fluids to reach it and be able to shower.

“It’s inhumane torture that no person should have to endure,” McBath said.

State lawmakers are also sounding the alarm over Taylor’s treatment.

On Tuesday, 13 Democratic members of the Georgia Legislature sent a letter to Noem, along with leaders at ICE and Stewart, to advocate for Taylor’s release.

“Stewart Detention is not a hospital and cannot provide Mr. Taylor the required and needed medical attention to avoid further injury or a life-threatening medical emergency,” they wrote.