In May 2025, as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, a purported quote from her went viral. Noem appeared to incorrectly define the legal term "habeas corpus", saying it allowed President Donald Trump to "remove people from the country."
Noem's purported quote spread widely on X and Facebook, as well as on news sites.
Noem did incorrectly say habeas corpus is "a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country." Footage shows her exchange with Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., where Hassan asked her to define the legal term. As such, we rate this as a correct attribution.
Noem was testifying before the Senate Committee on the Department of Homeland Security's budget for fiscal year 2026, and senators asked her about the legality of curtailing some rights in order to deport migrants. Hassan asked Noem to define habeas corpus. Following is a transcript of the exchange between Hassan and Noem (emphasis ours):
HASSAN: Secretary Noem, the White House deputy chief of staff recently said that the Trump administration is actively looking at suspending habeas corpus. […] I want to clarify your position because it's obviously really important to get this right. So Secretary Noem, what is habeas corpus?
NOEM: Well, habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country and suspend their right to …
HASSAN: No. Let me stop you, ma'am. Excuse me, that's incorrect. […] Habeas corpus is the legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people. If not for that protection, the government could simply arrest people, including American citizens, and hold them indefinitely for no reason. Habeas corpus is the foundational right that separates free societies like America from police states like North Korea. As a senator from the "Live free or die" state, this matters a lot to me and my constituents and to all Americans. So, Secretary Noem, do you support the core protection that habeas corpus provides that the government must provide a public reason in order to detain and imprison someone?
NOEM: I support habeas corpus. I also recognize that the president of the United States has the authority under the Constitution to decide if it should be suspended or not.
HASSAN: It has never been done without approval of Congress, even Abraham Lincoln got retroactive approval from Congress.
The exchange takes place at the 37:20 mark in this CBS News livestream of the hearing:
We have received a number of questions from readers about the real definition of habeas corpus. According to the U.S. court system, the writ of habeas corpus allows a federal court to determine whether a state is lawfully detaining a prisoner. The federal judiciary defines it thusly:
Latin, meaning "you have the body." A writ of habeas corpus generally is a judicial order forcing law enforcement authorities to produce a prisoner they are holding, and to justify the prisoner's continued confinement. Federal judges receive petitions for a writ of habeas corpus from state prison inmates who say their state prosecutions violated federally protected rights in some way.
In contrast to what Noem said, habeas corpus allows detained people to contest their detention. The judicial order prevents unlawful detentions by allowing imprisoned people to petition the courts to review the legality of their detention.
Article 1, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution prevents the suspension of habeas corpus except "when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it." Per Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute, only Congress has the power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus — not the executive branch (i.e., the president).
President Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War when Congress was not in session and was subsequently challenged, though Congress retroactively passed a law granting him the right to do so during the war.
Trump and his advisers have said surges of migrants to the U.S. are like an invasion. In early May 2025, the administration argued it was considering suspending immigrants' right to challenge their detention in court before being deported.