Activists with CODEPINK and local D.C. residents disrupted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s testimony at the House Committee on Homeland Security’s annual “Worldwide Threats to the Homeland” hearing on Tuesday. The disruption was intended to call out Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as the domestic threat to community and public safety that they are.

Wearing “Abolish ICE” t-shirts, the group packed the hearing. During Noem’s testimony, two CODEPINK activists disrupted Noem. One jumped up yelling, “ICE off our streets! Stop terrorizing our communities,” while another dressed as a priest yelled, “The power of Christ compels you to stop ICE raids. Love thy neighbor.”

You can watch the disruption here.

“How dare she sit there and talk about ‘threats to our homeland’ when she’s the one using OUR tax dollars to terrorize our communities. If she really wants to protect our homeland, which by the way is stolen land, she should stop asking for more and more of our tax dollars for a department that is making our neighbors afraid to leave their homes. ICE should be abolished, and that money should be used to fund what our communities actually need- healthcare, schools, housing, the fight against climate change, to name a few,” explained Bita Iuliano, one of the activists present in the hearing.

“Noem, along with Hegseth, Rubio, and the rest of the war criminal crew, are the ones terrorizing our communities, from our streets here to Palestine, Venezuela, and all over the world. They are the ones making it unsafe, and they’re using our dollars to do it. All we have are our voices, and we’re going to make sure we’re heard,” she continued.

Participants in the action emphasized how Noem and the Department of Homeland Security undermine true safety and security with their Gestapo-style kidnappings of men, women, teenagers, children, migrant workers, and U.S.-born citizens alike.

Recent polling shows that the majority of people in the United States disapprove of ICE and its operations, as communities are coming together to find creative ways to protect their neighbors from the masked, unmarked terrorists. People are demanding the reallocation of federal funds from immigration enforcement to social services and community-based programs that will result in real safety and security.

This post was originally published on Common Dreams.