Tillis expands block over unanswered questions to DHS

Chris Johnson, CQ-Roll Call on Mar 4, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

WASHINGTON — Sen. Thom Tillis said Tuesday he would put a hold on floor action to confirm groups of presidential nominees and might soon expand that to legislation and nominees at four committees, part of his demand for Department of Homeland Security data on immigration enforcement in his state.

At a DHS oversight hearing at the Senate Judiciary Committee, the North Carolina Republican told Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that he was still demanding the information he had asked for a month ago.

“As of today, I’ll be informing leadership that I’m putting a hold on any en bloc nominations until I get a response,” Tillis said at the hearing. “And in two weeks, if I don’t get a response, I’m going to deny quorum and mark up in as many committees as I can until I get a response.”

Tillis was referring to procedural steps Senate Republicans took in September to speed up consideration of President Donald Trump’s lower-level nominees, reducing the number of votes needed to invoke cloture on an executive resolution to consider en bloc a group of nominations at the subcabinet level.

Tillis later spoke on the Senate floor to clarify that if he still didn’t have the information on March 19, he “will block any nomination, any markup of legislation that goes” before Finance, Banking, Judiciary or Veterans’ Affairs committees.

“My vote is necessary in any partisan votes to get it out of the committees,” Tillis said. “I want answers to questions. That’s what you give to a U.S. senator. You don’t treat us like some sort of person that you just placate in a committee and go on and do other things.”

Tillis said he’s got people in North Carolina who want answers, and he wants answers. “And if I don’t get them, we’re simply going to shut down the noms process until we can get somebody to answer my question,” he said.

Tillis sent Noem a letter more than three weeks ago with questions about encounters between federal immigration officers and residents. He gave a deadline of March 2, the day before her appearance before the committee.

Instead, Tillis said on the floor that Noem responded an hour before the Judiciary Committee hearing that they didn’t intend to answer the questions. “That did not make me happy,” Tillis said.

He had requested information on Operation Charlotte’s Web, which sought to apprehend migrants in North Carolina who were illegally in the United States.

The letter requested encounter-level data involving U.S. citizens, including stops, detentions, questioning, searches, releases, uses of force and property damage incidents. Tillis also sought information on protocols for reporting this data, the total number of apprehensions in Operation Charlotte’s Web and the total number of encounters involving U.S. citizens.

On the floor, Tillis also listed five other questions he wanted answered, including the amount of Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursements that are currently being held by DHS for final approval.

_____

Savannah Behrmann contributed to this report.

_____