Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her adviser Corey Lewandowski have been ordered to swear, under penalty of perjury, that they did not use personal devices to communicate about immigration policy that affects hundreds of thousands of people.
On Tuesday, US Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim of San Francisco issued the order in response to the National TPS Alliance’s request for documents.
The requested materials are related to the Department of Homeland Security’s termination of a 2023 extension of TPS for Venezuelans and people from other countries, including Haiti.
Noem and Lewandowski had previously refused to hand over those documents, claiming that they were unresponsive to the specific request, which included records with search terms like “Temporary Protected Status” and “Tren de Aragua.”
The plaintiffs, on the other hand, claimed that the documents “would be indisputably responsive,” and demanded that they be turned over. Kim eventually agreed.
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Noem has argued, through her attorneys, that the release of these documents, specifically those from the last week of January, is protected by executive or presidential communications privilege. On Tuesday, Kim appeared unconvinced.
“Secretary Noem and Corey Lewandowski must provide declarations under penalty of perjury that they did not use personal devices to communicate about the TPS status for Venezuelans and Haitians by July 3, 2025,” she wrote in her order as part of the documents she demands the Trump administration provide.
“With regard to the claiming of executive privilege/presidential communications privilege, Defendants must provide a declaration explaining why the executive privilege/presidential communications privilege applies to the six documents in question,” she stated. She added that “the documents on their face did not demonstrate” that the advantages were available.
Noem announced in February that she was canceling the Biden administration’s extension of TPS for Venezuelans. Without the extension until October 2026, this designation expired on April 7.
The program is intended to allow migrants from countries deemed unsafe — usually due to severe violence or natural disasters — to stay in the United States and work legally on a temporary basis.
While Noem’s action was challenged in court, the Supreme Court ultimately sided with the Trump administration and allowed the TPS reversal to proceed, effectively terminating the protected status of over 300,000 Venezuelan migrants.
Individual cases, however, have been allowed to continue, such as one before San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Edward Chen, who ruled that the high court’s decision did not affect approximately 5,000 Venezuelan citizens.
The National TPS Alliance’s lawsuit seeks to uncover details at the heart of Noem’s original order, which could shed light on what Noem and Lewandowski wanted in the run-up to the TPS revocation.
Lewandowski, a former campaign manager for President Donald Trump, is listed as Noem’s chief adviser. In December, reports surfaced that he was assisting Noem in transitioning to the role of department head.
