In an interview with Mississippi Today this week, Thompson blasted the Trump Administration for “outright lies” about the U.S.-Mexico border. Thompson said to Mississippi Today Wednesday that he would subpoena anyone compelled to. “I am very concerned about a lot of the things that have been published by officials in this administration. Expect an active committee. Expect an active committee. Thompson is now the chairman of Homeland Security for the second time (he was previously the head from 2007 to 2010). He has the power to order executive-branch representatives to testify or produce documents in connection with matters that fall under his purview. His committee oversees the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the U.S. Coast Guard. Thompson was able to get on the ground within days of his new role. He wrote to Kirstjen Nielson, Homeland Security Secretary, last week asking her to testify before his committee about the Trump Administration’s immigration and border policy. Thompson can subpoena her and other agency officials if she refuses to comply with his request. Thompson wrote that the border security presentation she submitted to Congress today was yet another example of misinformation and outright lies used by the Trump Administration to argue for President Trump’s boondoggle wall, defend the government shut down, and distract Americans from a flawed border security policy that has resulted in the deaths of children being held in Department of Homeland Security custody. As leaders from Capitol Hill and the White House debated whether to fund a southern wall, Trump’s top campaign promise, the partial federal government shutdown reached its 20th day on Friday. Thompson, the only Democrat in the state serving in Washington is unlikely to be supported by the rest of Mississippi’s delegation. He and his three Republican Senate colleagues, as well as both senators from Mississippi, have strongly supported Trump’s demand for funding a border wall. As Trump’s meeting with congressional leaders was ending in another deadlock, the telephones in Cindy Hyde Smith’s Capitol Hill office’s waiting room rang continuously on Wednesday afternoon. One assistant estimated that about 250 calls per day were related to border security. One was answered by the assistant. She answered the caller with “Well, I can assure you — in regards to this matter, the senator (Hyde Smith) stands 100 percent behind Trump.” Even among Republicans who support Trump’s wall, patience is waning. The former Senate majority leader Trent Lott said this week that the gridlock and partisan bickering was worse than he’s ever seen. U.S. Rep. Michael Guest expressed frustration at the gridlocked negotiations and the shutdown, just days into his first term as Congressman. Guest said that Democrats and Republicans, as well as the Senate, House, and White House, would all be able to agree on a compromise. “As long we continue this shutdown, and continue fighting over immigration reform, and border security it’s going to stop us from getting to the other important items,” Guest told Mississippi Today. My trips to the border were exactly the opposite of what I hear from Trump. We all support border security. However, we must consider what experts say to us during that conversation. Instead, the president lies to the American people and uses 800,000 federal workers as pawns. It is a means to his political ends. It’s unacceptable.”