“A number of her statements appear to violate criminal statutes prohibiting perjury and knowingly making false statements to Congress,” they wrote in a seven-page letter, citing two federal laws to support their request.

“After months of evading our Committees’ requests to testify in routine oversight hearings, Secretary Noem made a series of demonstrably false statements in a brazen attempt to undermine critical congressional oversight of the Department of Homeland Security,” the letter states.

The top Democrats point to Noem’s testimony on whether the Department of Homeland Security complies with court orders as an example of a false statement. They argued DHS has repeatedly defied court orders, but Noem insisted otherwise.

“We follow court orders when they are given to us. Federal court orders, we follow, absolutely,” she said at one point during the Senate hearing.

Durbin and Raskin also alleged that Noem lied about running a $220 million DHS advertising campaign by President Donald Trump first before approval. Trump claimed otherwise after the hearings, telling Reuters that he didn’t know about it.

The ad campaign controversy was one of the factors that led Trump to fire Noem this month. He tapped Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) to replace her. Mullin is set to face a Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

Noem’s testimony on detaining U.S. citizens and detention conditions was also raised in the letter.

The DOJ is not required to act on the criminal referral and likely won’t open an investigation into Noem.

“While we have low expectations that you will pursue this matter given your partisan weaponization of the Department of Justice, we note that the statute of limitations for perjury and for knowingly and willfully making false statements to Congress is five years,” Durbin and Raskin concluded.

A DHS spokesperson told multiple news outlets that the Democrats’ perjury claims against Noem are “categorically false.”

BORDER PATROL CHIEF GREG BOVINO TO RETIRE BY END OF MARCH

Noem is leaving her post by the end of the month and taking on her new role as special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, a multinational initiative launched by Trump to target drug cartels in the Western Hemisphere.

DHS leadership has seen much turnover in recent days as the Trump administration seeks to prioritize its mass deportation agenda despite recent controversies. Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino, who was formerly the public face of aggressive immigration operations in Minneapolis and elsewhere, is set to retire by the end of March.