The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem strictly denied allegations of ICE’s racial profiling Friday during a press briefing in Nashville, Tennessee.
While taking questions, a member of the press confronted the DHS leader.
“ICE operations are taking place predominately in Latino communities...” the reporter said before Noem interrupted.
ADVERTISEMENT
“I wouldn’t say that’s true, I would say that the media has highlighted operations like that, but we have operations ongoing throughout the country every single day in communities everywhere, so I would not say that anyone could show that they’re highlighted in Hispanic communities,” Noem said.
When the same unidentified reporter told Noem that Latino audiences are “fearful,” due to recent ICE raids targeting people “based on their skin color,” Noem chalked up the allegations to another one of the media’s false narratives.
“That is absolutely false and don’t you dare ever say that again,” she snapped.
Noem’s fury comes as a contradiction to White House border czar Tom Homan’s statements that “physical appearances” serve as a valid approach for detention.
“People need to understand, ICE officers and Border Patrol don’t need probable cause to walk up to somebody, briefly detain them, and question them,” he said on Fox & Friends.
The department head clarified that every single ICE raid is based on investigations that have “reasonable suspicion.”
As Noem denied allegations, four posters displaying arrested men graced the backdrop of the press conference listing their crimes along with their ethnicities: “Salvadoran,” “Venezuelan,” “Guatemalan,” and “Iraqi”.
During the press conference, Noem shared that since the Trump administration took office, over 300,000 “criminals and illegal aliens” have been arrested.
“I’m so proud of this office and the agents that work here,” Noem said. “...We’re going against the worst of the worst every single day, get the murderers, the rapists, the child pedophiles and pornographers off the of our streets and out of this country.”
Noem also spoke about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland father who was deported by mistake, calling him “a monster” that needs to stand trial.
