Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem defended ICE agents who are demanding that Americans prove they are U.S. citizens in Minneapolis amid escalating tensions.
The DHS secretary spoke with reporters outside the White House on Thursday as protests intensified in Minnesota after an officer shot a man in the leg after he allegedly assaulted an agent.
Noem was asked why Americans were being asked to prove citizenship and whether she was advising Americans to carry proof of citizenship.
“In every situation, we are doing targeted enforcement. If we are on a target and doing an operation, there may be individuals surrounding that criminal that we may be asking who they are and why they’re there and validate their identity,” Noem claimed. “That’s what we’ve always done in asking people who they are so that we know who’s in those surroundings.”
She said if they are breaking the law, they will be detained them, “until we’ve run that processing.”
Her response came amid escalating reports of federal agents arresting U.S. citizens not just in Minnesota but nationally.
In Minnesota, video captured ICE violently detaining two Target employees. One of the workers could be heard saying he was a citizen as he was taken away after being thrown to the ground inside the store entrance. A state lawmaker confirmed both were U.S. citizens.
Noem, on Thursday, was asked if she was okay with federal agents violating people’s Fourth Amendment rights by asking Americans for papers without reasonable suspicion.
“Every single action that our ICE officers take is according to the law and following protocols that we have used for years,” Noem claimed. “They are doing everything correctly.”
The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable search and seizures and requires probable cause.
Her visit to the White House came as President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy U.S. troops to the streets of Minnesota in a post on Truth Social.
Noem said she spoke with the president about it and that invoking the Insurrection Act was an option he had in the future. She said that the decision would be up to Trump.
