Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem turned the tables on corporate media in an exchange with NBC’s Kristen Welker Sunday, slamming outlets for wrongly perpetuating a “fear” of deportation among legal immigrants.
Since his inauguration, President Donald Trump has followed through on his campaign vow to shut down the southern border and lead a mass deportation of criminal illegal migrants amid a deadly fentanyl surge, signing a slew of executive orders addressing the issue on day one. On “Meet the Press,” Welker asked the DHS secretary if legal migrants should be worried about potentially being “wrongfully detained,” stating she had talked to some people who have “expressed concerns” and are carrying their documents with them.
“I would say that if I’ve heard that expressed by people that are legal citizens of the United States, it’s because the media has perpetuated that fear. The media has said that that’s a possibility,” Noem said. “There’s nothing from this administration, from President Trump or from any of the law enforcement individuals in these communities that has said that they need to walk around and be concerned about that at all.”
Just six days into the Trump administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents announced their largest arrest day, with 956 arrests on Jan. 26 — significantly outpacing the Biden-Harris administration, which had an estimated average of 310 daily arrests in fiscal year 2024.
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Noem went on to state that not only were Americans supportive of the Trump administration’s deportation plan, but she also added that she’s seen people thank agents for their service.
“The citizens of the United States are confident that finally, after four long years of having a president in the White House that ignored federal law and endangered their communities, that there’s a different man in charge now. There’s a man in charge who loves this country, is going to help make their communities safer,” Noem added. “These citizens that live here are thrilled.”
“In fact, when I was in New York City earlier this week and in several cities since then, the people walking by us on the streets were thanking our officers,” Noem continued. “They were thanking these investigators and those that were taking these dangerous criminals out for being there, for making sure that they could walk their kids to school with a new confidence that they could get there safely and that they could do business and have their community back.”
Prior to heading to the polls in November, voters had consistently polled that immigration was one of their top concerns amid record high illegal migrant encounters during the Biden-Harris administration.
Meanwhile, public support for deporting illegal immigrants has increased in recent years.
In September 2024 a Scripps News/Ipsos poll showed that a policy of mass deportations had 54% of support. A recent poll conducted by Axios/Ipsos shows that 66% of Americans support “deporting immigrants who are in the country illegally,” with 93% of Republicans, 43% of Democrats and 67% of Independents in favor.
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