Kristi Noem was cornered into saying that her own department’s statistics were “wrong” in a tense exchange on air Sunday.
The Department of Homeland Security secretary was asked on CBS’ Face the Nation what percentage of immigrants taken into custody by ICE had “actually committed a criminal versus just a civil infraction.”
“Every single individual has committed a crime, but 70 percent of them have committed or have charges against them on violent crimes, and crimes that they are charged with or have been convicted of that have come from other countries that are here illegally, first of all, and then they have committed a criminal act while they’ve been here or in their home countries,” Noem responded.
Host Margaret Brennan, however, interjected to correct Noem, telling her, “It’s not 70 percent,” to which Noem insisted, “Yes, it is. It absolutely is.”
Noem then ranted: “You keep changing your percentage. You pick and choose what numbers you think work, but that is the fact, is that 70 percent of the people that we have detained have charges against them or have been convicted of charges and they need to be brought to justice.”
Allowing her guest to monologue for a bit longer, Brennan eventually brought out her trump card.
“Okay. Well, our reporting is 47 percent based on your agency’s own numbers. 47 percent have criminal convictions against them,” she said.
But Noem refused to budge, again insisting Brennan was “wrong again.”
“We’ll get you the correct numbers so you can use them in the future,” Noem replied, with Brennan firing back: “Well, that’s from your agency.”
Earlier in the interview, Noem was vague when asked about her agency’s goals.
“How do you judge when you’ve gotten everyone off the streets that you say requires federal agents to be there?” Brennan asked. “How do you declare mission accomplished? You don’t have a number or a date?”
Noem deflected by blaming the Biden administration’s immigration policies, saying she couldn’t provide a figure because officials have “no idea how many dangerous people are here.” Yet moments later, despite conceding she had “no idea,” she asserted—without evidence—that there are “millions” of “terrorists, suspected terrorists, and criminals” in the country.
“Sure. But you just said millions,” Brennan noted.
Noem was defending the expanded ICE presence in Minnesota even as critics from both parties argued the agency’s actions had gone too far in the aftermath of the Minneapolis shooting
Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey firmly told ICE to leave after an agent fatally shot Renee Good on Jan. 7, but both Noem and Trump have responded by threatening more ICE activity in the area.
