Kristi Noem has delivered a sharp warning to illegal immigrants all over America as she participated in an arrest this week.
The Secretary of Homeland Security was filmed delivering a harsh dressing down to an illegal immigrant who she thought asked her to release him as he sat handcuffed in the back of an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement car.
The smiling man appeared to ask Noem to ‘let me out’ in the footage, filmed by conservative commentator Nick Sortor, but translators have since argued he was actually noting he had ‘seen her on the tele[vision].’
‘Let you out?’ she clarified. ‘No. Not let you out. You’re under arrest.
‘Are you here in the United States illegally?’ she asked as her message was translated into the man’s language.
‘That is a criminal charge in this country, to be here illegally. You waited until we detained you, so now you will be removed from this country, and you will never have the chance to come back. Do you have family here besides your brother?’
The man refused to make any further comment, prompting Noem to move on to speak with his brother, who had also been arrested.
She later revealed she had been taking part in an operation targeting the immigrant’s brother, who was also in the country illegally but ‘had criminal convictions’ relating to ID theft.
The smiling man appeared to ask Noem to ‘let me out’ in the footage, filmed by conservative commentator Nick Sortor , but translators have since argued he was actually noting he had ‘seen her on the tele[vision]’
Kristi Noem has delivered a sharp warning to illegal immigrants all over America as she participated in an arrest this week
‘He is detained because he is in this country illegally as well,’ she said.
Noem had a message directly for illegal migrants who are still in America and have so far avoided detection, warning them: ‘If you care about your family, go home. Go home now.
‘If you deport now, if you’re in this country illegally and leave on your own, you may get the chance to come back to the United States again someday.
‘But if you wait until we detain you, you will never, ever get the chance to come to America again.’
Sortor incredulously asked if the man truly believed asking to be let go would ‘work’ on ICE agents.
Noem has been mocked in the comments of the video, shared to X, as Spanish speakers noted she had misunderstood what the man was trying to say.
‘He was actually saying ‘I’ve seen her on tv,’ not ‘Let me stay.’ He was star struck. That’s why he was smiling at first,’ one commentator said.
‘I wish he said that. But he didn’t. He said. ”La e mirado en la tele” means I have seen her on tv,’ a second added.
It comes amid revelations ICE plans to use a hub in Vermont to bolster its digital surveillance capabilities as the agency ramps up operations across the country to reflect Trump’s anti-immigration agenda.
Under the latest plans, a contractor would use sites such as Facebook, Instagram and X — and could, in addition, use powerful online commercial, law enforcement and federal government databases — to generate leads about ‘individuals who pose a danger to national security, risk public safety or otherwise meet ICE enforcement priorities.’
Details collected could include people’s social media posts and the locations tagged in them, according to the plans.
The contractor could also be asked to find information about targeted people’s ‘associates,’ including family members and coworkers, for the purpose of determining someone’s whereabouts, the plans from last week state.
The agency is spending millions of dollars on an advertising blitz to increase staffing numbers as Trump seeks to expand arresting capabilities.
‘You took an oath to protect and serve, to keep your family, your city, safe,’ the narrator says in the advertisement as images of the cities targeted and ICE agents arresting people move across the screen.
‘But in sanctuary cities, you’re ordered to stand down while dangerous illegals walk free.’
The campaign — airing in more than a dozen cities, including Chicago, Seattle and Atlanta — is part of ICE’s $30 billion initiative to hire 10,000 more deportation officers by the end of the year to supercharge deportations.
The money is part of the $76.5 billion sought by the Trump administration for ICE — a 10-fold increase in its current budget — as part of the sweeping, multitrillion-dollar tax breaks and spending cuts bill enacted in July.
ICE is already offering bonuses of up to $50,000 for new recruits and other benefits such as tuition reimbursement as it seeks to fast-track hiring.
