Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appeared to take great exception during a press conference Friday after a reporter pointed out that numerous people have said they were racially profiled by immigration agents, as the Trump administration seeks to accomplish the president’s goal of prosecuting the largest deportation effort in U.S. history.
“That has been another false narrative that has been put out there in the media that I absolutely want to throw back at you and say that is absolutely false. And don’t you dare ever say that again. We have judges out there and other individuals saying people have been targeted that way, and it’s not true,” Noem said.
Noem’s indignation notwithstanding, evidence of discrimination abounds. Numerous Americans say they were racially profiled as part of ICE’s anti-immigrant roundups. Trump’s deportation czar, Tom Homan, seemed to accept such profiling as par for the course in recent comments to Fox News, admitting that ICE is conducting arrests based in part on people’s “physical appearance.” As Noem herself mentioned, a federal judge recently ordered the Trump administration to cease some of its anti-immigration tactics in Southern California after a “mountain of evidence” showed law enforcement had engaged in profiling. During last year’s presidential campaign, even Trump himself promoted the idea of nationalizing “stop-and-frisk,” the dubious policing practice that facilitates racial profiling.
As harrowing stories and scenes from Trump’s anti-immigrant crackdown continue to go viral on social media, recent polling data shows a majority of Americans disapprove of the Trump administration’s harsh — and at times, deliberately cruel — anti-immigrant agenda. The administration is fighting a growing perception that its often masked, anonymous immigration enforcement agents are targeting nonwhite people, and Noem’s outburst suggests that officials may be frustrated by their inability to spin that narrative.
The homeland security secretary also held an event Thursday in the district of Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones, who said he was targeted for removal prior to that press conference. He appeared later on MSNBC’s “The Weekend” and denounced Noem’s “audacity” for reprimanding the reporter who asked about racial profiling.
Watch a clip of his appearance here: