Kristi Noem wears $60,000 Rolex to film promo inside notoriously brutal El Salvadorian prison
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is facing backlash online for filming a promo inside El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).
In the footage, uploaded to X on Wednesday night, Noem warned that those seeking to enter the U.S. without documentation could end up in the notorious prison.
"This facility is one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people," Noem said.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump, citing rarely used wartime legislation, deported at least 200 Venezuelans to El Salvador on the grounds that they belonged to the Tren de Aragua street gang.
The criminal group was recently designated a "terrorist" organization by the U.S., allowing for much more drastic action to be taken against it. The move proved controversial given that numerous individuals deported appeared to have no connections to the gang.
In response to the post, Noem was bombarded with a range of reactions.
"Cosplay Puppy Killer Barbie with another propaganda video… This time she’s at what could only be described as a concentration camp," one wrote in response, referencing a story in Noem's memoir about killing her dog. "It’s one thing to lock up criminals. It’s another to send them to another country’s Guantanamo Bay without due process. Anyone that’s ok with this is a fascist and pure evil. MAGA is a mental illness."
"This is disgusting propaganda! What do you think they do to those men to get them to stand up with no shirts and stare at the cameras like this??" another asked. "Or…what do they do to them if they refuse?? This is gross! There may be U.S. citizens, without charges against them, locked up in this prison."
But Trump supporters were quick to applaud the footage, arguing that it displayed a strength not previously shown by U.S. leaders.
"I really like her," one user said. "I also like that they filmed her in front of one of the prisons to demonstrate the consequences of illegal crossing."
"Kristi Noem @Sec_Noem is the finest DHS Sec, perhaps in history," another said adoringly. "Very simply put, this may be a tough job but with strength and a clear mission, it is not complicated. America first: our laws, sovereignty, borders, jobs, economy, safety, children, women, national security, order, peace -- these are the things Noem is clearly fighting for. Simple."
Yet a particular item on Noem stuck out: a watch that many believed was a Rolex.
"Is Secretary Noem wearing a $50,000 gold Rolex Daytona wristwatch while she films a threat to immigrants with due-process free rendition to a third-world prison?" one user asked.
Despite Noem's threats, a U.S. appeals court on Wednesday upheld a lower court's temporary block on the deportation of some Venezuelan immigrants, which the Trump administration tried to ignore.
The law Trump has been citing as the legal basis for the deportations was previously used by the U.S. during World War II to intern Japanese, German, and Italian immigrants.
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