DHS Secretary Kristi Noem Tells Reporter, ‘Don’t You Dare Say That Again’ When Asked About ICE’s Racial Profiling

President Donald Trump spent his entire 2024 campaign and his first presidency targeting specific ethnic groups in his mass deportation agenda, and now that he’s back in office, his administration has been scrambling to deny that certain ethnic groups are being targeted in the execution of that agenda.

This week, a federal judge determined that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were, indeed, “indiscriminately” arresting people after targeting them via racial profiling. On Friday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem not only denied that ICE engages in racial profiling and essentially called the judge a liar, but she admonished a reporter for even asking about it, directing the journalist never to bring it up again. (Because that’s what non-corrupt administrations with nothing to hide do.)

During a press conference in Nashville, Tenn., a reporter asked Noem about ICE raids that seemingly target individuals “based on their skin color.”

“That is not true!” Noem snapped. “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!”

MAGA supporters love to deny and deflect when people say Trump is running an authoritarian government, but his DHS secretary just spoke to a reporter like she’s a mother threatening to wash her child’s mouth out with soap for saying dirty words.

So, just to recap: ICE does engage in racial profiling, Noem is lying about it — and is treating the opinions of federal judges like they carry the same weight as those of randoms on social media — and she’s instructing a member of the press not to mention any of it ever again to emphasize her denial. 

And that last part is crucial, because this is what Trump’s White House has been all about since January 20. This administration has banned journalists and entire media outlets from the White House press pool just for refusing to entertain Trump’s ideological nonsense and/or refusing to let his lies go unchallenged. 

Noem attacked that reporter with the same energy White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had when she admonished a reporter, saying, “What a stupid question” in response to a perfectly reasonable question about “what kind of protest President Trump does support or find acceptable.”

Trump has been vague and ambiguous about what he considers “illegal protests,” which, by all accounts, appears to be any anti-Trump protest or protest he simply doesn’t agree with. He sent thousands of National Guard members and hundreds of Marines to Los Angeles to quell riots that weren’t happening, and he’s trying to deport Mahmoud Khalil for organizing pro-Palestine protests, even though his own secretary of state essentially admits Khalil has broken zero laws. Leavitt wasn’t asked a “stupid question.” She was aggravated by a question that prompted her to lie through her teeth again.

Likewise, Noem was being defensive, likely because she knows she’s being forced to lie again.

Look, besides the fact that a federal judge has already found that ICE engages in racial profiling, and the Hispanic people across the country have been testifying about being targeted by ICE along with their family members,  ICE Director Tom Homan said himself that “ICE officers and Border Patrol don’t need probable cause to walk up to somebody, briefly detain them, and question them,” and that “they just go through the observation…based on the location, the occupation, their physical appearance, their actions.” 

According to an ICE agent, White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller demanded an increase in immigration arrests, asking, “Why aren’t you at Home Depot? Why aren’t you at 7-Eleven?” This is a clear indication that he expects agents to go where Hispanic migrants typically work and identify people to detain based on their race, their occupation or the language they speak.

That’s racial profiling, and it’s a journalist’s job to ask about it.

All the Trump administration does is lie, shout “fake news” at every report officials don’t like, and bully the media around in order to keep from being exposed. 

It’s a sad, conniving, corrupt way to run a country. 

SEE ALSO:

Federal Judge Rules ICE Engages In Racial Profiling, DHS Denies It (While ICE Director Admits It)

Department Of Homeland Security Claims ICE Doesn’t Engage In Racial Profiling