DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin’s replacement is even worse

Even in an administration of shameless liars, Tricia McLaughlin is a standout. The Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, who announced on Feb. 17 that she would be stepping down, has a gift for being able to issue preposterous falsehoods with a straight face on an hourly basis — usually in defense of Secretary Kristi Noem‘s deportation agenda. McLaughlin’s skill is chilling. She treats the English language the way Hannibal Lecter regards a murder victim he’s about to dissect and consume.

This is the same woman who accused Alex Pretti of wanting to “massacre law enforcement,” even though video showed the Minneapolis ICU nurse was helping a woman to her feet before he was tackled and killed with multiple gunshots by Border Patrol agents. McLaughlin accused Renee Good of “domestic terrorism,” even though video showed she was turning her car away from Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents before one shot and killed her in Minneapolis. The spokeswoman also accused Marimar Martinez, another of Border Patrol’s shooting victims, of “domestic terrorism,” even though video shows Martinez’s car was rammed by agents, and not the other way around. McLaughlin’s lies were easily disproved by reporting, videos and photos. Yes, Tricia, children are being zip-tied by federal agents. No, Tricia, former Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino was not struck in the head by rocks thrown by protesters.

With a record like this, it was understandable that some felt a glimmer of hope that McLaughlin’s departure meant that DHS might be pulling back on its illegal, inhumane assaults on immigrants, people of color that ICE merely thinks might be immigrants and anyone protesting Donald Trump‘s policies. Many headlines offered an optimistic slant. “Amid immigration pushback, Homeland Security spokeswoman to leave,” USA Today proclaimed. “Top DHS spokesperson to exit role amid growing outrage over Trump’s ICE raids,” observed the Guardian. Slate especially got way over its skis by trumpeting “Bad News for Progressives: Donald Trump’s Most Vile Spokesperson Is Gone.”

As it turns out, progressives don’t need to worry about losing this particular villain — because there is another. Lauren Bis, the woman reported to be McLaughlin’s replacement, may be an even more dishonest character. As McLaughlin’s deputy, Bis has been responsible for “fact-checking” videos in which she lies with a self-righteous smugness that would make JD Vance jealous. Her response to Good’s killing is especially hard to watch. Bis characterizes the people who are simply standing around as “rioters,” claims that Good tried to run over the ICE officer with her car and insists that ICE agents tried to assist Good, when multiple witnesses said they blocked medical care. (The video also had a prominent typo, with “assaults” misspelled as “assults.” It’s unclear if this was an accident made by hastily throwing the video together, or if it was a deliberate attempt to bait liberals into looking sanctimonious by correcting the spelling.)

While it’s true that DHS is wildly unpopular under Noem’s leadership, leading to swift drops in public approval ratings for Trump’s handling of the immigration issue, it’s not a sign of a shake-up at DHS.

By replacing McLaughlin with someone just as eager to debase herself, Noem is signaling that she has no intention of changing course at DHS — and any hopes to the contrary assume a capacity for self-reflection the secretary doesn’t seem to have. This is a woman who, according to a devastating Wall Street Journal report, believes her top aide, Corey Lewandowski, when he says she can win the presidency in 2028. Remember: in 2024, Noem even seemed to think that telling a story about shooting her own dog would help her politically.

Under political pressure and with reported reluctance, Noem replaced Bovino with Trump’s border czar Tom Homan to oversee deportation efforts in Minnesota. With great fanfare, Homan claimed there would be a draw-down in federal agents in Minneapolis, which was flooded in recent weeks in what was an obvious political stunt by DHS instead of a response to any facts on the ground.

But Homan wasn’t being honest. As Minnesota Public Radio reported last week, there is no evidence of any such reduction in numbers. Instead “it does appear from anecdotal reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has shifted its activities from the core cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul to the state’s suburbs, exurbs and small towns.” That way, they can continue to terrorize the population of Minnesota, but away from the centralized urban areas that made it easier for activists to organize protests.

---

Want more Amanda Marcotte on politics?  Sign up for her free newsletter, Standing Room Only, now also on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

---

Earlier this month, DHS also published plans to spend $38 billion to buy up warehouses across the country and turn them into detention centers for immigrants, a figure that is just a fraction of what the administration wants to spend on its mass deportation campaign. That number alone should demonstrate the policy’s underlying racism. The money could restore more than one year of the Affordable Care Act subsidies that were cut by Trump and congressional Republicans, a move that has seen health care costs more than double for 20 million Americans.

As Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., told reporters after Good’s killing, “I want everybody to understand that the cuts to your health care are what’s paying for this. You get screwed over to pay a bunch of thugs in the street that are shooting mothers in the face.”

There is also no reason to believe DHS’s claims that the “worst of the worst” are being targeted. Often, it’s people with a legal right to live in the U.S. In January, MS NOW monitored a week’s worth of cases of immigrants challenging their detention in Minnesota and found that out of the 61 that came to court that week, the judges ruled against ICE in 60 cases.

Nor has DHS slowed its campaign of dishonest propaganda that often replicates imagery and ideas from white supremacist sources. The agency’s primary tactic is posting scary-looking mug shots of dark-skinned people, knowing many gullible viewers will assume that accusations of criminality apply to all immigrants, even though fewer than 14% of those detained have violent criminal records. (Showing how empty this “criminal” gambit is, ICE is seizing and holding babies in detention centers.) DHS is also posting pictures showing crowds of dark-skinned people, which reveals they see such a situation as a self-evident threat. Finally, that this campaign is rooted in racism and not crime was once again demonstrated last week by a DHS memo ordering agents to detain refugees before they’re able to complete a green card application. This is particularly nefarious: The federal government is targeting people who are playing by the rules that they set — who made themselves easy to find by asking for legal permission to resettle in the U.S.

With DHS in a shutdown, unable to get enough members of Congress to approve a budget under its current policies and leadership, it’s understandable why so many in the mainstream press over-read a staff shake-up at the agency as evidence of real change. Noem’s leadership has been a disaster, driving down morale inside the agency and tanking Trump’s approval numbers. A normal president would be firing the secretary and demanding real change before the situation got worse.

Instead, we have Trump, who is too blinkered by his own racism and ego to see what’s going on for what it is. The president is also being heavily managed by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who is far more devoted to his unvarnished, fanatical hatred of immigrants than any ordinary political considerations. Ultimately, Noem doesn’t have to answer to the American people — she only has to answer to Trump. And he is too addled, arrogant and bigoted to get in the way of her assaults on the homeland she was supposedly hired to protect.

The post DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin’s replacement is even worse appeared first on Salon.com.