According to a report, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has irritated some Immigration Customs and Enforcement officials with her “made-for-TV” approach to running the department.
Some Department of Homeland Security insiders have accused Noem of jeopardizing an ICE raid in New York City in January by posting about it on social media while the operation was still ongoing, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“We’re doing it right, doing exactly what President @realDonaldTrump promised the American people: making our streets safer. Live from New York City this morning. “I’m on it,” Noem wrote on her X account on January 28 at 4:43 a.m., alongside a photo of herself wearing an ICE baseball cap and surrounded by flashing lights.
The post “undercut the element of surprise,” according to people familiar with the raid. Tricia McLaughlin, the department’s top spokesperson, told the outlet that the raid was nearly completed when Noem posted about it on social media.
Nonetheless, people familiar with the plans claimed it resulted in fewer arrests than expected, according to the outlet.
Noem is at the center of a publicity campaign to carry out President Donald Trump’s broad anti-immigrant agenda. Under Noem’s leadership, the department has set aside $200 million for an ad campaign warning illegal migrants to “leave now,” and she has posed in front of prisoners in El Salvador’s maximum-security prison and behind the controls of a Coast Guard plane.
According to the Journal, photographs of Noem riding a horse and wearing a cowboy hat have been displayed in offices throughout the department.
According to the outlet, Noem also hosted a town hall to introduce herself to the department on her first day, during which she walked on stage to Trace Adkins’ song “Hot Mama”.
According to the department, despite internal complaints from some employees, the strategy of putting Noem at the forefront of the administration’s anti-immigrant campaign is working.
“The world is hearing Secretary Noem’s message loud and clear: The border is at its most secure in American history and border encounters are at record lows,” McLaughlin said in an interview. “Criminal aliens are staying out and migrants are turning back before they ever reach our borders.”
Noem was mocked last week for posing in a social media video, pointing her rifle at an officer’s face.
In the 20-second video posted to X last Tuesday, Noem wielded a gun while standing between two Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Social media users flooded the comments section of her video, warning about the dangers of holding her weapon in that manner.
“Here we are with Marco and Brian today. They’re letting me go with them. “We are going to go out and pick up someone who I believe has been charged with human trafficking,” she says in the video. “We previously had an operation that rounded up someone wanted for murder. So appreciate the good work that they do every day, and we appreciate their efforts to keep America safe.”
