As Donald Trump ramped up his threats against the people he is supposed to be working for,
his administration’s extreme immigration enforcement led Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to admit that anyone
— U.S. citizen or otherwise
— should be prepared to have to prove their citizenship to DHS agents.
Asked Thursday about U.S. citizens being asked to provide proof of citizenship in Minnesota
and whether that is “targeted enforcement,”
Noem said the following:
"In every situation, we’re doing targeted enforcement. If we are on a target and doing an operation, there may be individuals surrounding that criminal that we may be asking who they are and why they’re there and having them validate their identity. That’s what we’ve always done in asking people who they are, so that we know who’s in those surroundings, and if they are breaking our federal laws, we will detain them as well until we run that processing."
Importantly, Noem did not reject the premise of the question or reassure Americans that such a question is ridiculous.
Instead, she merely tried to limit when and under what circumstances it is happening
— and, presumably, will continue to happen
— under her leadership.
But, with a closer look, even that falls apart.
First of all, there is a mountain of evidence that the first sentence of Noem’s statement is a lie.
Ask #Frank #Miranda or #Maria #Greeley,
ask #Jesus #Gutiérrez or #Mubashir,
ask any of the “more than 50 Americans who were held after [immigration] agents questioned their citizenship’ during 2025”
who were identified by Pro Publica.
But, for a moment, let’s set that to the side.
The secretary of Homeland Security on Thursday said that if you are found in the vicinity of a person subject to DHS’s “targeted enforcement” operations,
you are likely to be detained if you cannot prove your citizenship or legal status
— if you cannot prove that to whatever agent might be involved in the operation
https://www.lawdork.com/p/noem-says-anyone-can-face-a-kavanaugh-stop