The Establishment media is attempting to obfuscate statements made by the Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem about Venezuelan migrants

 by Edward Ulrich, January 30, 2025



I’m not a fan of Donald Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, however I found a recent issue in the media about statements she made to be interesting.

I saw this NPR article yesterday which explains that Noem has revoked Joe Biden’s recent 18-month extension of the temporary protected status (TPS) of Venezuelans who are in the country, where the article creates the impression that she made a comment on a Fox News broadcast calling all of the Venezuelans in the program “dirtbags.”

After looking into the matter rather extensively it is still unclear to me if she referred to all of the Venezuelans as “dirtbags” or simply the ones who are criminals and gang members.

Even the following official Fox News video obscures what she meant with a jump cut:





If Noem did in fact make such a blanket slur it would be reprehensible considering her position, where obviously it would have been calculated to supply leftist media outlets with ammunition to be used against opponents of open borders.

The Venezuelans in question were initially living in the United States illegally, and the Biden administration gave them the TPS status in 2021, renewed it in 2023, and then renewed it once again before he left office.  The designation allows them to legally work and it shields them from deportation.

In other cases that are generally considered to be more appropriate (but is also often systematically abused), groups of people are first given the TPS status and then they are brought into the country, such as after a natural disaster.



Other issues with Kristi Noem

In 2024 Noam had been widely criticized and ridiculed for writing in her autobiography that she killed her own dog, (link) and she falsely claimed that she met North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong Un. (link)

In March of 2024, Noem, who is not Jewish, signed the most draconian hate crime bill in the U.S. to “stop antisemitism” in her state of South Dakota, where after signing the bill she said it is giving Jews additional special privileges because they are “God’s chosen people.”  The bill mandates that the extreme International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism must be taken into account during investigations into discriminatory practices, where it conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism. (link)