Noem Blasts Biden's Immigration Policies, Touts 2 Million Deportations in White House Cabinet Meeting

WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused former President Joe Biden of using the Department of Homeland Security to "invade the country with terrorists" during a White House Cabinet meeting Tuesday, crediting President Donald Trump's administration with reversing the damage through mass deportations and stricter enforcement.

Speaking near the end of Trump's ninth Cabinet meeting since taking office — a total that matches Biden's over four years — Noem told Trump he had given her a "very interesting job" amid the department's yearlong push to execute his immigration agenda. She said Biden "opened up the borders, let anybody come in that wanted to," putting migrants on airplanes and allowing them through airports, and that it was now DHS's role to "get 'em out."

Noem announced that DHS had deported 2 million undocumented immigrants since January and would hire its 10,000th new Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer within 10 days, with "hundreds of thousands" of applications pouring in. "We're going to send more home for the holidays, too, and make sure that they get to be with their families in their countries," she said, adding, "Yes. Mostly the bad ones. That's right. And there are a lot of them."

She praised interagency collaboration, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio's negotiations with foreign governments on deportation logistics and travel documents, and Attorney General Pam Bondi's courtroom defenses against lawsuits from liberal states challenging enforcement operations. Noem also thanked Trump for curbing fentanyl flows at the southern border and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for targeting "narcoterrorists’ boats" in the Caribbean.

In a quip drawing online mockery, Noem credited the Federal Emergency Management Agency — another DHS agency — with helping "keep the hurricanes away" this season, noting Tropical Storm Chantal's landfall in the U.S. and Hurricane Melissa's impact on Jamaica. Critics on social media called the remark sycophantic, with one post labeling the meeting "not a Cabinet, it’s a cult."

Noem's comments came amid an escalating Trump administration crackdown on immigration, including a proposed expansion of the travel ban to 30-32 countries following last week's fatal shooting of a National Guard member in Washington by an Afghan national who entered under Biden's Operation Allies Welcome program but received asylum under Trump. She recommended the ban Monday after meeting with Trump, targeting nations she accused of "flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies." The White House said a list would be announced soon, building on June's restrictions for 19 "countries of concern" like Afghanistan, Iran, Haiti and Venezuela.

Noem also disclosed a DHS probe into Minnesota's immigrant resettlement programs, tying into a federal fraud scandal where prosecutors say Somali Americans siphoned over $1 billion in taxpayer funds through fake companies billing for nonexistent services like meals, housing and autism therapy. At least 59 people have been convicted, with the Treasury Department investigating potential diversions to Somalia's al-Shabaab terrorist group.

"You told me to look into Minnesota and their fraud on visa programs — 50% of them are fraudulent, which means that wacko governor, Walz, is either an idiot or he did it on purpose," Noem said. "And I think he’s both, sir — he brought people in there illegally that never should have been in this country... fraudulent visa applications, signed up for government programs, took hundreds of billions of dollars from the taxpayers, and we're going to remove them, and we're going to get our money back."

Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., defended the programs as designed to "improve people’s lives," telling The New York Times that "the criminals find the loopholes." But nearly 500 DHS employees accused him on social media of being "100% responsible" for the fraud, alleging he retaliated against whistleblowers through threats and discrediting reports, while appointing unqualified allies to leadership roles. Walz's office has launched a statewide task force and welcomed federal probes, but critics say responses were delayed to avoid backlash from the Somali community, Minnesota's largest U.S. diaspora.

The meeting also touched on a congressional probe into Hegseth's role in a September Caribbean boat strike on alleged drug traffickers, which he defended as lawful amid "fog of war" questions. Trump described 2025 as "the most consequential and successful first year of any administration."

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