Kristi Noem Made Up a Story About Deporting a Cannibal

Over the summer, the Secretary of Homeland Security peddled a falsehood about a man on a deportation flight who tried to “eat his own arms.”

Photo: Getty Images

Politics

In June, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem went on Fox News to absurdly declare one of the “bad hombres” she deported was a “cannibal” who started “eating his own arms” while sitting in the plane that would escort him out of the country. (She reiterated the claim a month later, while standing next to Trump during a news conference.) “[These are] deranged individuals that we are working to get out of this country as fast as possible,” she told Jesse Watters. But, surprise! Mar-a-Lago lips sink ships, and on Monday, The Intercept called her out on the bullshit.

“That never happened,” one senior law enforcement official, who was familiar with the allegations but unauthorized to speak about them, told the outlet. “That is completely made up. There was no information about it. It never took place. It’s a lie.” Their claims were confirmed by two other officials, one of whom said, “I cannot condone somebody making up a story that absolutely never happened.” Welp. Fingers crossed for them.

While a DHS spokesperson claims that Noem heard the story from a U.S. Marshal who saw the event firsthand, all three officials believe the story originated from her.

At the time, ICE Barbie’s claims came amid increased scrutiny over the then-incoming Alligator Alcatraz, or the administration’s version of a concentration camp in the Florida Everglades, and DHS’s attempts to justify its mass deportation campaign. In December, a report by Amnesty International revealed how horrible Alligator Alcatraz had become, detailing instances of torture, such as a 2×2 ft. cage where individuals are sent to crouch in the Florida heat as punishment.

It’s also not the first time Noem’s DHS has sung a completely different truth than literally anyone else with eyes and/or ears: in September, the agency falsely claimed a woman in ICE custody was a murderer after she claimed she miscarried in detention; in January, they were the only ones to claim five-year-old Liam Ramos’ father “bolted” from the scene when they showed up to arrest him; and most recently, they defended the deportation of a two-month-old baby by calling him a “child” and claiming that his condition was “stable,” despite him needing hospitalization just hours before. Not to mention, of course, their takes on the deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti—which involved rewriting reality and acting as if federal agents didn’t shoot and kill two Americans.

The Intercept wrote that they’d been trying to find evidence corroborating the story since the summer, but Noem never replied to any of their two dozen requests for comment. Still, ahead of its story’s publication, a DHS spokesperson said, “What ‘fabrication of the story of the cannibal? She was told that story on a deportation flight by one of the air marshals.” No typos here, for once—just more falsehoods.

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