The next is the transcript of an interview with Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Aug. 31, 2025.
ED O’KEEFE: Good morning and welcome to ‘Face The Nation.’ Margaret is off on this Labor Day weekend. I am Ed O’Keefe. We start immediately with Secretary of Homeland Safety, Kristi Noem, who’s becoming a member of us from Florida. Madam Secretary, thanks for being with us.
SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY KRISTI NOEM: Completely, Ed. Thanks for inviting me.
ED O’KEEFE: Sure. Effectively, we now have lots to debate, so we need to begin with this as a result of we have realized that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is planning on increasing operations within the coming days to Chicago. When are these operations anticipated to begin? And also you mentioned in current days that you just’re utilizing the current deployments in Los Angeles as a mannequin. What does that imply?
SEC. NOEM: Effectively, we have already had ongoing operations with ICE in Chicago and all through Illinois and different states, ensuring that we’re upholding our legal guidelines. However we do intend so as to add extra assets to these operations. I will not disclose the small print as a result of they’re legislation enforcement and investigative people which might be on the bottom there, and I need to make sure that we hold their safety our primary precedence, however we’ll proceed to go after the worst of the worst throughout the nation, like President Trump has informed us to do. Specializing in these which might be perpetuating homicide and rape and trafficking of medication and people throughout our nation, realizing that each single citizen deserves to be protected.
ED O’KEEFE: A part of what distinguished the Los Angeles operations, nonetheless, is that Nationwide Guard troops had been there, in essence defending or backing up these federal brokers as they performed operations. Is that what we should always anticipate to see in Chicago?
SEC. NOEM: You already know that all the time is a prerogative of President Trump and his resolution. I will not converse to the specifics of the operations which might be deliberate in different cities, however I do know that LA would not be standing immediately if President Trump hadn’t taken motion, then that metropolis would have burned down if left to the units of the mayor and the governor of that state. And so the residents who stay there, the small enterprise homeowners in Downtown LA, they’re grateful that President Trump got here in with federal legislation enforcement officers and helped help preserving these streets open, hold their houses and companies from burning down, and made positive the legislation and order was restored.
ED O’KEEFE: I simply need to make clear one factor you mentioned there. You mentioned LA would not be standing if not for these federal deployments?
SEC. NOEM: So a lot of these houses and companies that had been in Downtown LA and in these areas had been coping with riots and violence and coming in and bringing these federal legislation enforcement officers in was extremely essential to preserving peace, and so we’re grateful that President Trump was prepared to ship assets and folks in, in an effort to implement the legislation. And Ed since then, we now have arrested 5000 harmful, unlawful criminals out of LA and eliminated them from our nation and had them face justice for his or her crimes. And lots of of those people had been individuals who, have , performed horrific- horrific actions in opposition to Americans. Trafficking of youngsters and pedophiles. And in order that’s one of many issues that the folks of LA can be thankful for, is that they do not have these dangerous actors, these folks on their streets anymore due to the work of President Trump and his administration.
ED O’KEEFE: In order , we spoke with Illinois Governor, JB Pritzker about all this. And I requested him what he’d say to you about these forthcoming plans, let’s play that and allow you to reply after.
[ON TAPE]
ED O’KEEFE: If she had been to name you, what would you say? What’s your message to her?
ILLINOIS GOVERNOR JB PRITZKER: Effectively, I inform her that what she’s doing is inflaming passions and inflicting disruption that does not must be brought about. We have now those who have lived, sure, within the state of Illinois, within the metropolis of Chicago, for many years, working right here, paying taxes. They’re legislation abiding members of our communities, pals, neighbors, and why are we arresting them? Why are we making them disappear? Certainly, they’re even disrupting the lives of people who find themselves trying to undergo a authorized course of to remain on this nation, who’ve been invited to a listening to, after which they’re arresting them within the hallways on their technique to that listening to. So that is harmful. They should not be doing it. It is anti-American. It is un-American, and I’d inform her to perhaps examine herself for what does she actually imagine?
ED O’KEEFE: She’s additionally vital the truth that Chicago is likely one of the cities that does not cooperate with federal immigration operations, and he or she was quoted as saying that Illinois quote ‘refuses to have our again.’
GOV. PRITZKER: Effectively, that is not true. In reality, there have been cops who made positive that there was no one interfering or attacking or inflicting issues for the ICE officers that had been right here. Folks have a proper to precise themselves. Folks have a proper to their First Modification, you know- freedom to precise, and we defend that too within the metropolis of Chicago. So it is not true that the no one has their backs. What we can’t do, nonetheless, is have interaction in what’s a federal effort, that’s to say, they’ve their job, immigration. We have now our job, which is to battle violent crime on the streets of our metropolis, and by the way in which, we’re succeeding at that job. However once they deliver folks in and do not coordinate with us, they’ll trigger monumental issues.
[END TAPE]
ED O’KEEFE: Madam Secretary, your response?
SEC. NOEM: Effectively, for 13 consecutive years, Chicago had extra murders than another American metropolis. In reality, simply final 12 months, in 2024, they’d 3 times the quantity of murders that LA did, 5 instances greater than New York Metropolis. So he can discuss what a terrific job he is doing as Governor, however he is failing these households who will not have their baby with them, their mom or their father or their cousin, aunt, and uncle which might be gone eternally due to the violence that is taking place in Chicago. So I used to be a governor for a few years. So I acknowledge the duties that you’ve got in your shoulder if you’re a governor. And I am going to let you know, as a governor, once I needed to make robust selections, and once I had disagreements with the Biden administration or challenges my folks had been going through, I referred to as up the Biden administration. I went and talked to them. I requested for conferences. I fought for my folks. This looks as if it is extra about Governor Pritzker’s ego, now, reasonably than really defending his folks. If he has one homicide within the metropolis of Chicago, he must be calling President Trump and saying, what’s your concepts? What can we do? They do not even honor our detainers in Chicago. They do not go on the market and work with us to ensure we’re bringing folks to justice. And as a substitute, he goes on TV and he assaults me once we’re doing precisely what these folks want, is that they want somebody to assist them get the damaging criminals off their streets. And if he has 1, 2, 5, or 10, these victims and their households need to stroll in freedom on these streets and never have to fret about what is going on to occur to them on their technique to their jobs.
ED O’KEEFE: Effectively, you anticipated among the questions we requested of him. So, as we are saying on this enterprise, keep tuned for that. However we’ll- let’s ask you just a few extra whereas we now have you. Are you planning, past Chicago, to broaden these sorts of operations to different cities? There have been stories, for instance, that Boston could very nicely quickly be subsequent.
SEC. NOEM: I believe there’s lots of cities which might be coping with crime and violence proper now. And so, we have not taken something off the desk. We have been ensuring that we now have the assets and the gear to go in. We have been working to associate with each single company that we are able to. We have now lots of and lots of of agreements with native legislation enforcement, sheriffs, metropolis directors and mayors throughout the nation that need to clear up issues. I might encourage each single large metropolis, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, no matter they’re, in the event that they need to assist make their metropolis safer, extra affluent, enable folks the chance to stroll in freedom, just like the folks of Washington, DC are actually, and having fun with going out to eat at night time and never having to fret if they’ll be a sufferer of a carjacking or a theft, they need to name us. As a result of we’ll work with anyone and do what we are able to to guarantee that we’re upholding our Structure, upholding the legislation, however ensuring their households are protected.
ED O’KEEFE: You talked about, there, a bunch of cities in Democratic-controlled states with Democratic mayors, and there have been lots of questions requested about that focus. There are Republican cities with main crime points as nicely, and we’ve not heard about plans to deploy, say, to Dallas or to Oklahoma Metropolis, or to cities in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi which have appreciable crime charges, in some instances greater, percentage-wise, than these different cities you talked about. Are there plans to go to crimson states and Republican-controlled cities in this type of method?
SEC. NOEM: Completely. Each single metropolis is evaluated for what we have to do there to make it safer. So we have operations that, once more, I will not discuss particulars on, however we completely aren’t trying by way of the perspective at something we’re doing with a political lens. It’s what can we do to guarantee that we’re persevering with to rise up day-after-day and to battle for the American citizen, and that they’ve the possibility to go on the market and pursue the American dream.
ED O’KEEFE: All proper. So, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is aiming to rent one other 10,000 officers by the tip of this 12 months, almost double the scale of the present pressure. Fundamental coaching is being lowered from 13 weeks to eight weeks in an try to speed up the hiring and the onboarding of those officers. Their signing bonuses, some age caps have been lifted. Did the hiring requirements get lowered partly to fulfill this day by day quota of three,000 arrests?
SEC. NOEM: Effectively what we have completed so far as recruitment- and, once more, Ed, we have over 130,000 those who have utilized to be part of that 10,000 new hires inside ICE, however we didn’t scale back any of the {qualifications} or time frames. What we did was that we made positive that we had been being way more environment friendly in getting these officers out on the road and giving them extra alternative to get skilled shortly and acknowledge the earlier coaching that they’d. In the event that they had been a earlier legislation enforcement officer or somebody that needed to return again out of retirement, we facilitated that, the place earlier than, the federal authorities had ignored these people or put them by way of lessons that they’d already certified for or grow to be masters at. So, I believe that streamlining is what wanted to occur, and we’re so grateful that so many different retired legislation enforcement officers or these from totally different areas of the nation say, pay attention, I need to be part of what ICE is doing, as a result of these people are on the market ensuring that they are going after harmful criminals and bringing them to justice, and ensuring that in the event that they’re right here on this nation, and so they’ve perpetuated these crimes and violence, that they’ve the chance to go residence to their very own residence nation and face penalties there as nicely.
ED O’KEEFE: One of the crucial excessive profile examples of somebody who’s been rounded up by ICE in current months is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and the destiny of his scenario remains to be up within the air. He is awaiting trial on human smuggling prices set for January in Tennessee, however your division can be working to get him deported to Uganda. If he broke the legislation on this nation, because the administration alleges, should not he be held right here and face prices right here as a substitute of being deported?
SEC. NOEM: Effectively, prosecution selections are all the time made by the Division of Justice and in Pam Bondi’s division, so we’ll allow them to do this. Though this particular person does have prison prices pending. He has prices pending in opposition to him civilly as nicely, and the one factor that we are going to proceed to do is to guarantee that he does not stroll free in the US of America. This particular person was a recognized human smuggler, MS-13 gang member, a person who was a spouse beater and somebody who was so perverted that he solicited nude images from minors and even his fellow human traffickers informed him to knock it off. He was so sick in what he was doing and the way he was treating young children, so he must by no means be in the US of America, and our administration is ensuring we’re doing all that we are able to to deliver him to justice.*
ED O’KEEFE: However I heard you say that we’ll let the Justice Division do this. Does this imply that- does this imply that- does that imply the push to deport him to Uganda is off?
SEC. NOEM: Oh, we’ll nonetheless proceed to pursue all choices. We are going to guarantee that he isn’t launched into this nation. So no matter that, sure, completely, he isn’t an American citizen, and he should not be right here, and particularly due to his harmful prison actions, we should always be certain that we go away each avenue on the desk.
ED O’KEEFE: Obtained it. So, amongst different issues, you oversee FEMA, the Federal Emergency Administration Company. As we hit the height of hurricane season, and we’re marking the twentieth anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina this weekend, 20 years in the past. Is the federal authorities ready to answer a significant catastrophe at this second?
SEC. NOEM: We’re completely extra ready than the final administration and doing a a lot better job responding to the disasters we have already skilled since President Trump has been within the White Home. We have had over a dozen, shut to twenty totally different disasters all through the nation simply since President Trump has been the president of the US. And we now have deployed assets twice as quick as FEMA ever has prior to now, gotten folks on the bottom over 100% faster than another administration has. In reality, with the disasters that we noticed that had been so horrific and devastating in Texas and New Mexico, North Carolina, we have had folks on the bottom inside hours responding to these households that had been in disaster. So FEMA is persistently doing a a lot better job than it has prior to now, and we’ll proceed to remain on guard and guarantee that we’re there to all the time help these native states and these native emergency administration administrators in them being- getting the possibility to run their catastrophe operations.
ED O’KEEFE: I deliver this up as a result of a part of what you are suggesting there’s in dispute from a handful of present and former FEMA staff who wrote to Congress this previous week elevating considerations concerning the company’s means to answer forthcoming pure disasters. One of many particular considerations they’ve is that this resolution that now has you reviewing any value of $100,000 or extra that FEMA plans to make. Are you able to give me an instance of a cost of $100,000 or extra that you have rejected?
SEC. NOEM: Yeah, completely. We paid lots of of hundreds of {dollars}, hundreds of thousands of {dollars}, to a one-woman agency to ship to us 30 million meals, and he or she delivered solely 50,000 to us. And it was a- one person who the st- federal authorities had contracted with in an effort to ship 30 million, and I do not know the way they ever anticipated one individual to try this. We, we had an individual that was being paid lots of of hundreds of {dollars} to e book conferences that of lower than 10 to fifteen folks, and with no conferences that we noticed that had been productive or could not be completed by sending an electronic mail. Over and over we’re these contracts and the truth that, are they duplicative? Are they simply supporting woke ideologies, DEI? Or are they really delivering catastrophe response, which is what FEMA job is, is to place in place operations, to help states and native governments to maintain folks. And so that analysis has saved us lots of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} inside FEMA and inside the Division of Homeland Safety, it has saved us $13 billion already. And we’ll consider- proceed to guarantee that we’re accountable to taxpayers. You already know, in Washington D.C., I hardly ever run into anyone who says I am a lobbyist for the American taxpayer. Effectively, guess what, Kristi Noem is. Every single day I rise up and I believe, the American persons are paying for this, ought to they? And are these {dollars} doing what the legislation says they need to be doing? I’ll guarantee that they go there and so they’re spent on what’s acceptable in response to the legislation, and that the taxpayers perceive that it is a worthwhile effort.
ED O’KEEFE: Not less than 20 of the individuals who signed this letter had been present FEMA staff, and so they’ve been positioned on administrative go away. And I might heard you in earlier interviews counsel that these which might be making accusations in opposition to the company ought to put their names on the criticisms of the allegations. So now they’ve, and so they’ve been positioned on administrative go away. And I am curious if it is now the coverage of DHS that any time an worker places their identify on one thing publicly criticizes you or the President’s management, that they need to anticipate being placed on go away or fired.
SEC. NOEM: This- this letter was signed by many individuals anonymously. There was some who had their names on there. And those that had their names on there have been short-term contract staff who had labored for the Division of Homeland Safety for lower than a 12 months, people who aren’t long-term FEMA staff, who- who seize a maintain of the mission to be there, to go and serve people and to- are deployed throughout the nation, and have for years to ensure they’re attentive to households of their time of want. So completely, each worker can be evaluated as to in the event that they’re doing their job and in the event that they’re doing it appropriately. And my hope is that each single individual inside the Division of Homeland Safety, but in addition on this authorities, will get up day-after-day desirous to make America safer, desirous to do their job and to contribute to that in a really productive method.
ED O’KEEFE: All proper, Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem becoming a member of us this Sunday from Florida. Thanks a lot. Tons to debate. We recognize it.
SEC. NOEM: Thanks, Ed. Respect it.
*Editor’s notice: Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been charged with two counts of human smuggling and has pleaded not responsible. He’s at the moment in ICE detention pending trial. He has not been charged with any counts associated to baby abuse.
