‘This Is Just a Lie’: Kristi Noem Denies ICE Is Using Show-Me-Your-Papers Tactics in Minnesota

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday was called out for making a blatantly false claim about whether federal immigration agents are arbitrarily demanding that Minnesota residents provide evidence of their legal status.

While speaking with reporters outside the White House, Noem was asked about videos that have emerged from Minneapolis showing federal agents asking passersby to give proof of citizenship.

"Is that targeted enforcement and are you advising Americans to carry proof of citizenship?" a reporter asked Noem.

"In every situation we are doing targeted enforcement," Noem said. "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 reality, there have been multiple alleged instances of federal agents asking Minneapolis residents for proof of citizenship that were completely unrelated to any "targeted" enforcement operation.

A lawsuit filed by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Monday documented numerous such instances, including one where federal agents surrounded and questioned a driver at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport about his citizenship, and another where US Department of Homeland Security agents approached a team of Minneapolis Public Works employees and questioned them on their citizenship.

A Monday report from the St. Paul Pioneer Press, meanwhile, quoted a St. Paul resident who said federal agents knocked on her door and asked her to help them "identify Hmong and Asian households" in her neighborhood.

Given the extensive evidence of federal agents hounding Minnesotans for proof of their citizenship, many critics were quick to call out Noem for dishonesty.

"This is just a lie," wrote Democratic strategist Matt McDermott in a social media post. "There has been extensive reporting on ICE doing random door-to-door neighborhood patrols looking for anyone who is not white."

NPR reporter Sergio Martínez-Beltrán countered Noem's claims by describing an incident he saw first-hand.

"A few days ago, I witnessed how immigration agents stopped at a parking lot and asked drivers charging their electric cars for proof of citizenship or legal status," he explained.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said that Noem's claims were false not just in the context of Minneapolis, but of other US cities as well.

"In Los Angeles, for example, DHS officers outright admitted to doing 'roving patrols,' which are NOT targeted," he explained.

Another first-hand account was given by Dan Mihalopoulos, an investigative reporter at Chicago-based public radio station WBEZ.

"Last month, I saw Border Patrol roll up to random Asians in the parking lot of a Costco in Illinois asking if they are citizens," he said. "They backed off a woman who spoke English without an accent. But a Chinese shopper had to show his green card to agents."

Democrats on the US House Homeland Security Committee accused Noem of supporting racial profiling by law enforcement.

"If you’re Black or brown, Kristi Noem thinks it’s fine to stop you, cuff you, and demand proof you’re American," they wrote. "Republicans support racial profiling. They want it in your neighborhood."