Federal Officials Debunk Kristi Noem’s ‘Cannibal’ Claim | EUROtoday

Multiple legislation enforcement officers have quashed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s preposterous declare about deporting an undocumented immigrant who additionally occurred to be a “cannibal.”

Noem first made the accusation in an interview with Fox News’ Jesse Waters in June of final yr whereas defending Florida’s federally funded immigrant detention facility, which the GOP nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz.”

“I was talking to a U.S. marshal just yesterday, and he was talking about the fact that they were deporting a plane load of illegals, and one of them was a cannibal,” she mentioned. “He called himself a cannibal, ate other people and ate himself.”

Days later, Noem reiterated the story at a media roundtable after touring the detention facility with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and President Donald Trump.

The “cannibal,” she mentioned, needed to be faraway from a airplane by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers after he “started to eat himself.” (Watch the video beneath.)

Noem notably didn’t determine the alleged man by title, and made no point out of his location or nation of origin. This week, three officers from federal legislation enforcement businesses — together with Noem’s personal Department of Homeland Security — dismissed the story totally in a report by The Intercept.

“It is completely false,” one senior federal legislation enforcement official, who spoke to the outlet anonymously, mentioned.

Later within the report, the official reiterated their assertion, saying Noem’s claims are “completely made up” and “never happened.”

“I cannot condone somebody making up a story that absolutely never happened,” they mentioned. One of the opposite officers additionally clarified that the story originated with Noem, and never the marshals she’d alluded to each on Fox News and in the course of the roundtable.

When The Intercept reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for remark, nevertheless, a spokesperson acknowledged that Noem had merely been resharing one other particular person’s declare on the time.

“What ‘fabrication’ of the story of the cannibal?” they mentioned. “She was told that story on a deportation flight by one of the air marshals.”

Noem has often used dehumanizing language to defend the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants. In latest weeks, she’s confronted mounting stress to resign from her place following the deadly shootings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by the hands of ICE brokers in Minneapolis.

Two Republican senators, Thom Tillis (N.C.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), are amongst these calling for Noem’s ouster, whereas Democratic Rep. Robin Kelly (Ill.) launched three articles of impeachment in opposition to her in January.

Noem, nevertheless, has remained defiant whereas branding her critics “radicals.”

“I’m just doing my job,” she instructed Fox News’ Sean Hannity final month. “I’m following the law, enforcing the laws, like President Trump promised that he would do to keep people safe in this country.”