Transcription: The Secretary of the Homeland Kristi Noem in

The following is the transcription of an interview with the Secretary of the Homeland, Kristi Noem, which was issued in “facing the nation with Margaret Brennan” on August 31, 2025.

Ed O’Keefe: Good morning and welcome to ‘Face the Nation’. Margaret is out this weekend of Labor Day. I’m Ed O’Keefe. We start today with the Secretary of National Security, Kristi Noem, who joins us from Florida. Lady Secretary, thanks for being with us.

National Security Secretary Kristi Noem: Absolutely, ed. Thanks for inviting me.

Ed O’Kefe: Yes. Well, we have a lot to discuss, so we want to start with this because we have learned that the application of immigration and customs is planning to expand operations in the next few days to Chicago. When is these operations expected to begin? And you said in the last days that you are using recent implementations in Los Angeles as a model. What does that mean?

SECOND. Noem: Well, we have already had continuous operations with ICE in Chicago and in all Illinois and other states, ensuring to keep our laws. But we intend to add more resources to these operations. I will not reveal the details because they are police and investigative people who are in the field there, and I want to make sure that we maintain their security in our number one priority, but we will continue to chase the worst of the worst in the country, as President Trump has told us. Focusing on those who perpetuate the murder and rape and trafficking of drugs and humans throughout our country, knowing that each citizen deserves to be safe.

Ed O’Kefe: part of what distinguished the operations of Los Angeles, however, is that the National Guard troops were there, in essence protecting or supporting those federal agents while carrying out operations. Is that what we should expect to see in Chicago?

SECOND. Noem: You know that it is always a prerogative of President Trump and his decision. I will not talk about the details of the operations that are planned in other cities, but I know that it would not be standing today if President Trump had not taken measures, then that city would have been burned if he went to the mayor’s devices and the governor of that state. And so, citizens who live there, the owners of small businesses in downtown Los Angeles, are grateful that President Trump has arrived with the agents of the federal law and helped support to maintain those open streets, prevent their homes and businesses from burning, and ensured that the law and order were restored.

Ed O’Kefe: I just want to clarify one thing you said there. Did you say that it would not be standing if it were not for these federal deployments?

SECOND. Noem: Many of those houses and businesses that were in the center of Los Angeles and in those areas were dealing with disturbances and violence and entering and bringing those agents of the federal law was incredibly important to maintain peace, so we are grateful that President Trump was willing to send resources and people, to enforce the law. And ED since then, we have arrested 5000 dangerous and illegal criminals from Los Angeles and took them out of our country and made them face justice for their crimes. And many of these people were people who, if they know, carried out horrible and horrible activities against US citizens. Children and pedophile traffic. And that is one of the things for which the people of Los Angeles can be grateful is that they no longer have those bad actors, those people in their streets due to the work of President Trump and his administration.

Ed O’Kefe: So, as you know, we talk to the governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker about all this. And I asked him what I would tell you about these next plans, we play that and let you answer later.

[ON TAPE]

Ed O’Kefe: If she called you, how would you say? What is your message for her?

Governor of Illinois JB Pritzker: Well, I tell him that what he is doing is inflame passions and cause interruptions that it is not necessary to cause. We have people who have lived, yes, in the state of Illinois, in the city of Chicago, for decades, working here, paying taxes. They are respectful members of the law of our communities, friends, neighbors and why are we arrested? Why are we making them disappear? In fact, they are even interrupting the lives of people who try to go through a legal process to stay in this country, who have been invited to an audience, and then arrest them in the halls on their way to that audience. So this is dangerous. They should not be doing it. It is anti -American. She is not American, and I would tell her that it may be checked for what she really believes.

Ed O’Kefe: The fact that Chicago is one of the cities that does not cooperate with federal immigration operations, and was summoned by saying that Illinois cites ‘denies backups’ is also critical.

Government. Pritzker: Well, that’s not true. In fact, there were police officers who made sure that no one interfered, attack or cause problems to the ICE officials who were here. People have the right to express themselves. People have the right to their first amendment, you know that the freedom to express, and we also protect it in the city of Chicago. So it is not true that nobody has their backs. However, what we will not do is participate in what is a federal effort, that is, they have their work, immigration. We have our work, which is to fight against violent crime in the streets of our city, and by the way, we are succeeding in that work. But when people bring and do not coordinate with us, they will cause huge problems.

[END TAPE]

Ed O’Kefe: Lady Secretary, your answer?

SECOND. Noem: Well, for 13 consecutive years, Chicago had more murders than any other American city. In fact, last year, in 2024, they had three times the amount of murders he did, five times more than the city of New York. Therefore, he can talk about the great work he is doing as governor, but he is failing in those families that will no longer have their son with them, their mother or their father or their cousin, aunt and uncle who have gone forever due to the violence that is happening in Chicago. So I was governor for many years. So I recognize the responsibilities you have on your shoulder when you are a governor. And I will tell you, as governor, when I had to make difficult decisions, and when I had disagreements with the administration or Biden challenges that my people faced, I called the Biden administration. I went and talked to them. I asked for meetings. I fought for my people. This seems that it is more about the ego of Governor Pritzker, now, instead of protecting his people. If you have a murder in the city of Chicago, you should call President Trump and say, what are his ideas? What can we do? They do not even honor our detail in Chicago. They do not go out and work with us to make sure to take people before justice. And on the other hand, he goes to television and attacks me when we are doing exactly what these people need, they need someone to help them get the dangerous criminals from their streets. And if he has 1, 2, 5 or 10, those victims and their families deserve to walk in freedom in those streets and not have to worry about what will happen to their way to their work.

Ed O’Kefe: Well, you anticipated some of the questions we asked him. So, as we say in this business, be attentive for that. But we will ask you some more while we have it. Are you planning, beyond Chicago, to expand this type of operations to other cities? There have been reports, for example, that Boston could soon be the next one.

SECOND. Noem: I think there are many cities that are dealing with crime and violence at this time. And so, we have not removed anything from the table. We have made sure to have the resources and team to enter. We have been working to associate with each agency we can. We have hundreds and hundreds of agreements with the Local Police, the Sheriffs, the city administrators and the mayors across the country who wish to solve problems. I would encourage all the big cities, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, whatever they are, if you want to help your city be safer, more prosperous, allow people to walk in La Libertad, like the people of Washington, DC now, and enjoy going out at night and not having to worry if they will be victims of a car or a robbery, they should call us. Because we will work with anyone and do what we can to ensure that we are defending our Constitution, defending the law, but making sure that their families are safe.

Ed O’Kefe: You mentioned, there, a group of cities in states controlled by Democrat with Democratic Mayors, and many questions have been asked about that approach. There are also republican cities with important crime problems, and we have not heard about the plans to deploy, for example, Dallas Oa Oklahoma City, or the cities of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi that have considerable crime rates, in some cases higher, percentage, than the other cities that he mentioned. Are there plans to go to red cities and cities controlled by Republicans in this way?

SECOND. Noem: Absolutely. Each city is evaluated for what we need to do there to make it safer. So we have operations that, again, I will not talk about the details, but we are absolutely not looking through the point of view in everything we are doing with a political lens. It is what we can do to make sure that we continue to raise every day and fight for the American citizen, and that they have the opportunity to leave and pursue the American dream.

Ed O’Keefe: Very good. Then, the application of immigration and customs intends to hire another 10,000 officers for the end of this year, almost double the size of the current force. Basic training is reduced from 13 weeks to 8 weeks in an attempt to accelerate the hiring and incorporation of these officers. His signature bonuses, some age caps have been raised. Were the hiring standards partially reduced to meet this daily fee of 3,000 arrests?

SECOND. Noem: Well, what we have done in terms of recruitment, and, again, Ed, we have more than 130,000 people who have requested to be part of those 10,000 new hiring within the ice, but we did not reduce any of the qualifications or time frames. What we did was that we made sure to be much more efficient to get these officers to the street and give them more opportunities to train quickly and recognize the previous training they had. If they were an agent of application of the previous law or someone who wanted to get out of retirement, we facilitate that, where before, the federal government had ignored those people or had put them through classes for those who had already described or turned into teachers. So, I think that optimizing is what should happen, and we are very grateful that so many other agents of the law retired or those of different areas of the country say, listen, I want to be part of what ICE is doing, because these people are making sure that they go to dangerous criminals and assure them that they are here in this country, and they have the opportunity to have the opportunity to have the opportunity to have the opportunity to have the opportunity to have the opportunity to have the opportunity to have the opportunity to have the opportunity to Have the opportunity to have the opportunity to have the opportunity to have the opportunity to have the opportunity to have the opportunity to have the opportunity to have the opportunity to have the opportunity to have the opportunity to have the opportunity, that they have the opportunity, that they have the home. consequences there too.

Ed O’Keefe: a Or the most high profile examples of someone who has been rounded by ice in recent months is Kilmar Abrego García, and the fate of his situation is still in the air. He is waiting for the judgment on human smuggling positions scheduled for January in Tennessee, but his department is also working to make Uganda sport. If he violated the law in this country, as the administration alleges, shouldn’t it be held here and face charges here instead of being deported?

SECOND. Noem: Well, prosecution decisions are always taken by the Department of Justice and in the department of Pam Bondi, so we will let them do that. Although this individual has pending criminal charges. He also has pending positions against him civilly, and all we will continue to make is to make sure he does not walk free in the United States of America. This individual was a known human smuggler, a member of the MS-13 gang, an individual who was a wife’s whipper and someone who was so perverted that he requested photos of m minor nudes and even his companions of traffickers of people told him to eliminate him. He was so sick in what he was doing and how he was treating young children, so he should never be in the United States of America, and our administration ensures that we are doing everything possible to take it before justice.*

Ed O’Kefe: but I heard you say that we are going to let the Department of Justice do that. Does this mean, this means that this means that the impulse to deport it to Uganda is off?

SECOND. Noem: Oh, we will continue to chase all the options. We will make sure that it has not been released in this country. So, regardless of that, yes, absolutely, it is not an American citizen, and should not be here, and especially because of its dangerous criminal activities, we must ensure that we leave all the ways on the table.

Ed O’Keefe: I have it. So, among other things, Supervises FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. When we arrive at the top of the hurricane season, and we are marking the twentieth anniversary of the Terrican of Hurricane Katrina this weekend, 20 years ago. Is the federal government prepared to respond to a great disaster at this time?

SECOND. Noem: We are absolutely more prepared than the last administration and doing a much better job that responds to the disasters we have already experienced since President Trump has been in the White House. We have had more than a dozen, about 20 different disasters throughout the country, only since President Trump has been the president of the United States. And we have deployed resources twice faster than FEMA in the past, with people on the ground more than 100% faster than any other administration. In fact, with the disasters we saw that they were so horrible and devastating in Texas and New Mexico, North Carolina, we have had people in the field in a matter of hours who responded to those families that were in crisis. Therefore, FEMA is constantly doing a much better job than the past, and we will continue to be guardians and ensure that we are there to always support these local states and these local emergency management directors in them, having the opportunity to manage their disaster operations.

Ed O’Kefe: I mention this because part of what you are suggesting that there is in dispute of a handful of current and previous fema employees who wrote to Congress last week raising concerns about the agency’s ability to respond to the next natural disasters. One of the specific concerns they have is this decision that now makes it review any cost of $ 100,000 or more than FEMA plans to take. Can you give me an example of a $ 100,000 or more charge you have rejected?

SECOND. Noem: Yes, absolutely. We pay hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars, to a single -woman company to deliver 30 million meals, and she gave us only 50,000. And he was a person with whom the federal government had hired to deliver 30 million, and I don’t know how they expected a person to do it. We had a person who was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to reserve meetings that of less than 10 to 15 people, and without meetings that we saw that they were productive or could not be done by sending an email. Again and again we are looking at these contracts and observing the fact that they are duplicated? Are they just supporting Wake ideologies, Dei? Or are they really delivering a disaster response, which is what is FEMA’s work, is to establish operations, support states and local governments to take care of people? And for the evaluation to save us hundreds of millions of dollars within FEMA and within the Department of National Security, it has already saved US $ 13 billion. And we will consider, continue making sure that we are responsible before the taxpayers. You know, in Washington DC, I rarely meet someone who says I am a lobbyist for the US taxpayer. Well, guess what Kristi Noem is. Every day I get up and I think the American people are paying for this, should they? And these dollars are doing what the law says they should be doing? I will make sure they go there and spend on what is appropriate according to the law, and that taxpayers understand that it is an effort that is worth it.

Ed O’Keefe: At least 20 of the people who signed this letter were current FEMA employees, and have put them on administrative license. And I heard that in previous interviews he suggests that those who are making accusations against the agency should put their names about the criticisms of the accusations. So now they have done it, and have been placed on administrative license. And I am curious to know if now is the policy of the DHS that every time an employee puts his name in something publicly criticizes you or the leadership of the president, who must anticipate that they are put on a license or farewell.

SECOND. Noem: This letter was signed by many people anonymously. There were some who had their names there. And those who had their names there were temporary contract employees who had worked for the National Security Department for less than a year, people who are not employed in the long term of FEMA, who, who take over the mission of being there, to go and serve people and deploy throughout the country and make sure they receive families in their time of need. Then, absolutely, each employee will be evaluated as to whether they are doing their job and if they are doing it properly. And my hope is that each person within the National Security Department, but also in this government, lifts each day wanting to make the United States safer, wanting to do their job and contribute to that in a very productive way.

Ed O’Kefe: Very good, the Secretary of National Security, Kristi Noem, joining us this Sunday from Florida. Thank you so much. A lot to discuss. We appreciate it.

SECOND. Noem: Thank you, ed. I appreciate it.

*Editor’s note: Kilmar Abrego García has been accused of two positions of human smuggling and declared himself innocent. He is currently in ice arrest pending judgment. He has not been accused of any position related to child abuse.