The uncomfortable truth about Kristi Noem's 'startling confession'

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U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem speaks with Laura Wilkerson at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 23, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

President Donald Trump’s former Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, made a “startling confession,” according to a conservative writer, and the mainstream media is not focusing on it.

The “confession” in question involved Noem admitting to a Senate investigative committee that “her department had arrested and deported DACA recipients—the ‘Dreamers’ who are shielded from deportation and have had work authorization since 2012—at unacceptable levels,” wrote Adrian Carrasquillo for The Bulwark. He shared the story of a Motel 6 hospitality area manager, Maria, who was wrongly deported to Mexico despite working in America legally under DACA.

“I feel like it was entrapment,” Maria told Carrasquillo. “The moment they told me I was going to be deported, first I felt like they killed me right then and there. But seeing my daughter devastated was one of the hardest moments I had in my life. I was thinking, ‘What am I going to do?’”

He explained that “life has grown hard” as Maria adjusts to her new life in Mexico, and was in the audience when Noem faced the Senate this week.

“To me, it means my whole entire world that I raised a good daughter, a daughter that is not going to let go,” Maria told Carrasquillo. “Standing up for me and fighting, being a voice for those that cannot speak, it means a lot. That I did a good job as a mother and raised a good citizen.”

The Bulwark reporter added that “Maria’s message to the Trump administration is that in their zeal to remove criminals who are bad for the country, they have targeted good people like herself who are ‘assets to the country.’ She also underscored that, in addition to helping those homeless families and other community work, she doesn’t live on government assistance, welfare, or food stamps.”

It does not appear that the cruelty to immigrants like Maria played a major role in Noem’s dismissal. Instead it was reported that congressional leaders persuaded Trump that Noem was no longer viable because of her multitude of scandals. Trump was also furious when Noem said repeatedly the president had personally approved her controversial ad blitz in which she was prominently featured, which Trump denies.

Noem’s tenure was also notoriously marked by infighting and accusations of vindictiveness, with the former secretary’s top aide and alleged lover Corey Lewandowski being often singled out for criticism. After Noem’s firing, a White House official anonymously said they “don’t know who would want him.”

The Bulwark, though skeptical that Noem’s replacement will be better, nevertheless celebrated her departure.

“Trump’s pick to replace her, Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, is a MAGA meathead of the highest order, but I’d hesitate to predict confidently that he’ll be any worse—at any rate, he’ll have his work cut out for him if he hopes to be,” wrote The Bulwark’s Andrew Egger. “And this isn’t nothing: We hope we won’t have to think about Corey Lewandowski’s sex life ever again.”

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