Kristi Noem Criticizes NBC for Reporting on ‘Inhumane’ Conditions at Alligator Park

On Sunday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had a contentious exchange with NBC “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker regarding the reported “inhumane” conditions at the newly established Alligator Alcatraz migrant detention center in Florida’s Everglades.

This facility, currently housing 900 people but capable of accommodating nearly 4,000, faced criticism following a visit from Democratic lawmakers on Saturday. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., compared it to an “internment camp.” The lawmakers reported witnessing inhumane treatment, unsanitary surroundings, and extreme heat. Wasserman Schultz claimed that detainees had to drink from sinks used for bathroom purposes and were crammed into overcrowded spaces resembling cages. 

Noem defended the standards of federal detention facilities, stating they are typically more stringent than many local or state centers, and even some federal prisons. She began clarifying that the Alligator Alcatraz facility is state-managed, but the host interjected before she could finish her response.

“More than 30 people stuffed into a jail cell?” Welker asked, cutting off Noem.

“I wish they would have said that back during the Biden administration and back when the Democrats were in the White House when they were piling people on top of each other on cement floors and they didn’t have two feet to move. They never did that, and that’s why this politics has to end,” Noem said. 

“I wouldn’t call them jail cells, I would call them a facility where they are held and that are secure facilities, but are held to the highest levels of what the federal government requires for detention facilities –” Noem said before once again being cut off by Welker. 

“Democrats have called them cages,” the “Meet the Press” host interrupted.  

Noem vowed to allow cameras to document the conditions inside migrant detention centers to show how their conditions are superior to centers used in the Biden administration. She also encouraged illegal immigrants to self-deport to avoid the detention process entirely and give themselves an opportunity to return to the country legally. 

Trump administration Border Czar Tom Homan also took Democrats to task Sunday for overlooking migrant detention conditions under Biden and failing to criticize them until Trump took office on CNN’s State of the Union. 

“”You didn’t see them complaining about, under Biden administration, people being held in a border patrol parking lot surrounded by a fence and sweltering heat, they ignored four years of open borders, historic migrant deaths, historic Americans dying from fentanyl, historic numbers of women and children being sex trafficked.”

The Trump administration’s deportation policies have been the subject of widespread controversy and multiple court injunctions. The White House has aggressively moved to secure the southern border and has been deporting illegal immigrants at a rapid pace.