Kristi Noem flips the script on NBC’s Kristen Welker

I have always liked former South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, but I will admit that I soured on her a bit after her book came out.

She is winning me back, however, especially after she dressed down NBC’s Kristen Welker on live TV.

Removing the Criminal Element

When Trump took office, he made it quite clear that illegal immigrants would be mass deported from the country.

As his administration came closer to moving back into the White House, Border Czar Tom Homan announced they would be going after the worst first.

ICE would be looking for illegals with violent criminal histories, then start working back from there.

I tempered everyone’s expectations right from the start, stating there was simply no way Trump would be able to remove the eight million-plus that crossed the border during the Biden administration, having stated that, in my opinion, roughly two to three million should be considered a success.

Branching Out

Trump has set a goal of about 1,200 arrests a day, which falls right in line with my numbers. If Trump is able to hit that pace, it would be more than 400,000 deportations every year.

If Congress frees up more money, that number could go up, as Homan noted during a recent interview, stating, "You're going to see the numbers steadily increase, the number of arrests nationwide as we open up the aperture.

"Right now, it's concentrating on public safety threats, national security threats. That's a smaller population. So we're going to do this on a priority basis. That’s President Trump's promise. But as that aperture opens, there'll be more arrests nationwide."

At no time has anyone said that people who came to this country legally would be arrested and deported, and that is key to Noem shutting down Welker.

Bad Narrative

Even since Trump was in office the first time, the media and Democrats have made it out to sound like the right is against immigration, and that is not the case. We are against illegal immigration, and for good reason.

To that point, Welker went after Noem on “Meet the Press,” asking her if legal migrants should be concerned about being “wrongfully detained” by Homan’s teams.

Noem fired right back, “I would say that if I’ve heard that expressed by people that are legal citizens of the United States, it’s because the media has perpetuated that fear. The media has said that that’s a possibility. There’s nothing from this administration, from President Trump or from any of the law enforcement individuals in these communities that has said that they need to walk around and be concerned about that at all.”

That, my friends, is game, set, and match for Noem. The look on Welker’s face said it all after Noem gave her response. As I stated above, I had some concerns about Noem in this role, but she has quickly won me back over, and so far, I have zero complaints about the job she is doing.