Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem branded all of Los Angeles “a city of criminals” as she defended the actions of the Trump administration.
Noem blasted Mayor Karen Bass for describing LA as “a city of immigrants,” suggesting that violence had erupted because the mayor had “protected them for years.” The city is the second largest in the U.S. and has a population of almost four million people.
Speaking to Fox’s Sean Hannity, Noem said the ICE raids had searched for “over 400 to 500 targets” that were known members of gangs and had been “victimizing people for years” while Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom had done “absolutely nothing.”
“And now she’s holding press conferences, talking about the fact that people have the right to peacefully protest and that they’re a city of immigrants,” she said, adding sweepingly: “Well, they’re not a city of immigrants, they’re a city of criminals because she has protected them for so many years.”
Noem’s comments were slammed online, including by former Marine fighter pilot and political candidate Amy McGrath, who wrote: “Super offensive to call 3.8 million of your fellow Americans ‘criminals.’”
“Who talks about their fellow Americans like this? More than 1 in 40 of us live in Los Angeles County,” wrote another user, with another adding: “Kristi Noem hates America and hates Americans.”
Her comments come after President Donald Trump doubled the number of National Guardsmen on the ground in the city, with 2,000 more troops joining those on the ground on Monday. A contingent of 700 Marines has also been mobilized by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The federalization of the troops has been criticized by many, including Newsom who, along with state Attorney General Rob Bonta has sued the Trump administration. The last time a president bypassed a sitting governor to mobilize a state National Guard was in 1965, when Lyndon Johnson invoked the Insurrection Act to protect Civil Rights marchers in Alabama.
Noem defended the move to deploy the National Guard, telling Hannity: “We’re coming in and doing what the president has said that he’s going to do and he’s going to allow people to live in a safe community again and we’re going to use the authority that he has as president of the United States to conduct these operations.
“And the more that people conduct of violence against law enforcement officers. Boy, we’re gonna hit them back and we’re gonna hit them back harder than we ever have before.”
Her words echoed those of the president himself, who appeared to coin a new phrase in response to the clashes – “If they spit, we hit.”
