Several law enforcement officials have rejected Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s extraordinary claim that an undocumented immigrant deported from the United States was a self-described “cannibal.”
Noem initially made the allegation during a June interview last year with Fox News host Jesse Waters while defending Florida’s federally funded immigration detention center, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” by Republicans.
🚨 BREAKING: Biden opened the border to MIGRANT CANNIBALS 🚨@KristiNoem says the bad hombres are “EATING THEIR ARMS” pic.twitter.com/NapZfNFFyy
— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) June 28, 2025
“I was talking to a U.S. marshal just yesterday, and he was talking about the fact that they were deporting a plane load of illegals, and one of them was a cannibal,” she said. “He called himself a cannibal, ate other people and ate himself.”
A few days later, Noem repeated the account during a media roundtable following a visit to the detention facility alongside Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and President Donald Trump.
According to Noem, the alleged “cannibal” had to be taken off a deportation flight by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers after he “started to eat himself.”
Notably, Noem did not provide a name for the alleged individual, nor did she specify his country of origin or where the incident supposedly occurred. This week, however, three federal law enforcement officials — including one from Noem’s own Department of Homeland Security — dismissed the story in a report published by The Intercept.
“It is completely false,” one senior federal law enforcement official, speaking anonymously to the outlet, said.
The same official later doubled down, stating that Noem’s account was “completely made up” and “never happened.”
“I cannot condone somebody making up a story that absolutely never happened,” they said. Another official cited in the report clarified that the story originated with Noem herself, not with the U.S. marshals she referenced on Fox News and during the roundtable.
When contacted by The Intercept, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security defended Noem, asserting that she had been recounting a story told to her by someone else.
“What ‘fabrication’ of the story of the cannibal?” they said. “She was told that story on a deportation flight by one of the air marshals.”
Noem has often employed stark rhetoric in defending the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies. In recent weeks, she has faced increasing calls to step down following the fatal shootings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents in Minneapolis.
Among those urging her resignation are Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, while Democratic Rep. Robin Kelly of Illinois filed three articles of impeachment against her in January.
Despite the criticism, Noem has remained firm, labeling her opponents “radicals.”
“I’m just doing my job,” she told Fox News host Sean Hannity last month. “I’m following the law, enforcing the laws, like President Trump promised that he would do to keep people safe in this country.”
