Kristi “ICE Barbie” Noem is lashing out at anyone who found her vow to only let the “right people” vote for the “right leaders” alarming.
The Homeland Security secretary sparked concerns last week with comments she made about safeguarding election results while supporting a Donald Trump–backed proposal of introducing voter ID requirements.
“When it gets to election day, we’ve been proactive to make sure we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country,” Noem said in Arizona on Feb. 13.
Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, was grilled on Noem’s remarks by CNN’s Jake Tapper on State of the Union Sunday. However, Homan, who has feuded with Noem for months, was quick to avoid getting roped into the comments and made no real effort to defend her.
“If I had to guess probably, that, you know, only those legally eligible to vote would vote. But I have not talked to the secretary about those statements. That would be something she’d have to answer,” Homan said.
While sharing a clip of Homan’s appearance on X, Noem doubled down on her remarks while melting down at those concerned about her intentions.
“It must be exhausting to regularly manufacture outrage even over the most commonsense statements,” Noem posted.
“Yes, we must build election infrastructure that makes it easy and secure for eligible American citizens to vote—while preventing non-citizens, including illegal aliens, from casting ballots. The choice of who to vote for is obviously up to the voters themselves.”
Noem then pointed her tirade toward Tapper, Jonathan Karl of ABC News—who called her comments “extraordinary”—and anyone else “clutching pearls” over her remarks.
“Do you actually support allowing people who are in this country illegally to vote in our elections?” she added.
Noem’s comments vowing to ensure the Department of Homeland Security only allows the “right” leaders to get elected come as Trump has made a number of concerning remarks about potentially meddling in the 2026 midterms. Republicans are widely expected to suffer an electoral wipeout in November, resulting in the GOP losing control of Congress.
Earlier this month, the president suggested on former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino’s relaunched podcast that Republicans should “take over” and “nationalize” the midterms under the guise of preventing voter fraud. Trump has even floated the idea of canceling the elections altogether.
Examples of illegal migrants managing to cast a vote in elections are extraordinarily rare. A database collected by The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind Project 2025, found just 85 cases involving allegations of noncitizen voting from 2002 to 2023, according to The Washington Post.
A 2017 analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice of 42 jurisdictions that tabulated 23.5 million votes in the 2016 election found that noncitizens were referred for investigation in just 30 cases, amounting to just 0.0001 percent of the votes.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
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