As U.S. President Donald Trump continues his hardline stance on illegal immigration, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem shared a disturbing account involving a migrant’s act of self-cannibalism. She described how federal agents apprehended an alleged cannibal who began eating his own arms during a deportation flight. The immigrant allegedly harmed himself so severely that US Marshals were forced to get him off the flight and seek immediate medical attention.
53-year-old Noem told the shocking story during a visit to a deportation camp. The camp is called “Alligator Alcatraz” and is located in the South Florida Everglades. She was there with President Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. According to a Fox News report, the roundtable’s purpose was to discuss the new immigration detention centre.
What She Said
“The other day, I was talking to some marshals who have been partnering with ICE. They said that they had detained a cannibal and put him on a plane to take him home. And while they had him in his seat, he started to eat himself, and they had to get him off and get him medical attention,” Fox News quoted her as saying.
“These are the kind of deranged individuals that are on our streets in America that we’re trying to target and get out of our country because they are so deranged they don’t belong here,” Noem added.
“They shouldn’t be walking the streets with our children, and they shouldn’t be living in the communities with our families who just want to raise their children to grow up and get a job, and to live the American dream,” the former governor of South Dakota said.
What She Meant By Narrating The Story
Noem, who used to be the governor of South Dakota, told the story to support her point that federal agents are going after the most dangerous illegal migrants. She said they are not targeting honest, hardworking people, as some critics of the government believe.
The New York Times reported that Florida built the detention center, located about 40 miles west of Miami and surrounded by alligator- and python-infested swampland, in just eight days after the Trump administration accepted the state’s offer to use the 39-square-mile plot of land to assist its mass deportation effort.
“These are the kind of deranged individuals that are on our streets in America that we’re trying to target and get out of our country because they are so deranged, they don’t belong here,” Noem added.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has pushed for those in the US illegally to self-deport in exchange for the promise of being allowed legal entry in the future.
“If you don’t (self-deport), you may end up here,” the New York Post quoted Noem as saying. “And you may end up here and being processed, deported out of this country, and never get the chance to come back,” she added.
According to Reuters, the US Department of Homeland Security said the detention centre might hold as many as 5,000 people in the future. Florida’s Attorney General, James Uthmeier, said last week that the centre could start by holding around 1,000 people within 30 to 60 days.
