Noem Denies Use of Chemical Agents in Minnesota, Then Backtracks

WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem denied in a televised interview on Sunday that her department had used pepper spray and similar tactics curtailed by a judicial order issued last week, then backtracked and blamed protesters after being confronted with a video of federal agents deploying such measures against crowds in Minnesota.

“That federal order was a little ridiculous, because that federal judge came down and told us we couldn’t do what we already aren’t doing,” Noem said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

But after being pressed on a video that backed up the accounts provided to the court, she changed course. Protesters were to blame for the use of force, she said, adding that federal officers “only use those chemical agents when there’s violence happening and perpetuating.”

The ruling Friday by Judge Kate Menendez of the U.S. District Court in Minnesota said that chemical agents had been used against protesters on at least four separate occasions and called the evidence of their use “uncontroverted.”

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“Federal agents used chemical irritants” to punish protesters for exercising “protected First Amendment rights to assemble and to observe and protest ICE operations,” the judge wrote in issuing her injunction, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In response to an inquiry about Noem’s comments, Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson, did not comment on Noem’s initial denial and backtracking of immigration agents’ use of force. Instead, she emphasized that assaulting and obstructing law enforcement is a felony, and accused protesters of tampering with agents’ vehicles and attacking officers with fireworks and automobiles.

Menendez had dismissed the government’s claims that all use of pepper spray and other chemical irritants had happened after agents were “attacked,” finding that “protected conduct,” including protesting and observing the operations, had “motivated” the agents’ “adverse actions.”

The injunction issued last week stemmed from a lawsuit filed by activists who have protested the crackdown or observed the department’s operations in Minnesota. The suit was filed in December, before an immigration agent shot and killed an unarmed U.S. citizen, Renee Good, in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, prompting increased protests against the crackdown.

Good, 37, had partially blocked a roadway where agents were working and did not follow commands to get out of her SUV. As she began to drive away, an agent near the front of her car opened fire.

In addition to barring agents from using “crowd dispersal tools” in retaliation for protected speech, Menendez also said agents could not stop or detain protesters in vehicles who were not “forcibly obstructing or interfering with” agents.

On Sunday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the Justice Department’s decision to not investigate the agent who fatally shot Good, saying that doing so would be bowing to “pressure from the media” and politicians.

“We investigate when it’s appropriate to investigate, and that is not the case here,” Blanche said on “Fox News Sunday.” “We don’t just go out and investigate every time an officer is forced to defend himself against somebody.”

The Justice Department has instead pushed to investigate Good’s widow, prompting several federal prosecutors in the state to resign.

Noem said during the interview that her department was conducting a separate, internal review of the agent’s actions, “following the exact same investigative and review process” that existed for years.

Even as critics of the government’s tactics say the operations, particularly in Minnesota, have indiscriminately swept up individuals based on racial and ethnic profiling, President Donald Trump and members of his administration have insisted they are aimed at violent criminals.

DHS officials have repeatedly said that 70% of those detained in the administration’s immigration crackdown have been charged or convicted of a crime. That figure is roughly in line with a New York Times analysis of immigration arrests between the start of Trump’s term and Oct. 15, which found that 67% of those taken into custody had been at least charged with a crime of some kind.

But Noem on Sunday went a step further. “Every single individual” arrested by immigration agents had broken the law, she told “Face the Nation,” adding that 70% of those detained had either committed or been charged with violent crimes specifically.

McLaughlin did not respond directly to an inquiry about that statement, but repeated the department’s position that 70% of those arrested had been convicted or at least charged with a crime of some kind.