Kristi Noem Just Lied to Congress—Here's Evidence to Lock Her Up for Perjury

"We don't detain American citizens," Noem testified under oath. We have 2 months of ON-THE-GROUND reporting in Minnesota proving she lied (federal perjury is punishable up to 5 years in prison!)

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Department of Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem’s allergy to the truth sprung into the spotlight Monday when she straight up lied to Congress.

“We don’t detain American citizens,” she testified under oath to Senator Cory Booker, denying that ICE or Border Patrol, both under her purview as DHS secretary, detain U.S. citizens as part of their so-called immigration enforcement. “You are not speaking truthfully under oath,” Booker shot back.

TRANSLATED: You are a liar and this lie is called federal perjury—punishable by up to 5 years in prison and hefty fines!

Now, of course, we know that the actual law—the one that applies to working people—doesn’t seem to apply to Trump regime politicians routinely breaking the law (or frankly, Republican and Democrat politicians committing insider trading through corrupt stock trades).

But, theoretically, perjury is still a crime. And thanks to two months of Status Coup’s relentless, and risky, ON-THE-GROUND reporting in Minneapolis—covering President Trump’s violent ICE occupation—we have compiled a mountain of direct evidence that Democrats, or others, can use to prosecute and convict Kristi Noem for lying under oath.

***WATCH below a video report from yours truly—and additional details—about several U.S. citizens who were both assaulted and then detained by Kristi Noem’s ICE***

Skye

Our reporter JT Cestkowski interviewed U.S. marine veteran and citizen Skye about her harrowing experience being violently dragged out of her vehicle by ICE agents—who broke her window and violently dragged her out of her vehicle.

“Get out of the fucking car!” an ICE agent screamed (watch video below). “You know I’m a Marine Corps veteran?” Skye calmly responded. “I don’t care what you are,” the ICE agent shot back before dragging her out. Right after violently assaulting Skye, another ICE agent turned to her passenger with his taser gun drawn.

“You fucking move, I’ll fucking taze you!” the agent screamed.

“They yanked me out by my neck, they threw me to the ground, they stomped on me, they pushed my face to the ground,” Skye told Cestkowski. She was left with bruises and cuts all over her hands.

“They tried to break my ankle, when he turned my ankle all the way around, I screamed and he [ICE agent] said ‘yea, I bet you fucking like that, don’t you?”

Skye—a U.S. citizen—was then detained for hours at the Federal Whipple building in Minneapolis where ICE has been detaining both undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens.

Patty O’Keefe

Our reporter JT Cestkowski interviewed U.S. citizen Patty O’Keefe, 36, a Minneapolis resident who lives about eight blocks away from where Renee Good was murdered by ICE agent Jonathan Ross. O’Keefe, like many other Minneapolis residents, had been legally following ICE to observe agents’ activities. Suddenly, her and a friend were surrounded by ICE agents and detained.

She was then detained for seven hours inside the Federal Whipple building in Minneapolis.

“We saw many many people in there, likely immigrants, men and women—we heard people screaming ‘let us out, let us out!’” she told Cestkowski. “We heard people crying.”

Lalo Rios Meza

I interviewed 22-year-old U.S. citizen Lalo Rios Meza days after he was violently assaulted at a Minneapolis gas station—and then tossed into an unmarked van and detained at the Federal Whipple building for hours.

On January 11th, 2026, Border Patrol agents swarmed a Minneapolis gas station. “We’ve got a Honduran here,” an agent yelled as he surrounded a parked vehicle. Several agents then surrounded the vehicle attempting to drag the driver out. Lalo Rios Meza, like several others, approached the scene recording with his phone. He was then pushed by a Border Patrol agent, pummeled to the ground by several BP agents, handcuffed, and carried by several agents—with his whole body sprawled out face down—to an unmarked vehicle.

The next day, on January 12th, Kristi Noem’s DHS tweeted out that they arrested one U.S. citizen (Lalo) at the scene because he was “hitting an officer.”

Shocker…DHS lied!

We obtained multiple videos clearly showing that Rios Meza was complying with a Border Patrol agent’s direction to back up—while still holding up his phone to record the active scene of BP agents violently attacking a separate driver—when the the BP agent attacked Rios Meza. The 22-year-old citizen did not hit the agent or do anything to even threaten the agent.

He was then hauled off to the Whipple federal building and detained for hours.

“It was really hard to acquire any bathroom breaks, any food, any water—there’s no beds. It’s just very hard to acquire anything that you need,” he told me. He added that inside the ICE prison is pure chaos.

“I did notice and realize that their [ICE] process is very very unorganized. There’s no procedure, they don’t have any communication between them to know what’s going on with each individual they’re dealing with.”

WATCH my interview with Rios Meza and videos that show DHS lied about him “hitting” a BP agent.

Mubashir Khalif Hussen

On December 15th, 20-year-old U.S. citizen Mubashir Khalif Hussen was walking to get lunch when, unprovoked, he was swarmed by ICE agents and thrown down to the snowy ground.

“I’m a citizen. I’m a citizen,” he repeatedly stated—but ICE agents didn’t care to even check.

“The ICE agent pushed me to the ground, I was handcuffed, he started choking me too,” Mubashir said at a press conference Status Coup covered in Minneapolis. He was then detained at the Whipple Federal Building.

“At no time did any officer ask me whether I was a citizen or if I had any immigration status,” Hussen said. “They did not ask for any identifying information, nor did they ask about my ties to the community, how long I had lived in the Twin Cities, my family in Minnesota, or anything else about my circumstances.”

The Rest

These are just A FEW examples of U.S. citizens who’ve been violently attacked and detained by ICE in Minnesota. Over nearly a year of reporting ON-THE-GROUND covering Trump’s violent immigration invasions in LA, NYC, D.C., Alligator Alcatraz, Chicago, Charlotte, and Minneapolis—we’ve covered and spoke to many more U.S. citizens who were detained (ranging from a few hours to several days).

**We would be happy to provide our videos as evidence to any attorneys or politicians who would like to proceed with an investigation and prosecution of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem for lying under oath to Congress***

Status Coup has been reporting ON THE GROUND covering ICE TERROR for nearly a year! We’ve LED ALL OUTLETS reporting ON-THE-GROUND for nearly a year covering Trump’s ICE in LA, NYC, Alligator Alcatraz, Chicago, Charlotte, & Minneapolis. We’re INDEPENDENTLY FUNDED & this in-the-trenches reporting is VERY EXPENSIVE. The more viewers who sign up as paying members—for as low as $5 bucks a month—the more ON-THE-GROUND reporting we can provide (unless you’re waiting on CNN or the NY Times to show you the truth about the exploding fascism spreading all around us!) PLEASE SUPPORT US FOR AS LOW AS $5 BUCKS A MONTH.

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Let’s keep waking up the masses.