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Secretary Noem Hosts Chicago Press Conference on Criminal Illegal Alien Arrests, Aug. 8, 2025
August 8, 2025 · U.S. Department of Homeland Security · 0:44:15
Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube
What happened
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem told the Chicago press conference that, seven months into the administration, the department has been, in her words, overwhelmingly successful at securing the border under President Trump’s direction. She stated that for three months in a row there were zero illegal aliens entering the United States — the first time in the nation’s history, as she stated it — and that since the President took office the department has arrested hundreds of thousands of criminal illegal aliens.
Noem stated she was in Illinois because, as she put it, elected leaders in the state are ignoring the law and obstructing removal of dangerous criminals from their streets. She also stated that hundreds of thousands of citizens of countries she recently visited are returning home voluntarily after seeing the administration’s messaging that self-deportation preserves an opportunity to return legally, and that those countries are setting up housing, food and training programs for returnees, as she described them.
Why it matters
The Chicago stop carries the border-security case into a sanctuary-policy state capital’s media market, with the zero-entry and arrest figures stated as the headline evidence.
Scoreboard watch
Scoreboard candidate: the three consecutive months of zero illegal entries and the hundreds of thousands of arrests, as the Secretary stated them. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no verdict given here.
Sources: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, “Secretary Noem Hosts Chicago Press Conference on Criminal Illegal Alien Arrests, Aug. 8, 2025”, Chicago, Illinois, 2025-08-08 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-08-08). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.