Contradicting data, Kristi Noem warns of ‘northern border crisis’ at Detroit event

DETROIT— Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and U.S. Rep. John James (R- Shelby Township) promised increased security on the country’s northern border at a talk Friday in Detroit.

Noem claimed in the discussion panel, organized by the conservative group America’s Future Tour, that “many” transnational gang members are crossing into the country via the northern border after the southern border had experienced increased security since President Donald Trump took office. 

Noem warned conservative allies that undocumented immigrants could enter by land, sea or road border crossings like the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit.

“When we seal secure areas where criminals may want to cross, they will find new areas,” Noem said. 

Noem said she had met with people across the country who are “seeing so many resources going to the southern border that they felt concerned we are forgetting about the northern border.” Noem claims Canada to be floundering on border security and allowing drug traffickers and human smugglers access to the U.S.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or  CBP, logs “encounters” in its system whenever it comes across an individual who is either not allowed to enter the U.S. or has crossed the border illegally at a location other than an official entry point. Illegal crossings at the US-Canada border make up less than 0.5% of the almost 3 million encounters reported nationwide according to CBP data. 

Undocumented migrants also commit far fewer crimes that American citizens, with peer-reviewed studies reporting that U.S.-born citizens are over two times more likely to be arrested for violent crimes and four times more likely to be arrested for property crime. 

Noem did not take questions from reporters.

However, State Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak), a candidate for U.S. Senate, spoke Friday evening at a campaign event in Ferndale and told Michigan Advance that the Trump administration’s policies were nothing more than “security theater” and not truly enhancing the safety of the nation.

“They are going after anybody and everybody from kids to moms who are trying to immigrate the right way to a kid here in Michigan who was three credits away from graduation, in a way that is scaring anybody from wanting to come across the border,” McMorrow said. “It’s not actually any thoughtful or tactical plans to improve the border and security. It’s just whatever they can put on social media to generate clicks.” 

The America’s Future Tour panel comes amid a backdrop of growing protests across the country against the Trump administration’s hardline approach to migration. The Los Angeles migrant rights protest, which saw journalists and protestors shot with rubber bullets and doused in tear gas, has become a flashpoint in the migration debate after the Trump administration deployed the National Guard. 

During Noem’s panel discussion, the LA Press Club and investigative news site Status Coup announced a lawsuit over what they allege to be the “targeting” of journalists by DHS during coverage of the LA protests.

Status Coup CEO and anchor Jordan Chariton, speaking with Michigan Advance, lamented Noem’s implication that the “fake news media” had been abetting undocumented migrants coming into the country.

“Sadly we have been living in a post-truth society for well over a decade where politicians like Noem can brazenly lie, provide zero facts or evidence, and rather than get shunned— they are celebrated by cult political followers who’ve drank the fact-free Kool Aid. This is that on steroids,” Chariton said.

The lawsuit accuses DHS officers of “unnecessarily and indiscriminately” using less-lethal ammunition against reporters, protesters and legal observers during the LA demonstrations. 

Livingston County Sheriff Mike Murphy, a noted Trump ally who was part of the panel, affirmed Noem’s claims.

“[T]he amount of stuff that is coming in, illegals and other stuff from the northern border, is just going to continue until we tighten things up there,” Murphy said, bringing up a case he handled last week where he claims his department apprehended three Congolese teens committing property crime.

Livingston County is in the middle of Michigan, almost a hundred miles away from the nearest border.

Seated next to Murphy was Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin, who authorities say was killed in 2023 by an El Salvadoran man in the country illegally. Victor Martinez-Hernandez was convicted by a jury earlier this year on multiple charges in the death, including first-degree premeditated murder.

The murder made national headlines during the 2024 presidential election campaign as Donald Trump used the Morin case as a reason for increased border spending.

Michigan Advance followed up claims of a northern invasion with Sheriff Murphy after Friday’s event, despite the fact that neither Morin’s case nor the Congolese teens involved the border with Canada.

“In my opinion it is the entire border and all the illegals that have and continue to come in,” Murphy said in a text exchange. “In addition the drugs and human trafficking. Resources to secure the borders should be spent. Safety of its people is the government’s first and foremost responsibility. To just mention these two cases [The Congolese teens and Morin’s case] as the reason is disingenuous.”