BREAKING: Noem announces MAJOR sex predator bust

So this morning, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is announcing the arrest of over 150 illegal migrant sex offenders in Florida, thanks in large part to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who authorized state and local officials to help immigration enforcement. Joining us now is Secretary Kristi Noem. Good morning, Madam Secretary. How are you this morning? Good morning, Lawrence. We're doing great. We're making America more safe and secure every day, That's a wonderful mission to have. So let's talk about this operation, because this is stunning. This is a win, not only for the administration, but also for the country. How were you able to nail these sex offenders? That's not easy. Oh, Lawrence, our partnership with Florida is absolutely amazing. This operation was called Operation Criminal Return. I call it Operation Dirtbag, because these individuals were sex offenders, but not just sex offenders. They targeted children. So sexual assault, battery, attempted homicide. These 150 individuals will be gone off of our streets. Our kids will be safer. And this partnership with Governor DeSantis in Florida is a model that we want to replicate across the country. These individuals should have never been in our country to begin with. The fact that they were sexual deviants and perverts, and now we've gotten them off of our streets, it's remarkable, and we need to do more of it. So, Madam Secretary, you guys also served resources into Chicago. But now you guys are moving on from that Operation Midway Blitz. You're going to keep some folks still on the ground. And you've already seen some success there. Homicide is down 16 percent. Shootings are down 35 percent. Robberies are down 41 percent. That's why I'm surprised to hear these comments from the Illinois governor. Let's play it. The people of Chicago have deserved better than having CBP and Greg Bovino in this city. But I would not say that we're now going to be free of these terrorized neighborhoods, and we'll have to continue to protect our neighbors and our friends and our families. Donald Trump doesn't know anything about Chicago. He still thinks Chicago is someplace that's on fire, like he says about Portland. The man is demented. Madam Secretary, what's your response to that? Well, Governor Pritzker's personal attacks against President Trump puts his people in jeopardy each and every day. I'm just so thrilled with the results that we've had in Chicago, and we're going to surge more resources there. We're not going to just be in Chicago. We're spreading out to other cities and continuing to do our work. I won't talk about specific operations, but we're not going to give him any relief from his political rhetoric. We're going to be in there defending these families. The significant difference that we've made in public safety in Chicago is something that we need more in many more cities. So I'm so thankful for Border Patrol, thankful for ICE, that they get up every single day and they go into these dangerous situations and they protect people, put their lives on the line. Lawrence, I don't know if you've heard the statistic, but they've had an 8,000 percent increase in death threats against them. We've had shots fired at our officers. We've had hits put out on their heads. But they get up every day and they go do it. And remember, they live in these communities. They want to protect their neighbors, their family members. That's why they do what they do. So now that you guys are getting the bad guys out of the country, there's this debate, even amongst some conservatives, about the legal path and the visa process, some of the people that don't want to be citizens, but they want to have visas. I want to play this exchange between the president and our own Laura Ingram yesterday. Let's play it. Does that mean the H-1B visa thing will not be a big priority for your administration? Because if you want to raise wages for American workers, you can't flood the country with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of foreign workers. I agree, but we also do have to bring in talent. We have plenty of talented people here. No, you don't. No, you don't. We don't have talented people here. No, you don't have certain talents and people have to learn. You can't take people off an unemployment line and say, I'm going to put you into a factory. We're going to make missiles. So, Madam Secretary, it's not just these visas. It's other visas of people, look, that want to come to the country. They don't even necessarily want to be citizens, but they're hardworking. What is the administration's position on these visas? We're going to keep using our visa programs. We're just going to make sure that they have integrity, that we're actually doing the vetting of the individuals who come into this country, that they want to be here for the right reasons, that they're not supporters of terrorists and organizations that hate America. And that's what I think is so remarkable is under the Trump administration, we've sped up our process and added integrity to the visa programs, to green cards, to all of that. But also more people are becoming naturalized under this administration than ever before. More people are becoming citizens because we're not just streamlining and building some processes back into our immigration policies. We're also making sure that these individuals that are coming into our country and get that privilege, that they actually are here for the right reasons. The Biden administration let thousands of terrorists into this country. They opened the southern border. They abused our asylum programs, abused our protective programs and visa programs. And we fixed all of it. It's remarkable what President Trump has done. And it's because he's a great leader. He's a visionary. And this man is going to go down as a legend in history as our greatest president ever. Madam Secretary, how do y'all make the determination on enforcement? Because you got some folks that have clearly broken the law when they crossed the southern border, but they're not the worst of the worst. And you got farmers and ranchers. You're hearing it from all over, even hearing it from some of my friends in ICE and Border Patrol. How do you guys make the decision on who you guys are going to target with these operations? Because that's a big debate right now. We do the same policies that we've done for years. We do investigative work, information gathering. We build a case and then we go out and target those individuals that are committing horrific crimes against the American people. And when those people are brought into justice and who they're hanging out with and individuals are vetted that are around them and with them in apartments or on the street to make sure that those individuals should be here as well. This Trump administration has consistently targeted those criminal illegal aliens. It will continue to do that. In fact, 70% of the people that we've encountered and arrested have criminal convictions against them or charges that are pending. The fact that those individuals are off our streets today is remarkable. Thousands of gang members, thousands of cartel members, and thousands of known and suspected terrorists have been interdicted and brought off the streets. Every day I talk to victims' families, we're just so grateful that every single individual that we pull off these streets that commits crimes against them will hopefully protect another family having to, from having to go through what they did. Especially those 150 sex offenders that could have posed a lot of danger to our communities all across the country. Madam secretary, thank you so much for joining the program this morning.