Kristi Noem criticized for using language 'virtually indistinguishable' from neo-Nazis to support Trump's new travel ban
The US homeland security secretary,
Kristi Noem, was criticized on Monday for using language on social media that closely echoes dehumanizing terms for immigrants deployed by neo-Nazis and white supremacists.
“I just met with the President,”
Noem wrote on her official government X account on Monday.
“I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies,” she added.
“This language is virtually indistinguishable from what you’d find on Stormfront,”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a lawyer and senior fellow at the American Immigration Council,
responded, making reference to a neo-Nazi internet forum.
Noem’s post went on to describe immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers as “foreign invaders” who aim “to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS.”
The homeland security secretary contrasted those hoping to find refuge in the United States today with “Our forefathers” who “built this nation”. She did not address the fact that the European colonists who found the country were themselves foreign invaders who drove out the native population and settled on stolen land.