Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was hammered by an immigration expert on Sunday after falsely distorting DHS' own data on the criminal charges of detainees.
Noem on Sunday morning appeared on CBS Face The Nation, where she was asked, "What percentage of those you have in custody have committed a criminal offense?" She quickly replied, "70% of them have committed or have charges against them on violent crimes."
The host went on to say, point blank, "It's not 70%."
"Yes it is," Noem replied. "You guys pick and choose what numbers you think work, but that is the facts."
The host said again, "Your agency says 47% have criminal convictions," to which Noem said, "Wrong again. We'll get you the correct numbers so you can use those."
"Well, that's from your agency," the host retorted.
After that, immigration expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick confirmed that "Noem's claim is FALSE."
"Here is ICE's own data on the detention population among those arrested by ICE: - 43% no criminal record (up from 6% last January) - 29% one or more prior conviction* - 28% one or more pending charge *two most common are traffic and immigration offenses," he wrote, including a graph.