Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed an alleged cannibal attempted to eat himself while he was being deported on an airplane.
Noem told of the incident during a press conference Tuesday.
According to a report on Fox News, Noem was part of a roundtable that included President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). The talk with reporters was part of a visit to discuss the new “Alligator Alcatraz” — a detainment facility for illegal immigrants in Florida.
Noem said she was told the story of the alleged cannibal by U.S. Marshals working with ICE. She said the alleged cannibal needed immediate medical attention. She added that this showed how former President Joe Biden “let the worst of the worst come in here.”
“The other day, I was talking to some marshals who have been partnering with ICE. They said that they had detained a cannibal and put him on a plane to take him home. And while they had him in his seat, he started to eat himself, and they had to get him off and get him medical attention,” Noem said.
“These are the kind of deranged individuals that are on our streets in America that we’re trying to target and get out of our country because they are so deranged they don’t belong here,” Noem continued. “They shouldn’t be walking the streets with our children, and they shouldn’t be living in the communities with our families who just want to… raise their children to grow up and get a job, and to live the American dream. We are going after murderers and rapists and traffickers and drug dealers and getting them off the streets and getting them out of this country.”
"A cannibal started eating his own arm." — DHS Secretary Kristi Noem on the cannibal they arrested, who began gnawing at his arm on a plane.#KristiNoem #CannibalClaim #DHS #ImmigrationNews #PlaneIncident pic.twitter.com/v4wLDaDBba
— Laura840722(@laura840722) July 2, 2025
Noem was grateful to law enforcement and military personnel for removing dangerous criminals from the U.S. She would also like other governors to take DeSantis’ lead.
“I hope my phone rings off the hook from governors calling and saying, ‘How can we do what Florida just did? How can we do exactly what they did?'” Noem said.
“Alligator Alcatraz”will have 3,000 beds and “will allow us to bring individuals across the country that we are bringing in and incarcerating for violating our laws and immediately get them out of the country as soon as we possibly can,” she continued.
“It’s exactly what we need to be perpetuating in other states,” Noem said.
