Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to speak in Springfield

Posted on May 7, 2025
Kristi Noem, Homeland Security Secretary. (Photo courtesy: Noem/Facebook)

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WMBD) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is expected to speak in front of the Governor’s Mansion in Springfield this morning, a move that could draw several protestors.

Her press conference is to “highlight how sanctuary policies in Illinois have unleashed violence on American citizens — including rape, sexual assault, murder, shoplifting, and more — while shielding illegal aliens responsible from facing consequence,” according to the department’s official YouTube channel which will air the event.

“I am calling upon Governor Pritzker, and other leaders in the state of Illinois, to abandon these dangerous sanctuary policies,” Noem said in a news release. “We need to return to law and order and put the safety of Americans first.”  

Speaking at the press conference was the father of Jimmy Walden, a Peoria Heights man who was killed in 2017 in a motorcycle crash in Maryland. He and other “angel families” — people who say their loved one’s death was due to an illegal immigrant.

The protest group 50501 which sprung up after the November election has posted on social media for a “pop-up protest to “welcome” Kristi Noem to Illinois!”

WMBD TV can be reached at [email protected].

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