Kristi Noem's 'abhorrent' final DHS project already has an expiration date: insider

A final project pushed through by former Department of Homeland Security head Kristi Noem will be obsolete in just a few years, an insider claimed.

Noem, who has been moved to a new role as special envoy to the Shield of the Americas, had been working on a series of warehouse mega jails that set the department back $38 billion. The project was set to make space for 10,000 detainees of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's recent crackdown, in line with President Donald Trump's immigration policy.

But the project, overseen by Noem's chief adviser Corey Lewandowski, had not convinced longtime ICE operatives. With the pair set to be removed from their post by the end of the month, insiders told The Atlantic that efforts to acquire warehouses for the mega jail project had since slowed.

One of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, "They’ve had a ridiculous timeline to rush everything through. Now everybody’s kind of going back to the drawing board and talking about resetting."

Another veteran ICE official said of the project, "If the goal is to not have endless illegal immigration, those centers will be obsolete in three to five years. The amount of money going into them is abhorrent."

Noem's warehouse mega jails were initially opposed by close Trump ally Stephen Miller, who believed the department should have opted for military bases and tent camps for those arrested by ICE.

The fate of these warehouse acquisitions is now reportedly in the hands of incoming DHS head Markwayne Mullin. Nick Miroff, writing in The Atlantic, suggested the jails would be a hard sell to members of the public.

He wrote, "A White House official told me the administration looks forward to Mullin’s 'speedy confirmation' and 'continuing to implement the President’s agenda in the most efficient and effective way possible.' If Mullin is confirmed as the new DHS secretary, he’ll need to launch a more concerted effort to sell the plan to state and local jurisdictions, three DHS officials told me.

"'They’re figuring out a way to better inform the public and the communities and the governor's offices and local officials, so they’re more involved,' one DHS official told me. ICE has started working on a Frequently Asked Questions page about the warehouses, the person said, but it’s not finished yet."