Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she recently uncovered a previously unknown secure facility on her department’s campus and has referred the matter to attorneys for further review.

“I can’t even believe what I found,” Noem said.

“Since I’ve been in this department, I just found the other day a whole room on this campus that was a secret SCIF secure facility that had files nobody knew existed.”

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She said the discovery occurred after an employee questioned the purpose of a door on campus.

“So we just happened to have an employee walk by a door and wonder what it was, and started asking questions,” Noem said.

“We went in there. There was individuals working there that had secret files that nobody knew about on some of these most controversial topics, like that.”

Noem said the matter has been referred for legal review.

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“And now I’ve got that turned over to attorneys, and we’re getting to the bottom of what exactly happened there,” she said.

The secretary also discussed the role of Customs and Border Protection, which operates under the Department of Homeland Security.

“You know, we have CBP, which is Customs and Border Protection,” Noem said.

“They know every traveler that comes into this country, every good that comes in, they’re the ones who assess and collect all of the tariffs.”

She referenced travel data and national laboratory collaborations.

“But the information that they had on travelers that came in during covid,” she said.

“What are national labs? Which I also have national labs under my jurisdiction.”

“They’re scientists that participated with that Wuhan lab,” Noem continued.

“How they were traveling back and forth between each other and working on those experiments.”

“It’s been eye opening,” she added.

Noem also described concerns about internal surveillance within her department.

“And I’ll tell you, Patrick, even from the time I came into this office, it was, you know, Elon and his team were extremely helpful to me,” she said.

“They helped me identify that that some of my own employees in my department had downloaded software on my phone and my laptop to spy on me, to record our meetings.”

“They had done that to several of the politicals.”

She said outside technology specialists were brought in to address the issue.

“And so we ended up bringing in people,” Noem said.

“And and that was something that if you didn’t have those technology experts here in the department looking at all of our laptops and our phones and recognizing that kind of software, it would still be happening today.”

Noem said she plans to continue working with outside experts.

“So one of the things I need to do, and continue to do, is partner with technology companies and experts to bring them in and help us,” she said.

“Because many times in government, and especially in this department, which was extremely neglected, we we were just behind and not up to the standard we should be.”

She also cited outdated internal systems.

“I remember the first four months, I couldn’t even send a PowerPoint over email from the Department of Homeland Security servers that was longer than six pages long,” Noem said.

“So the backwards thinking of protecting our country was extremely detrimental to keeping us safe.”

Addressing what she described as internal resistance, Noem said, “And and and many times, the deep state, I think, what I what I tell people most of the time, is I always believed when people talked about the deep state before that it existed, I never would have dreamed that it was as bad as it is.”

“I’m still every day trying to dig out people who don’t love America that not just work at this department, but also work throughout the federal government.”

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