DHS Secretary Kristi Noem posed in front of El Salvador prisoners wearing $50k watch
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem posted a video Wednesday from a high-security prison in El Salvador, standing in front of a crowded cell wearing a watch with an estimated pricetag of $50,000.
Noem visited the mega-prison known as CECOT, the country's Terrorism Confinement Center, holding Venezuelan men deported under the Trump administration's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act.
"If you come to our country illegally, this is one of the consequences you could face," Noem said in the video posted on X. "This facility is one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people."
The watch she wears in the video was identified as an 18-karat gold Rolex Cosmograph Daytona, as first reported by the Washington Post, and reportedly sells for $50,000.
Except for President Donald Trump, presidents in recent decades have opted for more modest timepieces to avoid being labeled as elitist, according to the New York Times. For example, President Joe Biden was criticized by conservative media for wearing a $7,000 watch to his inauguration.
Kristi Noem's $50k watch against harsh prison setting draws criticism
The juxtaposition of Noem's luxury accessory and her setting was noted by critics and human rights groups.
CECOT holds up to 40,000 people with little access to the outside world, and has become known for images of masses of bald, tattooed men who stay in their cells all day except for brief exercise breaks.
Noem posed in front of one of those cells for her video, with men crowded on open bunks stacked three high. Raw video captured by Reuters shows guards telling men to remove their shirts and stand near the bars, where they bared their tattoos.
“This is an administration that is trying to be populist, anti-elite, appeal to the common man,” Adam Isacson with human rights group the Washington Office on Latin America told the Post. "You’re in front of all these people in a very poor country, who are in the bottom 10 or 20 percent of their country … and it looks like you’re just flaunting your wealth while you flaunt your freedom."
A spokesperson from the Department of Homeland Security criticised Paste BN for focusing on the "sartorial choices" of a female secretary.
"Governor Noem chose to use the proceeds from her New York Times best-selling books to purchase an item she could wear and one day pass down to her children," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. Noem went viral for one of her books in the summer of 2024 as it revealed she shot her dog for being "untrainable."
In mid-March, the Trump administration flew 261 Venezuelans to El Salvador, alleging they were members of a Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. As multiple outlets have reported, families and lawyers deny that some of them had any affiliation with the gang.
Contributing: Eduardo Cuevas, Paste BN
Kinsey Crowley is a trending news reporter at Paste BN. Reach her at kcrowley@gannett.com. Follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley or Bluesky at @kinseycrowley.bsky.social.