A Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman told Newsmax on Friday that a report insisting Secretary Kristi Noem was pushing a reality TV show for migrants to compete for U.S. citizenship was “completely false.”
DailyMail.com reported Thursday that Noem was pushing for an actual reality show pitting immigrants against each other “for the honor of fast-tracking their way to U.S. citizenship.”
The report said the suggested reality show was outlined in a 35-page program pitch put together in coordination with Noem, who even offered officials from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to tally votes for the show.
On Friday, DHS sent Newsmax a statement from Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.
“The reporting by the Daily Mail is completely false, and an affront to respectable journalism,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “Secretary Noem has not ‘backed’’ or even reviewed the pitch of any scripted or reality show.”
McLaughlin said DHS “receives hundreds of television show pitches a year,” ranging from documentaries surrounding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection to white-collar investigations by Homeland Security Investigations.
“Each proposal undergoes a thorough vetting process prior to denial or approval,” McLaughin’s statement continued. “If the excuse for a reporter at the Daily Mail had even thought to ask, he would have learned the show in question is in the very beginning stages of that vetting process and has not received approval or denial by staff.”
The Wall Street Journal reported early Friday that DHS was considering being part of TV show in which immigrants would compete for potential U.S. citizenship.
The Journal reported McLaughlin saying the show was “in the very beginning stages of that vetting process.”
“Each proposal undergoes a thorough vetting process prior to denial or approval,” McLaughlin said.
Such a show, in which migrants already in the system would compete in various contests including potentially on American history and science, has been pitched under former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, the Journal reported.
Both reports said the pitch came from Rob Worsoff, a producer and writer whose credits include the “Duck Dynasty” reality show.
“This isn’t ‘The Hunger Games’ for immigrants,” Worsoff said, the Journal reported. “This is not, ‘Hey, if you lose, we are shipping you out on a boat out of the country.'”
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