Rep. John James Ignores Constituents To Spread Border Hysteria with Kristi Noem

The MI Rep praises Noem's "Northern Border" plan.

Jun 21, 2025

Yesterday in Detroit, Congressman and MI gubernatorial candidate John James joined the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, to wax poetically about the DHS’ new “Northern Border” strategy. During the hour long roundtable, Rep. James, was absurdly complementary to both Noem and Trump. At one point James said that Noem was the “most successful woman in politics” completely ignoring Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, Condoleezza Rice, and a ton of other actually more successful women. But that wasn’t the worst of it. While James sat at the America’s Future Tour roundtable in Detroit, people in his district, CD10, were protesting his support of the “Big Beautiful Bill.”

Signs and chants filled the air outside of Rep. James’ Warren office at the same time as the Noem event during a rally organized by Friends of Bernie Sanders and local coalition grassroots groups. Constituents are beyond frustrated that they have not been able to address their concerns with their congressman nor has he held any town halls. Their message today: While working families struggle with rising costs and underfunded services, Rep. James continues to back budget proposals that hand billions in tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy — at the direct expense of everyday Michiganders. His silence and inaction shows who he’s really working for and it’s not us.

Over 750,000 people in Michigan would lose their healthcare if the federal budget bill that James voted in favor of were to go through and even more would lose food assistance.

Back to the Detroit event on the northern border James said, “We are at the forefront, the epicenter of the northern border crisis.” Noem later brought up the 9 indigenous tribes in South Dakota for some reason and failed to mention that they had all banned her from their lands when she was governor. Later Kristi Noem asked Jim Tignanelli, President of the Michigan Police Association, what law enforcement needs most. His answer? Retirement healthcare—because officers are forced to keep working after they retire just to get healthcare. The crowd nodded in agreement, fully grasping how vital healthcare is while spending the day cheering on politicians like Trump and John James, who are hellbent on ripping it away from millions. Not a single person seemed to notice the irony.

Another absurdity from the afternoon: Kristi Noem told the crowd that the “riots and violence” seen on the news are being “funded by socialists, communists, and dangerous criminals.” There is zero evidence to support this nonsense. In reality, the protests against ICE have been overwhelmingly peaceful—no riots, just people demanding dignity and due process.

Let’s be clear: the entire point of this tour is to stoke fear. There is no “crisis” at our Northern border. What they’re doing is manufacturing panic to distract from the real crises they’re creating—ripping families apart, deporting teens without hearings, jailing public officials for standing up to them, driving costs up, taking away food assistance from children, taking away healthcare.. we could go on. This isn’t about safety. It’s about control.

Kristi Noem closed her set with the whopper: “ICE is following the law, doing due process, getting the paperwork and going after criminals and the worst of the worst.” Cool story—except it’s completely false. People are being deported without due process constantly.We’ve got receipts, Kristi. Too many to count.

NPR Journalists Denied Access To Noem’s Detroit Event

While Distill Social tried to attend Noem’s “America’s Future Tour”, we were turned away at the door. However, our outlet was not the only one. Journalists from NPR were also not allowed entry to the event. While some local, traditional media outlets got access it was jarring to see one of the most respected news organizations in America rebuffed.

It brought home a conflict that wages in the mind of Trump and has ramifications down here on the ground level of politics. The President’s vendetta against media channels that don’t paint him in the most positive light are subject to his ire. Thus, in the Big Beautiful Bill, is a massive defunding of public media. Not only does this put the jobs of thousands of journalists at risk, it also eliminates another outlet of truth.

If the news network that is funded by the Government, to watch the Government, is being actively attacked and stonewalled then we are a hair’s breadth away from propagandaland. Keeping NPR funded helps provide not just funky shows on the radio, it’s home to some of the best news reporting in the country. And losing that would be dire indeed.

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