The Daily Mail reports:
She’s been called “ICE Barbie” for treating her Cabinet position like a TV production, but now Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is pushing for an actual reality show pitting immigrants against each other “for the honor of fast-tracking their way to U.S. citizenship.”
It may sound like a joke, but the idea is for real and is outlined in a 35-page program pitch put together in coordination with the DHS secretary, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal. Noem is even offering up officials from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to tally votes for the made-for-TV contest.
The pitch comes from Rob Worsoff, a writer and producer known for Duck Dynasty, the A&E reality show about a Louisiana family and its hunting empire, and Bravo’s Millionaire Matchmaker. The proposed series is called The American, named after the train that contestants would ride around the country, competing in regionally specific “cultural” contests such as rolling logs in Wisconsin.
The Daily Beast reports:
Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the Daily Beast that the show’s concept is under consideration, though she denied that Noem had reviewed the pitch in question. The concept is “in the very beginning stages” of the vetting process, she added, and approval has not been given—or denied.
“The Department of Homeland Security receives hundreds of television show pitches a year,” she said in a statement. “Each proposal undergoes a thorough vetting process prior to denial or approval.” McLaughlin denied Noem’s involvement in the project, though unnamed sources told the Daily Mail that the Homeland Security secretary supports it and wants it to proceed.
The program pitch reportedly starts with 12 pre-vetted contestants arriving at Ellis Island in New York City aboard “The Citizen Ship.” The show’s host—preferably a “famous, naturalized American” like Colombian Sofia Vergara or Canadian Ryan Reynolds—will welcome them with a personalized baseball glove.
The cruelty is the point.
Inhumane and awful pic.twitter.com/0gmsH4eVF0
— PatriotTakes
(@patriottakes) May 15, 2025
Good God. This is pure evil. https://t.co/c7PxuWP2Fl
— Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraini)
(@AdamKinzinger) May 16, 2025