Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was in Chicago's western suburbs on Friday to tout the detentions of "the worst of the worst" while demonstrators gathered outside to protest her trip to Illinois.

Her visit comes just days after the Trump administration announced plans to build a new immigration detention center in Indiana, already nicknamed the "Speedway Slammer," which has drawn backlash from the town of Speedway as well as the IndyCar organization. 

Noem stood in front of posters of four men who have been arrested from the Chicago area since Sunday. She says these arrests were made without help from city and state law enforcement.

She also displayed evidence she said came from those investigations including $100,000 in cash, 20 kilos of fentanyl, and seven weapons all from three separate investigations the HSI has undergone since Sunday.

Noem claimed hundreds of thousands of people have self-deported, and claimed ICE has detained thousands more in recent months. She displayed four men who had been detained by ICE agents in the Chicago area, saying they are foreign nationals with previou convictions.

Hector Bonaparte-Contreras of Mexico was named one of ICE's "most wanted." Court records show he pleaded guilty to criminal sexual assault of a victim under 13 and CBS News Chicago found he had been sentenced to 11 years in an Illinois prison and it appears he was just paroled this week.

A CBS News analysis of ICE data shows that nearly 72% of people in immigration detention as of June 2025 actually did not have a criminal conviction.

Noem claimed it's the opposite. 

"That's not true," she said. "Charges and convictions, over 70% of them have pending charges against them, or criminal convictions. The others all have final removal orders."

Noem says she will recruit 10,000 new ICE officers through funding from the Presidents "Big Beautiful Bill." She said she has already received 80,000 applicants in just over a week, and that many of them are retired officers and will be hired from all over the country.

"It'll be within weeks because we're going to give them credit for what they already know," she said. "If they're former law enforcement they already have training and certifications that we will honor."

Outside dozens of protestors gathered for a last-minute demonstration, shouting, "Noem go home." Some of them are immigrants rights leaders and allies who say the secretary is not welcome here in Chicago or Illinois.

"This is not the kind of country I want to live in," one protester said "I want to have liberation for everyone, freedom, and I just don't want to be a part of what is happening."

While the protest had to be organized on short notice, the demonstrators said they had to be there to send a clear message.

"I think it's awful, it's evil, and our our country has never been great with immigration but at least we followed some sort of laws in the past," one of the demonstrators said.