Lewandowski in Private DHS Signal Chat: “I Love Deportations”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, American Oversight released records it obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that include Signal chats and text messages from devices belonging to then-Secretary Kristi Noem and Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar. The messages, reported on by Politico, show the department’s top leadership — including Corey Lewandowski, Noem’s closest adviser — trading candid updates on the administration’s deportations of people to third countries, including a flight that sent eight men to war-torn South Sudan. Most of them had no ties to the country. The policy’s legality is now before the Supreme Court, which will hear arguments in December.

The records show then-acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons giving updates to the group on July 5, 2025: “Mission completed in South Sudan. landed at 2340 EST. They departed with no issues.” Lewandowski replied, “Praise Jesus.” The flight ended a weeks-long legal fight over a group of men the administration had held at a U.S. military base in Djibouti. The eight men came from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, South Sudan, and Vietnam.

Ten days later, on July 15, 2025, Tricia McLaughlin, DHS’s top spokesperson at the time, asked the group, “Was there a third country removal flight today? And if so, can we get rap sheets of these guys?” After Lyons said he would look into it, Lewandowski wrote, “I love deportations.” Lyons replied, “And they are only going to get better sir!” Lyons later told McLaughlin he had “just sent you the crim breakdown.”

“These messages reveal a disturbing culture of cruelty at the highest levels of the department and, even more troubling, are exactly the kind of messages the department once claimed it was no longer preserving. The public should not have to rely on federal lawsuits to learn what senior government officials are saying and doing behind closed doors,” said Chioma Chukwu, Executive Director of American Oversight. “As some of the officials involved still hold positions of power at DHS, and legal challenges to third party removals are still being litigated, Congress has a duty to investigate — to demand answers, obtain every record of how these decisions were made, and put those officials under oath. When the people running the deportation machine celebrate human suffering behind closed doors, the public deserves to see every word. Proper oversight is nonnegotiable.”

The records also show how closely the department’s leadership tracked the litigation and the press coverage surrounding the Djibouti detentions. On July 3, 2025, an official identified as “James” —  likely DHS General Counsel James Percival — told the group, “Supreme Court finally ruled on Djibouti. Full stay.” Lewandowski responded, “So long overdue,” and McLaughlin wrote that she was “Giving to NYT and Will Cain show and putting out a release.” In a June 2025 text to Noem’s device, McLaughlin wrote that DHS had “been pushing the deplorable conditions that ICE agents are facing thanks to this district court judge out of Boston.” And in May 2025, as the first flight bound for South Sudan drew scrutiny, she texted Noem’s device that DHS had “not been commenting, but this flight is driving a lot of our coverage.” After McLaughlin sent a South Sudan press conference roundup,  Noem’s device replied: “Great job.”

Nearly all the messages obtained were created after April 9, 2025 — the date after which, DHS told American Oversight in July 2025, “text message data” was “no longer maintained.” The statement came in response to a request for texts from Noem and other top officials. A month later, DHS said it “no longer has the capability to conduct a search of text messages.” After American Oversight sued over the department’s apparent failure to preserve top officials’ texts, DHS told the court that its earlier statements were “erroneous” — while disclosing that it had disabled its text-archiving system in April 2025 and was relying on officials to manually preserve their own messages. DHS later issued a notice directing top officials to preserve their records, but said at the time that it could not confirm all responsive records had been preserved.

The records — part of a rolling production from DHS in American Oversight’s ongoing litigation seeking text messages and other communications from Noem and other senior DHS officials — come as Lewandowski faces mounting congressional scrutiny.

On Nov. 10, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), who is set to chair the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in the new Senate majority, renewed her demand that Lewandowski turn over contracting-related records from his time at DHS and preserve all relevant records, citing reports that he did not always use his government email or phone for official business. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), who will chair the House Oversight Committee, vowed last month to “use every tool at our disposal to ensure Lewandowski answers to Congress and the American people” after the Justice Department reportedly opened a criminal investigation into allegations that Lewandowski profited from his advisory role.