On a brisk October morning in 2025, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived at the iconic Mount Rushmore, donning chaps and a cowboy hat. Her mission? To film a television ad, part of a sweeping $220 million campaign aimed at deterring illegal immigration. With the granite faces of presidents looming behind her, Noem delivered a stern message: "Break our laws, we’ll punish you." According to ProPublica, this ad was just the tip of a much larger—and more controversial—iceberg.
At the heart of the controversy is the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) decision to bypass the usual competitive bidding process for this massive ad campaign. Citing a "national emergency" at the border, the agency awarded contracts totaling $220 million in record time. But as ProPublica and ScheerPost both reported, the process raised serious eyebrows among government contracting experts, watchdogs, and even former federal officials.
The largest slice of the ad budget—$143 million—was awarded to a mysterious Delaware-based LLC called Safe America Media. This company was created just days before receiving the lucrative contract, and little is known about its actual operations. The rest of the funds went to a Louisiana Republican ad firm, People Who Think, which received $77 million. But it was Safe America Media’s role as a conduit for subcontracting that has drawn the most scrutiny.
Much of the work under Safe America Media’s contract was allegedly subcontracted to the Strategy Group, a Republican political consulting firm run by Benjamin Yoho. The connections don’t end there: Yoho is married to Tricia McLaughlin, Noem’s chief spokesperson at DHS. As ProPublica uncovered, the Strategy Group has been deeply entwined with Noem’s political operations for years, having played a central role in her 2022 South Dakota gubernatorial campaign. In fact, there is "no firm closer to Noem’s political operation than the Strategy Group," Truthout reported.
Critics have not minced words about the arrangement. Charles Tiefer, a former member of the Commission on Wartime Contracting and a leading authority on federal contract law, called the situation "corrupt." He told ProPublica, "Hiding your friends as subcontractors is like playing hide the salami with the taxpayer." Tiefer and other experts argue that the depth of personal and professional ties between DHS leadership and the Strategy Group suggests potential violations of federal ethics rules and contracting regulations. Federal law requires that government contracts be awarded "with complete impartiality and with preferential treatment for none."
The concerns don’t stop with the selection of vendors. Since the summer of 2025, Noem has required that she personally approve any DHS payment over $100,000, granting herself an unusual degree of control over agency spending. The so-called "Big Beautiful Bill" had already swelled DHS’s budget to over $150 billion, giving Noem unprecedented resources—and discretion—at her fingertips.
The ad filmed at Mount Rushmore, produced by the Strategy Group, has aired on "Fox & Friends" in recent weeks. Its visuals blur the line between a political campaign commercial and a Jeep ad, as Noem, on horseback, tells viewers: "From the cowboys who tamed the West to the titans who built our cities, America has always rewarded vision and grit." The ad features images of Trump Tower and former President Trump raising his fist after last year’s assassination attempt, before Noem warns, "You cross the border illegally, we’ll find you."
The campaign’s rollout began in February 2025, just weeks after Noem took the reins at DHS. According to ProPublica, the agency justified skipping the competitive bidding process by warning, "Any delay in providing these critical communications to the public will increase the spread of misinformation, especially misinformation by smugglers." The initial ads even featured Noem thanking Trump for his border security efforts. The contracts have since caused the DHS ad budget to triple in the latest fiscal year, Bloomberg reported.
The arrangement between Safe America Media and the Strategy Group remains shrouded in secrecy. The Delaware LLC lists its address as the Virginia home of veteran Republican operative Michael McElwain, who has his own advertising company but reportedly lacks the capacity to manage a nine-figure federal contract. Federal records don’t disclose which subcontractors Safe America Media hired, and the office funding the ad contracts is the DHS Office of Public Affairs—run by McLaughlin, Yoho’s wife. When pressed, McLaughlin told ProPublica, "We don’t have visibility into why they were chosen. I don’t know who they’re a subcontractor with, but I don’t work with them because I have a conflict of interest and I fully recused myself. My marriage is one thing and work is another. I don’t combine them." Ben Yoho did not respond to questions.
DHS, for its part, insists that the process was handled "by the book" and overseen by career officials. In a written statement, the agency said, "DHS has no involvement with the selection of subcontractors. DHS cannot and does not determine, control, or weigh in on who contractors hire." DHS further defended its decision, stating, "The results speak for themselves: the most secure border in American history and over 2 million illegal aliens exiting the United States." Still, contracting experts point out that agencies can and sometimes do require approval of subcontractors, especially when ethics or conflicts of interest are at stake.
This isn’t the first time the Strategy Group has benefited from public contracts linked to Noem. In 2023, while Noem was governor of South Dakota, her administration awarded the firm $8.5 million in state funds for an ad campaign to attract workers to the state. A former Noem administration official told ProPublica that Noem "quietly intervened" to ensure the Strategy Group got the deal, and text messages reviewed by the outlet suggest senior aides pressured staff to select Yoho’s company. Madison Sheahan, a close Noem adviser who now serves as second-in-command at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was paid up to $25,000 by the Strategy Group in 2023 for consulting work, according to financial disclosures. Sheahan did not respond to questions about the payments.
Yoho’s relationship with Noem has proven lucrative in other ways, too. He worked on the publicity campaign for Noem’s 2024 memoir and received payments from her American Resolve PAC until February 2025. Federal election records show tens of millions in payments to his firm from Republican candidates during the 2024 election cycle.
The revelations have prompted calls for investigations by both the DHS inspector general and the House Oversight Committee. Scott Amey, general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, said, "It’s worthy of an investigation to ferret out how these decisions were made, and whether they were made legally and without bias." As the story continues to unfold, one thing is clear: the intersection of politics, public money, and personal relationships at the highest levels of government has rarely been so starkly—and publicly—exposed.
As new details emerge, the questions swirling around DHS’s ad contracts and Secretary Noem’s leadership are unlikely to fade anytime soon.
