“I am pleased to announce that the Governor and former Congresswoman from South Dakota, Kristi Noem, will be appointed to serve as the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS),” Trump said in a statement issued Tuesday evening.
“Kristi has been very strong on Border Security. She was the first Governor to send National Guard Soldiers to help Texas fight the Biden Border Crisis, and they were sent a total of eight times,” said Trump. “She will work closely with ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan to secure the Border, and will guarantee that our American Homeland is secure from our adversaries.”
Trump previously announced immigration hawks Stephen Miller and Tom Homan for key roles in the White House to carry out the deportation of illegal immigrants and lead border policy. Miller will be Trump’s deputy chief for policy and Homan will serve in a new position as border czar. Unlike Noem, Miller and Homan will not need to be confirmed by the Senate.
Noem, 52, is not from a border state and her background is as a state and U.S. lawmaker. However, she has visited the Texas border several times during the Biden administration and thanked Trump for the new position.
“I am honored and humbled that President Donald J. Trump has selected me to be the Secretary of Homeland Security,” said Noem in a statement. “I look forward to working with Border Czar Tom Homan to make America SAFE again. With Donald Trump, we will secure the Border, and restore safety to American communities so that families will again have the opportunity to pursue The American Dream.”
Noem has been an ardent supporter of Trump for years and her selection continues with the Trump transition team’s theme of picking loyalists who will back the incoming president’s policy decisions.
If confirmed by the Senate, Noem would oversee the DHS, a 245,000-employee federal department whose mission is protecting the people of the United States.
For context, the largest city in South Dakota is Sioux Falls, with its 213,000 residents. South Dakota has a population of more than 800,000 residents.
Under Noem’s leadership, South Dakota also directed its own National Guard troops to deploy to Texas to assist Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) in Operation Lone Star to secure the border amid record-high illegal immigration.
In 2021, Noem sent roughly four dozen South Dakota National Guard troops to the Texas border thanks to a contribution from Republican megadonors Willis and Reba Johnson. Willis Johnson made his billions of dollars through Copart, an automotive salvage and auction company.
That same year, as more unaccompanied immigrant children began crossing the southern border, Noem joined other Republican governors who refused to resettle the children in their state.
A slew of Republican governors have refused the Biden administration’s requests to send unaccompanied children from the border to their states, but legal experts say they are likely powerless to stop it.
Noem declared in a tweet that “South Dakota won’t be taking any illegal immigrants that the Biden Administration wants to relocate.” In Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds (R-IA) refused a federal request to hold children in emergency influx shelters at state-licensed facilities.
Last year, while at a press conference on the Texas border with Abbott, Noem referred to him as a “rock star” for stepping up to bolster border security as more than 6 million people have been encountered illegally entering the country since February 2021.
“What we’re literally witnessing is a war zone,” said Noem. “We absolutely have to show people that there’s a different choice. And it literally is just enforcing the laws that we already have.”
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Noem supported Trump’s 2017 executive order that suspended the refugee program from seven countries in the Middle East, otherwise known as the “Muslim ban.”
At the time, Noem had said that she supported a temporary ban on admitting refugees coming from “terrorist-held” areas.