The Senate confirmed Kristi NOEM As Secretary of Homeland Security on Saturday in a 59-34 vote, putting the former South Dakota governor in charge of a sprawling agency vital to President Donald Trump’s national security plans clamp down on illegal immigration.
Republicans kept the Senate busy Saturday to install the newest member of Trump’s national security team. Minister of Defense Pete Hegseth was confirmed on Friday evening and became State Secretary Marco Rubio and CIA director John Ratcliffe. The Senate will vote next Monday evening Scott Bessent’s Confirmation as Minister of Finance.
Noem resigned from her position as the governor of South Dakota shortly after she was confirmed. She was in her second term and served in the role for six years. Her lieutenant governor, Larry Rhoden, is now the state’s 34th governor.
NOEM, a Trump ally, received some support from Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee when it voted 13-2 to Promote her nomination Earlier in the week. Republicans, who already have the votes needed to confirm her, expressed confidence in her determination to lead border security and immigration enforcement.
“Fixing this crisis and restoring respect for the rule of law is one of President Trump and Republicans’ top priorities,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Friday. “And it will require a decisive and committed leader at the Department of Homeland Security. I believe Kristi has what it takes to do this job.”
Tom Williams
Democrats were divided over handling border enforcement and immigration under Trump, with some warming to his hardline stance.
Still, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said he would vote against NOEM. He pointed to “bipartisan solutions to fix the mess at our border,” adding that NOEM “appears to be headed in the wrong direction.”
The Secretary of Homeland Security oversees U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Citizenship and Immigration Services. In addition to those agencies, the department is also responsible for securing airline transportation, protecting dignitaries, responding to natural disasters and more.
Trump plans major changes to the way the department functions, including involving the military in immigration enforcement and reforming the federal emergency management agency. Those plans could immediately put NOEM in the spotlight after the new president visited recent disaster sites in North Carolina and California on Friday.
During her confirmation hearing, NOEM was repeatedly asked by Democratic senators whether she would require disaster aid from states even if Trump asked her not to.
Noem avoided saying she would defy the president, but she told lawmakers: “I will deliver the programs according to the law and that it will be done without political bias.”
Six people moved on to serve as Secretary of Homeland Security during Trump’s first four years in office.
NOEM, who held her state’s sole seat in the U.S. House for eight years before becoming governor in 2019, has risen in the GOP by aligning closely with Trump. At one point, she was even considered to be his running partner.
However, her political stock took a temporary dip when she released a book last year that included an account of her killing her hunting dog, as well as a false claim that she once met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
If confirmed, she would be tasked with delivering Trump’s pet issue, border security. The president’s goals of deporting millions of people who entered the country illegally could put NOEM, with her experience governing a rural state and growing up on a farm, in a difficult position. In South Dakota, many immigrants, some in the country without permanent legal status, fuel the labor-heavy jobs that produce food and housing.
She has so far pledged to faithfully carry out the president’s orders and copied his talk of an “invasion” at the US border with Mexico.
NOEM joined other Republican governors in sending National Guard troops to Texas to aid Operation Lone Star, which sought to discourage migrants. Her decision was especially criticized because she accepted a $1 million donation from a Tennessee billionaire to cover some of the deployment costs.
Noem said she chose to send National Guard troops “because of this invasion,” adding that “it’s a war zone down there.”