HomePoliticsSenate moves to confirm Kristi NOEM as Trump's Homeland Security Secretary

Senate moves to confirm Kristi NOEM as Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is moving toward a vote on whether to confirm South Dakota Gov. Kristi NOEM as Homeland Security Secretary, putting her in charge of a sprawling agency that will be essential to both national security and President Donald Trump’s plans to crush illegal immigration.

Republicans were determined to push through NOEM’s confirmation and threatened to keep the Senate working over the weekend to install Trump’s national security Cabinet officials. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth won confirmation Friday evening, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe were already in attendance.

NOEM, a Trump ally who is in her second term as governor in South Dakota, received some support from Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security Committee when it voted 13-2 to advance her nomination earlier this week. Republicans, who already have the votes needed to confirm her, have also 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, a fellow South Dakota Republican, 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. “

NOEM will oversee 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 overhauling 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 to states even if Trump asked her not to.

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Noem avoided saying she would defy the president, but told the Homeland Security Panel: “I will deliver the programs according to the law and that it will be done without political bias.”

Still, NOEM will be doing a job that was a pressure cooker under the first Trump administration. Six people cycled through the Homeland Security Secretary position during his 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.

Now she will be tasked with delivering Trump’s favorite problem, Border Security. The president’s goals of deporting millions of people who entered the country illegally could also still place NOEM, with her experience governing a rural state and growing up on a farm, in a difficult position. In her home state of South Dakota, the labor-heavy jobs that produce food and housing include many immigrants, some in the country without permanent legal status.

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She has so far pledged to faithfully carry out the president’s orders and copied his talk of an “invasion” at the U.S. border with Mexico.

As governor, 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.”

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