Trump picks Kristi Noem for Department of Homeland Security

by Junna Base November 12, 2024

President-elect Donald Trump has reportedly named South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to head the Department of Homeland Security.

Noem will serve as DHS secretary and oversee several federal organizations responsible for immigration to the U.S., including U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, if he is confirmed. Other agencies under their jurisdiction include the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the US Secret Service.

CNN first reported the development early Tuesday, citing two anonymous sources “familiar with the selection.” Several other media outlets also reported on the selection.

The Argus Leader reached out to Noem’s office Tuesday morning to confirm the Cabinet pick but received no response.

The news comes after Trump announced Sunday that Tom Homan, who led aggressive immigration enforcement efforts as ICE director during the president-elect’s final term, will serve in the role of “border czar.”

Stephen Miller, another immigration hardliner, was also named his deputy director for policy.

Noem, a longtime Trump loyalist, has been a vocal critic of immigration policies under the Biden-Harris administration. She often refers to the U.S.-Mexico border as a “war zone” and an “invasion” of migrants, and she has used the border situation several times over the years as a reason to send South Dakota National Guard troops to Texas at great expense sending state resources.

Noem’s border comments also targeted Native American communities in South Dakota. On Jan. 31, the second-term governor told South Dakota lawmakers that Mexican drug cartels were using Indian reservations in the state to “facilitate the spread of drugs throughout the Midwest.”

Noem also suggested without evidence that tribal leaders “personally benefited from the cartels” during a March town hall event in Winner. She later called on tribes to “ban the cartels” in an April state press release.

All nine South Dakota Indian tribes officially endorsed Noem’s banishment from their lands following those comments, as well as statements she made about Native American children during a similar town hall in Mitchell.

Noem’s relationship with Trump changed for a time after she endured international criticism following media reports in the spring about her latest memoir, in which she recounted how, after a pheasant hunt in the 2000s, she rescued a 14-month-old hunting dog and a goat, she had personally killed.

She was once considered a candidate for Trump’s vice presidential pick, which ultimately went to Ohio Senator JD Vance.

This story is developing.

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