WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is heading towards a vote on confirming South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary, placing her at the head of a sprawling agency that will be essential to both national security and President Donald Trump’s plans to squash illegal immigration.
Republicans were determined to barrel through on Noem’s confirmation, threatening to keep the Senate working through the weekend to install Trump’s national security Cabinet officials. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth won confirmation Friday night, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe were already in place.
Noem, a Trump ally who is in her second term as South Dakota governor, 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 hold the votes necessary to confirm her, have also expressed confidence in her determination to lead border security and immigration enforcement.
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“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’s going to require a decisive and committed leader at the Department of Homeland Security. I believe Kristi has everything it takes to undertake this task.”
Noem will oversee U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Citizenship and Immigration Services. Beyond those agencies, the department is also responsible for securing airline transportation, protecting dignitaries, responding to natural disasters and more.
Trump is planning major changes to the way the department functions, including involving the military in immigration enforcement and reshaping 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 administer disaster aid to states even if Trump asked her not to.
Noem avoided saying that 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 with no political bias.”
Still, Noem will be entering 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 lone U.S. House seat for eight years before becoming governor in 2019, has risen in the GOP by tacking closely with Trump. At one point, she was even under consideration to be his running mate.
Her political stock took a momentary dip, however, when she released a book last year containing an account of her killing her hunting dog, as well as a false claim that she once met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Now she will be tasked with delivering on Trump’s favorite issue, border security. The president’s goals of deporting millions of people who entered the country illegally could also still put 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, many migrants, some in the country without permanent legal status, power the labor-heavy jobs that produce food and housing.
She has so far pledged to faithfully execute 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 who sent National Guard troops to Texas to assist 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 cost.
Noem said she opted to send National Guard troops “because of this invasion,” adding that “it is a war zone down there.”
