Donald Trump was expected Tuesday to pick South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to head the US Department of Homeland Security, a powerful post at the center of the incoming president’s tough-on-immigration policies.
Sources in Trump’s transition team told US media including CBS News that he has decided on Noem, a longtime Trump loyalist who was once considered a strong contender to be the Republican nominee’s running mate.
Joining Trump’s cabinet would be a notable political rebound for Noem, who saw her stock plummet earlier this year when she released a memoir in which she recounted having shot dead an “untrainable” pet dog after a hunting excursion gone awry. Noem has said her action showed she was able to make tough choices.
Homeland Security is a sprawling organization with a budget topping $107 billion, about 15 times that of South Dakota, where Noem is in her second term as governor.
If confirmed as its secretary by the US Senate, the 52-year-old would oversee the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) along with protective security operations on the borders with Canada and Mexico, key agencies in any Trump plan for restricting immigration or deporting undocumented migrants.
DHS also controls the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which assists communities in times of natural disasters like hurricanes.
Trump himself has yet to confirm Noem’s nomination. If accurate, it would be the latest quick pick as the Republican leader seeks to flesh out his cabinet.
He has already chosen former immigration official Tom Homan as the country’s “border czar,” tasking him with fulfilling his key domestic promise of mass deportations of undocumented migrants. The DHS secretary would be closely involved in any such operations.
The current homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, was impeached in February by the Republican-majority House of Representatives, as Republicans successfully turned immigration and border security into a critical 2024 election issue. The Democratic-held US Senate rejected the effort to convict him.
