The Senate confirmed this Saturday Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security of the new Republican Administration, the key piece of Donald Trump’s Cabinet in the promised offensive against immigration and the management of the 3,200 kilometers of border shared by the United States and Mexico. . Noem, who was governor of South Dakota, shares the president’s hard line on immigration, calling the entry of undocumented immigrants into the country an “invasion” during the preliminary confirmation hearing on January 17, in which she assured that The border is “a war zone.”
Unlike the close vote that confirmed the controversial Pete Hegseth as head of Defense the day before, and which required the tie-breaking vote of the president of the upper house, Vice President JD Vance, Noem’s proposal has gone ahead with 59 votes in favor and 34 against. Republicans hold the majority in the Senate.
As his first executive orders have shown, Trump has wasted no time in implementing the announced deportation of immigrants who are illegally in the United States. Noem will be, along with Stephen Miller, in the role of Deputy Chief of Staff of the White House but for many the brain in the practice of the plan, responsible for piloting a massive and generalized offensive that has already taken its first steps, with several flights of deportation and the arrival this Friday of the first expelled people at the border.
As Secretary of Homeland Security, Noem will lead a department with 260,000 employees responsible for border security, deportations and legal immigration procedures, as well as emergency response, cybersecurity and the Coast Guard and the United States Secret Service.
During her tenure as governor of a state closer to Canada than Mexico, Noem deployed dozens of South Dakota National Guard troops to help Texas, a Republican-led state, with border security issues, including a controversial deployment in 2021 that a Republican billionaire funded. “She was the first governor to send National Guard soldiers to help Texas combat the immigration crisis of (Democratic President Joe Biden), and she did so up to eight times,” Trump explained in November to justify Noem’s choice for the position.
When asked during the confirmation hearing how the Trump Administration plans to manage the essential presence of undocumented workers in the agricultural sector, Noem put herself in profile, ensuring that the Republican Administration’s first target is irregulars with criminal records. and those with pending deportation orders, without commenting on the crucial role of the undocumented in agriculture.
Noem’s family ranch has hired dozens of seasonal farm workers since 2015, U.S. government records show, which list her brother as the owner. Some conservative groups even oppose these seasonal workers, legally hired for the duration of the harvests, considering that their work sinks salaries and slows down the technological adaptation of the sector.
During the campaign, Noem was mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate when Trump was removing the leaves from the identity of his running mate, but the publication this spring of her memoirs, in which she said she killed one of her dogs, a 14-year-old puppy, months, frustrated his chances after massive reactions of rejection on a national scale, including those of many Republican voters. Trump, who finally chose Vance as his running mate, downplayed the event of the dog’s death, highlighting Noem’s loyalty, one of the main values that the Republican demands of his people: “She has been there with us for a long time.” time. “He’s loyal, he’s great.”
