NOMINATIONSKristi Noem to Be Nominated DHS Secretary

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has been picked by President-elect Donald Trump s his nominee for Secretary of Department of Homeland Security.

The 52-year-old second-term governor will be in control of a $62 billion discretionary budget; $23 billion for disaster response and recovery; and bout 260,000 employees. DHS is the third largest department in the U.S. government.

DHS w established two decades go by combining several government agencies, including the U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Transportation Security Administration, among others.

Noem, an immigration hard-liner, has sent South Dakota’s National Guard troops to reinforce the southern border, saying that “the border is a warzone, so we’re sending soldiers.”

Noem will join other immigration hardliners in the incoming administration, including Tom Homan, former Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, as “border czar,” and senior adviser Stephen Miller, who will be deputy chief of staff for policy.

Noem gained national attention after she refused to order a mask mandate policy in the state during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Noem criticized Democratic governors who have said they would resist President-elect Trump’s immigration policies, calling such moves “extremely irresponsible.”

“If I had a new president in the White House, and even if he wasn’t from my political party, the first thing I would do would be call him up and see if I could get a meeting,” Noem said.