Washington — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, President-elect Donald Trump’s choose to guide the sprawling Division of Homeland Safety, fielded questions on an array of subjects, together with the border, homegrown terrorism and the distribution of catastrophe aid from lawmakers Friday at her Senate affirmation listening to.

She appeared earlier than the Senate Homeland Safety and Governmental Affairs committee, which has jurisdiction over the DHS and people nominated to guide the division.

“As we face the evolving threats of the twenty first century, the mission and the success of DHS is extra crucial than ever. We have to be vigilant and proactive and modern to guard the homeland,” she mentioned in her opening assertion. “The challenges in entrance of us are extraordinarily important, and we should safe our borders in opposition to unlawful trafficking and immigration.”

Noem, a former Republican member of Congress who has been South Dakota’s governor since 2019, was requested in regards to the incoming Trump administration’s sweeping immigration plans.

Throughout the listening to, GOP senators requested Noem about an app launched by the Biden administration, referred to as CBP One, to permit migrants to arrange an appointment at worldwide bridges, the place U.S. officers decide whether or not they need to be allowed into the nation to request asylum. It has been used hundreds of thousands of instances to assist course of claims extra shortly. Many Republicans oppose its use and requested about Noem’s plans for the app.

“Will you employ your authority to cease facilitating quicker processing of unlawful aliens into our nation with the CBP One app?” GOP Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma requested.

“Sure, senator,” Noem responded. “We are going to remove the CBP One app — keep a few of the knowledge that is in it that is crucial to realizing who’s in our nation — however that app will now not be in use.”

DHS oversees airport safety, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Administration Company and different duties. The query of FEMA funding got here up early within the listening to when Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut raised the California wildfires. He expressed dismay about Trump’s feedback in regards to the fires — and the state’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom. He famous the president-elect mentioned lately, “We cannot give him, referring to Gov. Newsom, cash to place out fires, and if we do not give him cash, he is acquired an issue,” and requested Noem if she would say “no” to Trump if he tried to withhold assist to California or some other state for political causes.

Whereas Noem didn’t handle the query about Trump, she assured Blumenthal, “Below my management of the Division of Homeland Safety, there will likely be no political bias to how catastrophe aid is delivered to the American folks.”

“I’ll ship the packages in response to the legislation, and it will likely be completed with no political bias,” she mentioned.

The division additionally homes the three fundamental federal immigration businesses that can play a key position in implementing Trump’s immigration agenda: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies, Customs and Border Safety and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Sen. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat, requested Noem about homegrown terror threats and the People who “have been radicalized by a wide range of ideologies of white supremacy to ISIS to al Qaeda.” 

Noem mentioned the “No. 1 risk to our homeland safety is our southern border,” stating that in President Biden’s administration, “we have seen 382 people which have come over that border which might be on the terrorist watch checklist.” However she conceded that “additionally, we have to concentrate on home terrorism” and famous “homegrown terrorism is on the rise.”

DHS, she mentioned, has to each determine the threats posed by U.S. residents leaving the nation and returning radicalized and be “proactive,” whereas “additionally defending civil rights and liberties in that course of.”

When saying her nomination as DHS secretary quickly after the election, Trump famous that Noem dispatched the South Dakota Nationwide Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border to assist Texas state officers fortify it amid file ranges of migrant crossings.

If confirmed as DHS secretary, Noem would probably play an essential position in shaping the second Trump administration’s deliberate modifications to U.S. immigration and border coverage, alongside incoming border czar Tom Homan and deputy chief of employees Stephen Miller. Republicans management a majority within the Senate, making her affirmation probably.

Amongst different guarantees, Trump and his advisers have vowed to reverse Biden administration immigration packages, enact harsher guidelines on the U.S.-Mexico border, reduce refugee admissions and dramatically ramp deportations of immigrants dwelling within the nation illegally. The president-elect has additionally pledged to upend the longstanding precept of birthright citizenship, in a bid to stop youngsters born to unauthorized immigrants from turning into Americans at start. 

Thought of a Trump loyalist, Noem has been praised by conservatives for her file as governor, which incorporates vocally opposing masks mandates and different COVID-era measures. However she’s additionally garnered detractors. Tribal nations in South Dakota, for instance, have banned her from their lands over feedback she’s made alleging cartel exercise in tribal territory.