President-elect Donald Trump has introduced he’ll nominate South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to steer the Division of Homeland Safety.

It is a position that holds important weight for Trump, who campaigned closely on the difficulty of immigration, pledging to hold out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.

Mentioned Trump in an announcement: “She is going to work intently with ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan to safe the Border, and can assure that our American Homeland is safe from our adversaries.” Homan is the previous head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Trump loyalist Stephen Miller is anticipated to be deputy chief of employees and deal with immigration coverage. Neither Miller nor Homan’s positions require Senate affirmation.

Noem, a religious Christian who’s the primary lady elected to function governor of South Dakota, is in her second time period.

In his assertion, Trump cited one in all her notable strikes main her state: “Kristi has been very robust on Border Safety. She was the primary Governor to ship Nationwide Guard Troopers to assist Texas struggle the Biden Border Disaster, they usually have been despatched a complete of eight instances.”

CNN first reported she could be Trump’s DHS choose.

Noem converted to politics in 2006 as a state consultant after serving to run her household farm as a small enterprise proprietor. 4 years later, she headed to Washington, D.C., when she received the state’s at-large seat within the U.S. Home of Representatives.

Earlier than in the end selecting Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump spoke extremely of Noem as he was deliberating his operating mate, saying, “She’s been there for us for a very long time … She’s loyal, she’s nice.”

However Noem drew criticism earlier this yr for saying that Native tribes in South Dakota profit from the drug cartel trade — a remark that led her to be banned from all 9 reservations within the state.

Moreover, Noem wrote about having met North Korean chief Kim Jong-un in her memoir, No Going Again, which she then retracted from the ultimate copy. In that very same memoir, she wrote about killing her household canine, which drew explicit scorn.