By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate confirmed Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary on Saturday, putting the South Dakota governor in charge of a sprawling agency that is essential to national security and President Donald Trump’s plans to clamp down on illegal immigration.
Republicans kept the Senate working Saturday to install the latest member of Trump’s national security team on a 59-34 vote.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was also confirmed in a dramatic tie-breaking vote Friday night, joining Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. The Senate will next vote Monday evening on Scott Bessent’s confirmation as treasury secretary.
Noem, a Trump ally who was in her second term as governor, received seven votes from Democrats. Republicans, who already held the votes necessary to confirm her, have expressed confidence in her determination to lead border security and immigration enforcement.
In a statement afterward, she pledged “to secure our southern border and fix our broken immigration system” while working to “detect and prevent terror threats and will deliver rapid assistance and disaster relief to Americans in crisis.”
The homeland security secretary oversees U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Citizenship and Immigration Services. Beyond those agencies, the department is also responsible for securing airline transportation, protecting dignitaries, responding to natural disasters and more.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Friday that “fixing this crisis and restoring respect for the rule of law is one of President Trump and Republicans’ top priorities. And it’s going to require a decisive and committed leader” at the department.
Democrats are split on how to handle border enforcement and immigration under Trump, with some warming to his hard-line stand.
Still, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York, as well as most other Democrats, voted against Noem. He pointed to “bipartisan solutions to fix the mess at our border,” adding that Noem “seems headed in the wrong direction.”
Trump is planning major changes to how the department functions, including involving the military in immigration enforcement and reshaping the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Those plans will immediately put Noem in the spotlight after the new president visited recent disaster sites in North Carolina and California on Friday.
During her Senate hearing, Noem was repeatedly asked by Democratic senators whether she would administer disaster aid to states even if Trump asked her not to.
Noem avoided saying she would defy the president, but told lawmakers, “I will deliver the programs according to the law and that it will be done with no political bias.”
Six people cycled through as homeland security secretary during Trump’s first four years in office.
Noem, who held her state’s lone U.S. House seat for eight years before becoming governor in 2019, has risen in the GOP by tacking closely with Trump. At one point, she was even under consideration to be his running mate.
Her political stock took a momentary dip, however, when she released a book last year containing an account of her killing her hunting dog, as well as a false claim that she once met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Following her confirmation, she was succeeded as South Dakota governor by Lt. Gov. Larry Rhoden, a rancher and former state House member who was elected alongside Noem in 2018.
Noem will be tasked with delivering on Trump’s favorite issue, border security. The president’s goals of deporting millions of people who entered the country illegally could put Noem, with her experience governing a rural state and growing up on a farm, in a difficult position. In South Dakota, many migrants, some in the country without permanent legal status, power the labor-heavy jobs that produce food and housing.
She has so far pledged to faithfully execute the president’s orders and copied his talk of an “invasion” at the U.S. border with Mexico.
Noem joined other Republican governors who sent National Guard troops to Texas to assist Operation Lone Star, which sought to discourage migrants. Her decision was especially criticized because she accepted a $1 million donation from a Tennessee billionaire to cover some of the deployment cost.
She said she opted to send National Guard troops “because of this invasion,” adding that “it is a war zone down there.”