President Donald Trump has picked South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to run the vast Department of Homeland Security, according to multiple reports.
The pick complements Trump’s selection of immigration hawks Stephen Miller and Tom Homan for White House oversight jobs. They are expected to enforce his pro-American priorities on senior civil servants in many agencies, such as the Department of State.
From 2017 to 2019, Trump’s top deputies quietly stalled his immigration reforms, in part, because they had spent their careers in the D.C. establishment. But Noem has had little role in immigration policy, aside from a routine concern about the supply of H-2B visa workers for the agriculture industry.
South Dakota — like many of the interior states — loses investment and wealth because migration provides a fresh coastal workforce for the coastal investors who prefer not to invest in distant, interior states.
For example, Doug Burgum a former governor in North Dakota, built a software business in his home state. After he sold his Great Plains Software company to Microsoft in Washington state, Microsoft moved much of the work out of state and also filled many of the North Dakota jobs with Indian visa workers who are imported via the H-1B program that is managed by the DHS.
Democratic Senators do not have the power to block her — but do have an incentive to politically damage her — during the Senate confirmation process.
The DHS job also plays to her strengths because it requires much public and private diplomacy in the United States, Mexico, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.
However, she has little experience with the DHS’ rival sub-agencies, contradictory laws, and loopholed regulations. This means her success in the job will depend on the myriad deputies that she picks for the various sectors of the vast agency.
CBS reported on November 12:
The 52-year-old second-term governor, if confirmed, would have one of the most powerful jobs in Washington, controlling a $62 billion discretionary budget (plus $23 billion for disaster response and recovery) and roughly 260,000 employees. DHS is the third largest department in the U.S. government, behind the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs.
The sprawling department includes 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.
“The border is a warzone, so we’re sending soldiers”, Noem said in 2024 as she sent a unit of soldiers to the hard-pressed border
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