Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor and US President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of homeland security, appeared before the Senate on Friday for her confirmation hearing. Noem, who would replace outgoing secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, promised to carry out Trump’s vision for cracking down on illegal immigration and deporting millions of migrants.During the hearing, Noem pledged to end the CBP One phone app used to process asylum-seekers, scale back humanitarian parole, and reinstate the Trump-era policy requiring asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for US court hearings. She also said that deporting migrants with criminal records would be her top priority, followed by those with final deportation orders.When asked why she wanted the job, Noem said, “I knew that it needed to have someone in the position that would do what the president promised the American people,” adding someone “strong enough to do it and follow through to make sure that we’re protecting our communities and America.” She appears to have strong support from GOP senators crucial to her confirmation.
Noem faced questions about her ability to manage the department from Democrats like senator Richard Blumenthal, who expressed “serious doubts” about her qualifications. When pressed on whether she would stand up to Trump if he asked her to withhold disaster relief money from certain states, Noem avoided saying she would defy the president but said, “I will deliver the programs according to the law and that it will be done with no political bias.”“Every American deserves to be there and have disaster relief, the same as their neighbors,” Noem said.She pointed out her experience as governor in handling natural disasters, stressing the importance of ensuring that “no community is left behind and that lifesaving services like electricity and water are quickly restored.”
The future of the US cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency (CISA) was also discussed, with some Republicans calling for its elimination or reduction in election responsibilities. Noem said she would work with Senator Ron Johnson “should you wish to rein them in” and criticized the agency’s work during the pandemic.Noem also addressed the need for reforms in the secret service, which falls under the department of homeland security and has been under scrutiny since the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. She plans to refocus the agency on its core mission of “addressing national security events with the protocols that are necessary and protecting the individuals that they’re charged with.”“The Secret Service is in need of dramatic reforms,” Noem said.During the hearing, Donald Trump Jr announced that his father would be naming Sean Curran as the new secret service director. Curran currently heads the president-elect’s personal detail and was one of the agents who covered him during the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
