(NewsNation) — Kristi Noem, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, has every intention of working in tandem with the new administration in the mission to secure the U.S. southern border and to deport millions of illegal immigrants.
The South Dakota governor participated in confirmation hearings Friday in which she said, if confirmed, she was in favor of Trump’s plan to reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy.
Noem, who became the first woman to be elected governor in South Dakota, has placed a focus on the southern border while in office. She sent National Guard troops to Texas and assisted state officials there with monitoring the border.
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If confirmed, Noem would replace outgoing Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who was vilified by Republicans angry at the number of migrants crossing the southern border that they impeached him in early 2024.
Noem said Friday that she would “100% partner” with Trump to make sure that policies designed to eliminate the flow of immigrants into the United States illegally will remain in place.
“The president has promised that he will secure the border, that we will uphold our nation’s laws, and that he … will be putting America first again,” Noem said during Friday’s hearing.
Noem, who previously served in the U.S. House before becoming governor in 2019, pledged a complete turn from Mayorkas’ policies, saying she was determined to carry out Trump’s plans to choke off illegal immigration and deport millions of migrants.
Noem committed to ending CBP One, a phone app the Biden administration has used to process asylum-seekers’ entry into the country. She also pledged to scale back the use of humanitarian parole, curtail the use of temporary immigration relief for migrants from countries experiencing unrest and reinstate a Trump-era policy of requiring asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court.
The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.
