The Senate voted on Saturday to confirm Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary, putting a former South Dakota governor in charge of the department at the heart of President Trump’s agenda to crack down on immigration.
The vote was 59 to 34, and she was sworn-in on Saturday afternoon by the Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Ms. Noem, a longtime ally of Mr. Trump who was once seen as a contender to be his running mate, issued a statement on Saturday thanking him and vowing to “work to make America SAFE again!”
She takes charge of a sprawling agency that runs the nation’s immigration system — including Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement — and that leads counterterrorism efforts. The Homeland Security Department also oversees the Secret Service, the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. (In recent days, Mr. Trump has suggested disbanding FEMA.)
Ms. Noem, a former congresswoman and two-term South Dakota governor, has been closely aligned with Mr. Trump on immigration, the issue he says won him the White House.
She has described high levels of immigration to the United States in recent years as an “invasion,” and she has supported restoring a policy that requires asylum seekers to stay in Mexico for the duration of their U.S. cases. The policy, in place during Mr. Trump’s first term, was heavily criticized by Democrats and immigration-rights activists.
As governor of South Dakota, she opposed accepting Afghan refugees after the chaotic American withdrawal from Afghanistan, and she sent members of her state’s National Guard to Texas to address the immigration crisis — a contentious move that Mr. Trump cited in picking her for homeland security secretary.
While most Senate Democrats opposed Ms. Noem’s nomination, she received scattered support from Democratic lawmakers. Her confirmation went smoothly compared with the bruising battle to confirm Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who faced allegations of sexual abuse and excessive drinking, which he denied. Mr. Hegseth was approved by a 51-to-50 vote on Friday after Vice President JD Vance stepped in to cast a tiebreaking vote.
One Democrat who voted for Ms. Noem, Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey, said he believed he would be able to work with her and maintain an open line of communication.
Still, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic minority leader, said on the Senate floor that he believed Ms. Noem was “headed in the wrong direction” on immigration. And Senator Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona, said he was not confident Ms. Noem would respect the rule of law. Neither voted to confirm her.
Ms. Noem was grilled by lawmakers on whether she would administer disaster relief to Democratic-led states even if Mr. Trump ordered her not to. During his first term, Mr. Trump initially opposed unlocking federal funding for California after severe wildfires in 2018, his former aides have said.
“Under my leadership of the Department of Homeland Security, there will be no political bias to how disaster relief is delivered to the American people,” Ms. Noem told lawmakers, adding, “I will deliver the programs according to the law.”
She has also pledged to overhaul the Secret Service, which has struggled with attrition and has been the focus of several investigations over breakdowns that allowed a gunman to shoot at Mr. Trump, injuring him slightly, during a rally in Butler, Pa., in July.
Mr. Trump has appointed Sean Curran, who led Mr. Trump’s personal security detail during the presidential campaign, as director of the Secret Service, a position that does not require Senate confirmation.
Ms. Noem has been a champion of conservative positions on a number of cultural issues. She signed a law in South Dakota that bars transgender women and girls from competing in school sports consistent with their gender identity, and she battled critical race theory, a framework that argues racism is baked into the law and other modern institutions.
Many speculated that her chances of being selected as Mr. Trump’s running mate were dimmed by the publication of her memoir, “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong With Politics and How We Move America Forward.”
Its rollout did not go well. In the book, Ms. Noem described fatally shooting her family dog, drawing bipartisan outrage. A pre-publication version of the book also included a false story about her meeting with Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, during her tenure in Congress. The section was removed.
With Ms. Noem’s confirmation on Saturday, Larry Rhoden, who had served as her lieutenant governor, was elevated to governor of South Dakota. Mr. Rhoden is a conservative Republican and former state lawmaker.
