Phoenix68
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- Joined
- Mar 12, 2022
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In choosing South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as his homeland security secretary, President-elect Donald Trump is tapping a long-time loyalist to helm an agency that’s expected to play a central role in his immigration crackdown.
She will work closely with two immigration hardliners, incoming deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller and administration “border czar” Tom Homan — both early choices that signaled Trump is serious about his pledge to conduct mass deportations.
Noem attended Northern State University, but did not graduate, returning home to run her family’s farm in rural Hamlin County, South Dakota, in 1994.
As governor, she resisted the lockdown measures that many other governors imposed during the coronavirus pandemic. She also aggressively courted Trump’s favor, including giving Trump a 4-foot replica with his face on Mount Rushmore when he visited the site for a Fourth of July fireworks celebration that Noem had pushed for in 2020.
She has also taken several anti-immigration steps as governor. She opposed accepting Afghan refugees in 2021, and deployed South Dakota National Guard members to the US-Mexico border in Texas.
Noem established a political action committee early in the 2024 election cycle, and regularly traveled to events to back Trump. Seasoned veterans left her office, and she replaced them with more controversial aides, including former Trump 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
She has also faced ethics complaints in South Dakota for inappropriately using her office to help her daughter with a real estate appraiser’s license. And more recently, she was banned by all nine indigenous tribes in her state from their lands over comments the governor made about tribal leaders focusing more on benefiting from drug cartels than their children."
She will work closely with two immigration hardliners, incoming deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller and administration “border czar” Tom Homan — both early choices that signaled Trump is serious about his pledge to conduct mass deportations.
Noem attended Northern State University, but did not graduate, returning home to run her family’s farm in rural Hamlin County, South Dakota, in 1994.
As governor, she resisted the lockdown measures that many other governors imposed during the coronavirus pandemic. She also aggressively courted Trump’s favor, including giving Trump a 4-foot replica with his face on Mount Rushmore when he visited the site for a Fourth of July fireworks celebration that Noem had pushed for in 2020.
She has also taken several anti-immigration steps as governor. She opposed accepting Afghan refugees in 2021, and deployed South Dakota National Guard members to the US-Mexico border in Texas.
Noem established a political action committee early in the 2024 election cycle, and regularly traveled to events to back Trump. Seasoned veterans left her office, and she replaced them with more controversial aides, including former Trump 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
She has also faced ethics complaints in South Dakota for inappropriately using her office to help her daughter with a real estate appraiser’s license. And more recently, she was banned by all nine indigenous tribes in her state from their lands over comments the governor made about tribal leaders focusing more on benefiting from drug cartels than their children."
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![relaxing-outside-smiley-emoticon[1].gif](https://www.houseofpolitics.com/data/attachments/17/17725-e3ecd19e1d5735f3ee6a9862ba62c5bc.jpg?hash=WBqjrfX9jP "relaxing-outside-smiley-emoticon[1].gif")
