Washington (AP) – The Senate is about to vote on the confirmation of Kristi NoEM as Minister of Homeland. The governor of South Dakota is to take over the management of a extensive authority that is of crucial importance for illegal immigration for national security and plans by President Donald Trump.
The Republicans threatened that the Senate would work all weekend to employ the latest member of Trump’s national security team. Defense Minister Pete Hegseth was confirmed on Friday evening together with Foreign Minister Marco Rubio and CIA director John Ratcliffe. A vote was expected in mid -Saturday.
Noem, a Trump ally, who was in her second term as a governor, received some support from the Democrats in the Committee on Internal Security and Government Agency of the Senate when he voted 13 to 2 for promoting her nomination at the beginning of the week. The Republicans, who already have the necessary voices to confirm them, have also expressed their confidence in their determination to give border security and enforcement of immigration regulations.
“Coping this crisis and restoring the respect of the rule of law is one of President Trump’s top priorities and the Republicans,” said the majority leader in the Senate, John Thune, Rs.d., on Friday. “And it will require a determined and committed director of the Ministry of Homeland. I think Kristi has everything it needs to cope with this task. “
The secretary supervises the US customs and border protection of the United States, immigration and customs enforcement as well as citizenship and immigration services. In addition to these authorities, the department is also responsible for securing air traffic, the protection of dignitaries, the reaction to natural disasters and more.
Trump plans major changes to the working method of the Ministry, including the involvement of the military in the enforcement of immigration regulations and the redesign of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. These plans could immediately put Noem in the spotlight after the fresh president visited the recent disaster areas in North Carolina and California on Friday.
During her hearing in the Senate, Noem was repeatedly asked by democratic senators whether she would provide disaster relief from the states, even if Trump asked her not to do so.
Noem avoided saying that she would oppose the president, but she told the legislators: “I will carry out the programs in accordance with the law and that this would be done without political bias.”
In Trump’s first four years in office, six people changed the post of the Minister of Homeland.
Noem, who held the only seat in the US representative of her state for eight years before she became a governor in 2019, rose in the GOP by working closely with Trump. At some point she was even considered as his vice candidate.
However, her political point of view temporarily faltered when she published a book last year that contained a report on the killing of her hunting dog and the wrong claim that she once met with the North Korean leader Kim Jong and.
If it is confirmed, she would be commissioned to solve Trump’s favorite topic, border security. The goal of the President of deporting millions of people who have entered the country illegally could bring Noem into a hard situation with her experience in leading a rural state and childhood on a farm. In South Dakota, many migrants, some of whom have no enduring legal status in the country, practice labor -intensive jobs in which food and living space are produced.
So far, she has promised to carry out the president’s commands faithfully and imitate his speech of an “invasion” at the US border with Mexico.
Noem joined other Republican governors who sent the National Guard troops to Texas to support the Lone Star Operation, which aimed to deter migrants. Her decision was particularly criticized because she accepted a donation of $ 1 million from one billionaire from Tennessee to cover part of the operating costs.
Noem said that she decided “because of this invasion” for the sending of troops of the National Guard and added that “it was a war zone down there”.
