1 of 5 | Governor of South Dakota Kristi Noem testifies during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing to examine her nomination to be secretary of homeland security at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Friday. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI |
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Jan. 17 (UPI) -- The first week of confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet picks concluded Friday with Department of Homeland Security nominee Kristi Noem.
The South Dakota governor warned that border security is the biggest threat to the United States, highlighting it as her top priority if confirmed to lead the department. Her hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee lasted less than three hours.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., drew Noem's attention to Trump's rhetoric about the "enemy within," warning in November that he would use federal law enforcement officers to arrest American citizens. Slotkin recalled Trump sending heavily armed, unmarked federal agents to Portland, Ore., in 2020, resulting in a violent clash with protesters.
Former Oregon Gov. Kate Brown was not consulted.
"If the president asks you to send in federal law enforcement to a state without [the] coordination of that governor, would you support that action?" Slotkin asked.
Noem said her job would be to uphold the Constitution. She did not clarify whether or not she would support such actions.
"If Joe Biden sent in 700 federal law enforcement under Secretary Mayorkas without coordinating with you, I think we can agree you'd be a little upset," Slotkin said.
Noem was asked to give clarity about who will be making decisions about border security if Trump's nominees are confirmed. Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., specifically wanted to know what role Tom Homan, Trump's pick for so-called "border czar," will play. She was unclear in her response.
"If he's going to be making decisions then he should come before this committee as well," Noem said.
Noem said she will be responsible for the actions taken at the border, though she added that Homan will have a "direct line" to the president as an adviser. She also said the president will be "in charge of the border."
Asked about the Trump-era policy for family separations, Noem dismissed that there was such a policy. Instead she insisted that there was only a zero tolerance policy. She did not address family separations further at the time.
In a 2019 report, the Department of Health and Human Services identified 2,737 cases of children being separated from their parents at the southern border. The report suggested there were likely thousands more cases that were unidentified.
Jeff Sessions, Trump's attorney general when he enacted the zero-tolerance policy, told U.S. attorneys that children would be separated from their parents.
"We need to take away children. If you care about kids, don't bring them in," Sessions said, according to the report. "We won't give amnesty to people with kids."
During her exchange with Moreno, Noem said hypothetically that if she were running the department at the time, University of Georgia student Laken Riley would not have been killed by an undocumented migrant, 26-year-old Jose Ibarra, last year. Republican senators also evoked Riley's name and the Ibarra case during attorney general nominee Pam Bondi's hearing.
Asked about family separations, Noem again spoke of Riley.
"Senator, keeping families together is critically important to me and to this country," Noem said, responding to Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. "I'm concerned about Laken Riley's family, that they no longer have her. I'm concerned about the fact that we have people in this country that don't know where their children are, or people in other countries who sent their children here and they've been lost by this administration. So yes, my focus will be to keep families together."
During Noem's hearing, senators were also voting on the Laken Riley Act, a bill that would allow states to sue the Department of Homeland Security over harm done to their residents as a result of illegal immigration. The bill passed the U.S. House earlier this month by a 264-159 vote.
Noem said Friday that states should oversee the resettlement of refugees while maintaining clear communication with the Department of Homeland Security. She claimed that the department did not communicate with her state about how refugees were being vetted throughout the past four years.
"In fact, they kept us in the dark and didn't communicate to us even what states and where those refugees were being placed," Noem said. "That is something that we need to change."
In her opening statement, Noem said border security is her top priority.
"Border security must remain a top priority as a nation," she said. "We have the right and the responsibility to secure our borders against those who would do us harm and we must create a fair and lawful immigration system that is efficient and is effective and that reflects our values."
Committee Chair Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was critical of the department, saying it has "lost its way," as he opened Friday's hearing at 9 a.m. EST.
Noem, a longtime Trump loyalist, has been among the biggest critics of the Biden administration's handling of immigration through the southern border.
As governor, Noem dispatched members of the South Dakota National Guard to aid Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's "Operation Lone Star" in 2023 and 2024.
Blumenthal urged that while Noem is focused on border security, she must also be prepared to protect the United States from terrorism, noting that the Super Bowl in New Orleans is weeks away.
New Orleans was the site of a suspected terrorist attack when it hosted college football's Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day.
The South Dakota governor agreed that terrorism, particularly homegrown terrorism is a concern, though she continued to emphasize that the southern border is the greatest threat to the United States.
"This is a grave concern for our country," Noem said when responding to another question about homegrown terrorism. "The No. 1 threat to our homeland security is the southern border."
Prompted by Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, to differentiate herself from the current Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, Noem suggested she will bring broad changes in her approach to the position. Moreno claimed Mayorkas "allowed" about 16,000 rapists, 12,000 murderers, 600,000 people with criminal convictions and 382 people on the terror watchlist into the country.
Noem said there were 11 people on the terror watchlist that entered the country under the Trump administration and they were later removed. She said she would work to greatly curb the number of people with criminal convictions, especially for violent crimes, that enter the United States.
Moreno went on to make unfounded accusations about Mayorkas assisting migrants with criminal convictions to evade law enforcement by commissioning private flights for them from state to state.
Chairman Paul's primary concerns during his time with Noem centered on immigration and border security but he also called on her to investigate the Biden administration for alleged censorship of social media platforms. This is in reference to a 2023 committee report on the Department of Homeland Security pressuring social media companies to take down social media posts in 2020 and 2021.
Biden did not take office until Jan. 20, 2021.
The Department of Homeland Security enacted an effort to curb election and COVID-19 disinformation at that time, prompting social media companies like Meta and Facebook to flag misleading or misinformed posts. However, the report accuses department officials and members of Congress of threatening social media companies if they did not comply with removing posts.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg accused government officials of being pushy and "coercive" in weekly meetings asking him or his company to "restrict speech," according to Paul.
"They also threatened him. They threatened to come after him through antitrust law. They threatened to remove parts of, you know, section 230 of the liability protection," Paul said.
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act grants social media companies immunity from liability for content posted on their platforms by users.
Noem said she would work with Paul on investigating the issue and that the department under her would not be in the "misinformation and disinformation space."
Twenty-two government departments operate under the authority of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It employs about 260,000 employees who, if confirmed, would be under the leadership of Noem.
Some of Trump's nominees have faced fiery hearings this week. Secretary of Defense pick Pete Hegseth received a strong pushback from Democrats for his history of partisan attacks, sexual misconduct, sexist comments and alleged drunken behavior in public.
Attorney general nominee Pam Bondi faced questions about her ability to operate independently and go against Trump if necessary. Democrats have also encouraged her to walk back her position that the 2020 election results were not legitimate, something she refused to do throughout a six-hour hearing.
Noem has not been without public incidents that have drawn considerable criticism. In her book published last year, she falsely claimed to have met North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and admitted to shooting and killing her puppy in a ditch.