Kristi Noem Confirmed To Lead Department of Homeland Security, Will Carry Out Trump's Immigration Crackdown Agenda

The Senate confirmed Kristi Noem as the head of the Department of Homeland Security on Saturday with some Democrats backing the South Dakota governor's nomination.

The chamber voted 59-34 to confirm Noem who will head up a federal agency that will be at the forefront of President Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration.

Noem, 53, said at her confirmation hearing that border security would be a "top priority."

"The mission and the success of DHS is more critical than ever," Noem said.

"We must secure our borders against illegal trafficking and immigration. We must safeguard our critical infrastructure to make sure that we're protected against cyberattacks, respond to natural disasters and also terrorism," Noem continued.

Senate Republican Leader John Thune of South Dakota said he would support Noem's nomination.

"Fixing this crisis and restoring respect for the rule of law is one of President Trump and Republicans' top priorities," he said Friday.

"And it's going to require a decisive and committed leader at the Department of Homeland Security. I believe Kristi has everything it takes to undertake this task," the Republican said.

Noem faced heavy scrutiny during her confirmation hearings this month over some of her statements on immigrants crossing the border and disaster relief.

The Republican governor repeated a debunked claim that 13,000 convicted murderers who illegally crossed the U.S. border are "loose in this country" when questioned about border security.

"We've had over 13,000 murderers that are loose in this country come over that border," Noem said. "We've had almost 16,000 rapists and sexual assault perpetuators that are loose in this country right now. 425,000+ people have criminal convictions that are here illegally in this country."

Her claim comes from a widely misinterpreted figures from Immigration and Customs Enforcement about the number of noncitizens convicted of homicide on ICE's docket for removal.

"Contrary to Noem's assertion that murderers are roaming free, the majority of these individuals are serving prison sentences in state or federal facilities and are classified as 'non-detained' by ICE reporting because they are not in ICE custody," The Latin Times reported.

She also told senators that if confirmed she planned to examine response times by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"If it's not even a responsibility for them to show up when terrible things happen, what other day-to-day activities are not getting done when they're working from home or not doing their job at all?" she said.

Her comments on FEMA clashed with how her administration took more than a month to ask for federal aid after devastating floods caused damage to home and businesses in South Dakota last summer.

Instead of activating the state's National Guard, she said she claimed that response should be saved for a "true crisis."

Noem becomes the fourth of Trump's nominees to be confirmed, following Marco Rubio as Secretary of State, John Ratcliffe as CIA director and Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense.