At a confirmation hearing, the South Dakota governor cited an ‘invasion’ of migrants even as illegal crossings have fallen sharply
By David Nakamura, The Washington PostSouth Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head the Department of Homeland Security. MUST CREDIT: Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post South Dakota Gov.
Kristi L. Noem on Friday pledged that if confirmed to lead the Department of Homeland Security she would halt a border control program that the Biden administration has credited for helping bring a sharp reduction in illegal crossings. At her confirmation hearing before the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Noem reiterated a promise from President-elect Donald Trump to put an end to CBP One, which allows migrants outside the country to use a free mobile app to request an appointment at an official port of entry on the U.S. southern border so that they could apply for asylum. The number of migrants arrested at the border has dropped in recent months to the lowest level of President Joe Biden’s tenure after rising to all-time highs in 2023. More than 930,000 people have used the CBP One app to schedule appointments since its introduction in January of that year, according to federal officials. “We will eliminate the CBP One app,” Noem told Sen. James Lankford , who expressed skepticism of the program. Noem said DHS would maintain some of the data to track who has been admitted into the United States, but she emphasized “that app will no longer be in use.” The hearing came as Trump’s transition team signaled that the incoming president will quickly seek to make good on his promises to enact new measures aimed at ramping up mass deportations and limiting avenues for undocumented migrants to seek asylum protections and other legal pathways into the country. Trump aides have said he will issue executive orders on immigration shortly after he is sworn in on Monday. Trump nominated Noem, 53, who has sought to project a tough stance on immigration as governor, to lead DHS, a sprawling agency that includes 22 departments, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and the Citizenship and Immigration Services. If confirmed, she also would oversee other crucial areas, including the U.S. Secret Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Transportation Security Administration. At the hearing, Democrats pressed Noem about acts of domestic terrorism that were carried out by Americans, including the driver who killed 14 people after plowing a vehicle into a crowd during a New Year’s celebration in New Orleans. The attacker, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who was killed in a shootout with police, was a U.S. citizen from Texas who authorities said was inspired by ISIS.Noem acknowledged a rise in “homegrown terrorism” and said she would work with Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry , who attended her hearing, to help provide security resources ahead of the Super Bowl that will be held in that city next month.We see more and more incidents of people that are U.S. citizens that have become radicalized,” Noem said. “And knowing when people are leaving the country and coming back and changes to their behaviors and what their actions are is critically important.” South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be Secretary of Homeland Security, appears before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for her confirmation hearing, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. Noem also sought to reassure Democrats that FEMA and other DHS departments would equitably distribute federal disaster relief aid and other resources. Trump and Republican leaders on Capitol Hill have suggested that federal assistance to help California respond to devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area should be conditioned to changes required of Democrats who are in charge of that state and city. “Leadership has consequences,” Noem said, adding that what is happening in Los Angeles is the “ramification of many decisions over many years.” “But under my leadership at the Department of Homeland Security, there will be no political bias to how disaster relief is delivered,” she said. Noem and Republican lawmakers focused much of their time heaping criticism on Biden’s handling of immigration, citing an “invasion” of undocumented immigrants and describing the U.S.-Mexico border as a “war zone.” “In three days, we will have a new president in this country, and he will secure our borders,” Noem said, referring to federal data that showed about 425,000 noncitizens in the country not held by ICE have criminal convictions. “The number one priority of the president is to secure the border and to deport these criminal actors immediately and as soon as possible,” she said. “They will be the number one priority to make our communities safer.” Noem said the incoming administration would seek to bring back programs from Trump’s first term in office, including the Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as “Remain in Mexico,” which required certain migrants to remain in that country while awaiting asylum hearings. The Biden administration has sought to shut down that program. The CBP One program started during the final months of the Trump administration as a way for truckers to schedule cargo inspections at U.S. ports of entry. The Biden administration, seeking a way to reduce illegal border crossings that reached a record high in 2023, expanded its use to immigrants seeking asylum protections on humanitarian grounds. At Noem’s hearing, Sen. Josh Hawley said the app has been misused by migrants to gain entry, calling it a “concierge service for illegals.” Noem replied that the app was among several Biden administration programs that need to be eliminated, including the use of parole to quickly admit migrants who lack permission to enter the United States. She said the Biden administration also has abused its authority to grant temporary protected status to migrants from specific countries such as Venezuela. Federal law authorizes the government to spare immigrants from being deported if their countries have been destabilized by war or disaster. Some immigration experts warned that the changes Noem promised could risk upending the progress the Biden administration has made in recent months in reducing illegal crossings. “A key here is, are they going to have a relationship with Mexico in which they will help?” said Amanda Frost, an immigration law professor at the University of Virginia. “If they won’t, this could really create more chaos. They really should be careful if they want the news cycle to be they had more control of the border compared to Biden.”
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