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 | License Photo
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.
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.”
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