KRISTI NOEM’S CABINET ROLE COULD BE ‘UNTENABLE’ ACCORDING TO FORMER HOMELAND SECURITY CHIEF
SOUTH DAKOTA (Stu Whitney / South Dakota News Watch) – South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem’s rise to secretary of the Department of Homeland Security would put her in charge of a sprawling federal network of 22 agencies and 260,000 employees tasked with keeping the United States safe from outside threats.
Whether she’s prepared for that position depends on whom you ask, and she still needs to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
But most everyone agrees her potential role in President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet comes at a pivotal time in the country’s approach to illegal immigration and national security.
Jeh Johnson, who served as Homeland Security secretary under President Barack Obama from 2013-17, told News Watch that he wishes the South Dakota Republican success “in promoting the department’s missions and its people.”
But Johnson, former general counsel of the Department of Defense, added a note of caution as Noem prepares to join an administration that has vowed to carry out mass deportations of illegal immigrants in the country, facing likely legislative and legal hurdles along the way.
“I fear she will be placed in the untenable position of having to publicly defend the Trump Administration’s most controversial and harshest immigration enforcement policies,” Johnson told News Watch. “I suspect there will be many days when she wishes she were back in South Dakota.”
Serving as governor is ‘training ground’
The Department of Homeland Security, formed in response to the 9/11 attacks of 2001, began operations in 2003 and is the third-largest Cabinet department behind the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs.
Though it is largely associated with immigration oversight through Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security also oversees cybersecurity and disaster response, as well as the Secret Service and Coast Guard.
John Sandweg, who served as acting director of ICE from 2013-14, said Noem’s experience as governor could help prepare her for coordinating the various agencies and supervising the budget, though DHS has a significantly larger budget and workforce than the state of South Dakota.
Sandweg noted that two other governors, Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania (2003-05) and Janet Napolitano of Arizona (2009-13) have served as Homeland Security secretary, managing a budget that reached $108 billion for fiscal year 2025, of which $62 billion is net discretionary funding.
“Managing an executive function and one that can be highly political (as governor) is a unique background that can serve as training ground to being secretary, dealing with a state Legislature instead of Congress,” said Sandweg, a national security lawyer who also served as acting DHS general counsel.
Texas governor praises Noem choice
Noem, who didn’t respond to interview requests for this story, has said that she asked Trump for the Homeland Security position and looks forward to “discussing our nation’s security challenges and my commitment to addressing them head-on” during Senate confirmation hearings.
In a recent poll conducted by Echelon Insights, 27% of respondents either strongly or somewhat supported Noem as the DHS nominee, compared to 26% who strongly or somewhat oppose the choice.
That net approval of plus-1 was third-lowest of eight high-profile Trump Cabinet picks, ahead of only Matt Gaetz for attorney general (negative-11) and Pete Hegseth for secretary of Defense (negative-2).
Noem has deployed South Dakota National Guard troops to the Southern border five times during her administration. In 2021, she drew criticism for accepting a $1 million donation from a Republican donor to help cover the cost of a two-month deployment of 48 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas.
Noem has also made several trips to the border to support the enforcement efforts of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who praised her on the social media site X the day she was nominated as a “border hawk who has worked with me to secure the Texas border.”
Sandweg, a lawyer in Washington specializing in DHS compliance and immigration, said that Noem’s new role will likely be an eye-opener compared to her past brushes with border security as an Upper Midwest governor without federal oversight.
“I think she’ll find that she has a lot to learn about border security,” Sandweg told News Watch. “(Homeland Security) is a different type of responsibility in which she’s constrained in ways she wasn’t in the past by federal law, budgetary concerns and international diplomacy.”
Clashes with White House possible
Trump has tapped former ICE director Tom Homan to serve as his “border czar” at the White House, which could free up Noem to focus on other DHS agencies such as the Secret Service and FEMA.
The administration’s immigration strategy will also be shaped by Stephen Miller, who was hired as deputy chief of staff for policy after working on the Muslim travel ban and other hardline initiatives during Trump’s previous White House stint.
But Noem will still oversee the DHS budget, which will have to be ramped up significantly to carry out some of the deportation and enforcement policies being pushed by Trump and his team.
Trump has indicated that he plans to declare a national emergency to carry out his campaign promise of mass deportations of migrants living in the U.S. illegally, of which there are an estimated 11.7 million, according to the Center for Migration Studies based on U.S. Census Bureau data.
Finding resources for those plans could put Noem on the firing line of appropriation-based battles with Congress, where Republicans will hold a 53-47 majority in the U.S. Senate but a slimmer advantage in the U.S. House.
“Border and immigration issues tend to dominate the job, and she has the added wrinkle of having more seasoned policy and operational people at the White House,” said Sandweg, referring to Homan and Miller.
“It will be interesting to see how that dynamic plays out. It might work out very well, but you can also have personality conflicts because (Homan and Miller) will be sitting with the president every day, but yet (Noem) is the person who’s in charge and responsible for the actual border patrol agents and ICE officers executing the mission.”
She’ll also be answering to Trump, a notoriously volatile leader who saw 14 Cabinet members depart during his first four-year White House tenure, compared to three for Obama (eight years) and two for Biden (four years).
“It’s something to keep an eye on,” said Sandweg. “It’s certainly not uncommon for there to be some tension between the White House and DHS.”
$50 MILLION FOR NATIVE AMERICAN MORTGAGES IS ON TRACK FOR APPROVAL ACCORDING TO SENATOR MIKE ROUNDS
SOUTH DAKOTA (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight) – U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, is confident that bipartisan legislation to help low-income Native Americans obtain home mortgages on tribal land will win approval from Congress.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture offers low-interest housing loans to low-income rural Americans, often without private mortgage insurance or a down payment. But the department struggled for years to distribute its rural housing loans to Native Americans on tribal trust lands.
Trust lands are held by the federal government for tribes and tribal members, making mortgages on trust land more complex and less appealing to traditional banks.
That’s where Native Community Development Financial Institutions come in. The institutions represent rural reservation and urban Native communities, and are better able to navigate lending on trust land for the USDA program and other housing loans while also investing more time in their communities through financial and homebuyer education.
The USDA expanded its rural housing relending program to include Native institutions in 2018, starting with a pilot program on the Pine Ridge and Cheyenne River reservations. Since then, the program has expanded to 10 states with over $20.1 million loaned to Native organizations.
The bill, introduced by Minnesota’s Democratic Sen. Tina Smith and cosponsored by Rounds, would set aside $50 million annually within the USDA’s relending program for Native financial institutions and homebuyers.
Rounds said Native institutions on Pine Ridge and Cheyenne River made the pilot program a “real success.”
“They knew the right people to go to, they knew how to have that happen,” Rounds told South Dakota Searchlight after a recent appearance at the Downtown Sioux Falls Rotary Club. “And what we found was that once it had occurred there, it was repeatable elsewhere.”
Nikki Gronli, state director of USDA Rural Development, said the bipartisan bill will solidify the program and support her office’s mission to make “thriving, economically sustainable communities.”
“We all know that when it comes to economic development and generational wealth, owning a home is very important,” Gronli said. “Economically, we know over time this builds a stronger community.”
She added some homes purchased through the program are constructed through the Governor’s House program.
Cheyenne River’s Four Bands Community Fund and Pine Ridge’s Mazaska Owescaso Otipi Financial have received a combined $7.1 million from the program and have made a combined total of 24 loans.
“People want to get out of rentals, create assets, have something to pass down,” said Lakota Vogel, executive director of Four Bands.
Vogel wants to buck the stereotype that low homeownership rates on reservations are because of poor credit scores or because community members don’t make enough income to support a mortgage. Even people who who can afford private mortgages struggle to obtain them, she said, because of systemic problems that make it more complex and burdensome to leverage private wealth on trust land.
“There’s been misinformation in the financing world that you can’t collateralize trust land. I’ve seen it written in papers and listened to bankers say it, and it’s just not true,” Vogel said.
While Vogel sees a permanently funded program as a “win-win” for Native communities and the federal government, she said rising housing costs have made it more difficult for the program to help qualifying people.
The legislation awaits action by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, which includes Rounds and Smith as members.
WHOOPING COUGH CASES ON THE RISE IN SOUTH DAKOTA AND ACROSS THE NATION
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – A concerning new report said cases of whooping cough are on the rise in the United States.
The highly contagious illness, also known as pertussis, is also prevalent in South Dakota.
According to the South Dakota Department of Health website, 170 cases have been reported so far this year, a large increase in infections from 2023.
That is a 400 percent increase when compared to the average number of cases seen over the past five years.
State health officials are sounding the alert, reminding folks to be aware of the symptoms of pertussis, or whooping cough. Those symptoms can include low grade fever, mild coughing episodes that develop into violent coughing fits as the disease progresses, often accompanied by a high pitched “whoop” sound when inhaling between bouts of coughing, fatigue, difficulty sleeping due to the intensity of the cough, struggling to breathe.
Pertussis is a highly contagious respiratory infection caused by bacteria and it is spread through coughing and sneezing.
Reports from the health department show that nearly 90% of those infected this year are under the age of 14.
Experts also say that getting vaccinated is the best way to stay protected.
Health officials said one reason for the uptick is that the number of pertussis cases fell sharply during the pandemic, as mask-wearing, social distancing and other infection protocols helped protect people from the illness.
BADLANDS NATIONAL PARK NAMED #1 DESTINATION TO VISIT IN 2025 ON FODOR’S TRAVEL ANNUAL “GO LIST”
PIERRE, S.D. – Fodor’s Travel has named Badlands National Park as the #1 destination to visit in the United States on their coveted “Go List.”
The annual editorial list recommends the top 25 locations worldwide to visit in 2025.
South Dakota was one of only five U.S. destinations featured, with Badlands National Park securing the top spot for its “unparalleled beauty” and acclaim as one of the most “awe-inspiring” national parks in the country.
This year’s “Go List” focused on alternatives to overcrowded cities and sites. “For 2025, we want travel to return to an instrument of joy. A break from the stress of the everyday. A change of scenery that inspires us to unwind, recharge, and gain a fresh perspective,” stated Fodor’s editorial team. While many of the featured destinations on this year’s list are off the beaten path, “they’re primed for new adventures.”
Fodor’s Travel calls out iconic Badlands National Park elements such as the 30-mile Badlands Loop Scenic Byway, wildlife viewing, rich fossil beds, and otherworldly rock formations. For an insider tip, the editorial team recommends stargazing activities including the night sky viewing between Memorial Day and Labor Day or a visit during the Badlands Astronomy Festival in July. Rapid City is specifically noted as an excellent base from which to explore the Badlands National Park, particularly considering its “recent culinary explosion,” with local businesses Tandoor Bocado, Ma Cualli, Grounded Coffee Co., and The Sour contributing to the city’s alluring food and beverage scene.
Fodor’s Travel is an international consumer and travel publication reaching more than 1.8 million unique monthly visitors with its website.
For more inspiration and travel planning resources, visit TravelSouthDakota.com.
The South Dakota Department of Tourism is comprised of Travel South Dakota and the South Dakota Arts Council. The department is led by Secretary James D. Hagen.
