Noem's full name is Kristi Lynn Arnold Noem and she was born in 1971 in Watertown, in east central South Dakota. The city is in Codington County about 187 miles northeast of the state's capital Pierre. The new Secretary of Homeland Security is married to Bryon Noem.

After a scheduling hiccup, Kristi Noem was finally sworn in Saturday as Department of Homeland Security secretary.

The job has proved fiendishly difficult in the Trump era. During his first term, the president cycled through no fewer than six Homeland Security chiefs.

Noem said some non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which receive millions in federal grants, have been facilitating illegal immigration by helping aliens cross the U.S. border.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem joined federal agents in New York City to announce the arrests of immigrants wanted on criminal charges.

The Senate confirmed Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary on Saturday by a 59-34 vote, putting the former South Dakota governor in charge of a sprawling agency that is essential to national security and President Donald Trump's plans to clamp down on illegal immigration.

The two term South Dakota Gov. was tapped by Trump in November and will be key in enacting the new president's mass deportation plan.

South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem will be the nation’s next secretary of the Department of Homeland Security after the U.S. Senate confirmed her nomination Saturday. The 53-year-old Noem, a former congresswoman,

Noem touched down at a small airport in the Northeast Kingdom in the same town where a border patrol agent was killed last week.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited an area known as the Swanton Sector along the northern border on Thursday. That section covers New Hampshire's border with Canada, as well as Vermont and parts of New York. The visit comes just over a week after a Border Patrol agent was shot and killed in Vermont.

Kristi Noem was confirmed Saturday morning as the new U.S. secretary of Homeland Security by a 59-34 vote. The 53-year-old former governor of South Dakota becomes the eighth person to lead the agency,

The Senate confirmed Kristi Noem on Saturday as the next secretary of Homeland Security, which has a lead role in immigration enforecment.