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.

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.

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

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.

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,

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Wednesday the department has stopped all grant funding to nonprofits that operate outside of government control, saying they have been "perverted into a shadow government" that feeds illegal immigration.

The Senate confirmed Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) as the next Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security on Sunday during a weekend vote, as Republicans overcame efforts by Democrats to delay the process by using procedural hurdles.

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 United States Senate has voted to confirm South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Fox News reports that the development makes her the fourth of President Donald Trump’s nominees to win approval from the Senate.

The Senate voted on Saturday to confirm Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary, putting a former South Dakota governor in charge of the department at the heart of President Trump’s agenda to crack down on immigration. The vote was 59 to 34, and she was sworn-in on Saturday afternoon by the Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

"It is such an honor to be sworn in as the United States Secretary of Homeland Security," she said. It was made even more meaningful by being sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas at ...

Countries cannot be forced to take back citizens the U.S. government wishes to deport. The U.S. government can threaten a "recalcitrant" country with visa sanctions or other actions, as Trump did recently with Colombia. Cuba and Venezuela are two countries with citizens in the U.S. that generally have refused to accept deportees.