South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem speaks ahead of then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s remarks at a campaign rally on March 16 in Vandalia, Ohio.

Jeff Dean/AP

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Jeff Dean/AP

President-elect Donald Trump has announced that he will appoint South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to head the Department of Homeland Security.

It’s a role that carries significant weight for Trump, who campaigned heavily on immigration and promised to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.

Trump said in a statement: “She will work closely with ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan to secure the border, and will ensure our American homeland is safe from our adversaries.” Homan is the former head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Trump loyalist Stephen Miller is expected to become deputy chief of staff and focus on immigration policy. Neither Miller nor Homan’s positions require Senate confirmation.

Noem, a devout Christian and the first woman elected governor of South Dakota, is in her second term.

In his statement, Trump cited one of her notable steps in leading her state: “Kristi has been very strong on border security. She was the first governor to send National Guard soldiers to help Texas respond to the Biden border crisis, and they were sent a total of eight times.”

CNN first reported that she would be Trump’s DHS pick.

Noem entered politics as a state representative in 2006 after helping run her family farm as a small business owner. Four years later, she headed to Washington, D.C., where she won the state’s at-large seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Before ultimately choosing Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, Trump spoke highly of Noem as he reflected on his running mate, saying, “She’s been there for us for a long time… She’s loyal, she’s great.”

But Noem was criticized earlier this year for saying that indigenous tribes in South Dakota benefit from the drug cartel industry — a comment that led to her being banned from all nine reservations in the state.

Furthermore, Noem wrote in her memoir about her meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un: No returnwhich she then pulled from the final copy. In that same memoir, she wrote about killing her family dog, which aroused particular scorn.