Last spring, after the governor of South Dakota Kristi Noem included a bizarrely detailed account of killing a puppy in her memoirs, many agreed that she had lost her chance to be mentioned Donald Trump‘s running mate. (Not because Trump is a huge animal lover — he categorically isn’t — but because most Americans view their dogs as family members and often treat them better than people.) And while she was in fact overlooked for the vice president job, apparently news of the killing of her puppy (and goat) didn’t leave Noem confused with the Trump world. In fact, the former and soon-to-be current president has decided to include her further in the ranks, with a top position in the cabinet of his second administration.

Numerous news sources reported Tuesday that Noem has been selected to serve as Trump’s secretary of homeland security, a job that normally carries major responsibilities but will get a boost during Trump’s second term if he makes good on his promise to “deliver on the promise” feed’. largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” As CNN notes, while Noem “does not represent a border state, she has a long history of taking tough positions on immigration,” which is in fact a prerequisite for being a member of the Republican Party today, and certainly a prerequisite for membership in the Republican Party. being a member of Trump’s inner circle. In a sign of the seriousness of his plans to kick millions of people out of the country, Trump this week also called on the architect of family separation Stephan Molenaar to serve as White House Deputy Chief of Staff, while Tom Homan– who served as Trump’s acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement from January 2017 to June 2018 – has been named “border czar.”

Asked last month during an interview with 60 minutes if there was a way to “carry out mass deportations without separating families,” Homan told the reporter Cecilia Vega, “Of course it is. Families can be deported together.” According to The New York Times, Miller — who reportedly once brokered a deal for the government to pay for mental health care for families separated by the Trump administration — has spent the past two years “working on detailed plans for mass deportations.” During an interview with the outlet last year, he revealed that these plans include “restricting legal and illegal immigration in a number of ways, including rounding up undocumented immigrants already in the United States and detaining them in camps before they are deported from the country. .” At a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden in the days before the 2024 election, Miller told the crowd, “America is only for Americans and Americans.”

As Secretary of Homeland Security, Noem will be in charge of a massive agency that oversees everything from FEMA, to the Secret Service, to ICE, to Customs and Border Protection. She has previously called for sanctioning “sanctuary cities” that protect undocumented immigrants, and was banned last April from visiting three separate reservations covering about 10% of South Dakota’s 75,789.6 square miles of land area after claiming that Mexican drug cartels are successful in recruiting tribal members to join their criminal activities” and that “some tribal leaders…personally benefit from the cartels’ presence.”

Trump has called Noem a “great person.” In addition to revealing in graphic detail how she killed her family’s 14-month-old dog Cricket, Noem’s book also included a fabricated story about meeting the North Korean dictator. Kim Jong Un.

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