South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks prior to remarks from then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign rally March 16 in Vandalia, Ohio.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks prior to remarks from then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign rally March 16 in Vandalia, Ohio. / AP

President-elect Donald Trump has announced he'll nominate South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

It's a role that holds significant weight for Trump, who campaigned heavily on the issue of immigration, pledging to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.

Said Trump in a statement: "She will work closely with 'Border Czar' Tom Homan to secure the Border, and will guarantee that our American Homeland is secure from our adversaries." Homan is the former head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Trump loyalist Stephen Miller is expected to be deputy chief of staff and focus on immigration policy. Neither Miller nor Homan's positions require Senate confirmation.

Noem, a devout Christian who is the first woman elected to serve as governor of South Dakota, is in her second term.

In his statement, Trump cited one of her notable moves leading her state: "Kristi has been very strong on Border Security. She was the first Governor to send National Guard Soldiers to help Texas fight the Biden Border Crisis, and they were sent a total of eight times."

CNN first reported she would be Trump's DHS pick.

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

Before ultimately picking Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump spoke highly of Noem as he was deliberating his running mate, saying, "She's been there for us for a long time … She's loyal, she's great."

But Noem drew criticism earlier this year for saying that Native tribes in South Dakota benefit from the drug cartel industry — a comment that led her to be banned from all nine reservations in the state.

Additionally, Noem wrote about having met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in her memoir, No Going Back, which she then retracted from the final copy. In that same memoir, she wrote about killing her family dog, which drew particular scorn.