U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem delivers remarks to staff at the Department of Homeland Security headquarters on Jan. 28, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Manuel Balce Ceneta-Pool/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem Tuesday addressed some of her staff, promising to provide resources and support as the agency fulfills its duties, one of them carrying out President Donald Trump’s plan to deport masses of undocumented people.
Earlier in the day, Noem, the former governor of South Dakota, was in New York City, accompanying U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in arrests across the city. In a video posted to social media, Noem — clad in a vest labeled POLICE/ICE — said she was in the city “to get the dirt bags off our streets.”
The visit to New York followed a weekend of highly publicized immigration enforcement, where ICE officials announced they arrested nearly 1,000 people in the country without legal authorization. However, an arrest does not mean an immigrant has been detained or in deportation proceedings and ICE has not specified details of those arrests.
Before Noem addressed DHS workforce, as she walked up to the lectern, the song “Hot Mama” by country singer Trace Adkins, played in the background, with the chorus “One hot mama, you turn me on, let’s turn it up and turn this room into a sauna.”
It was reminiscent of a March 2024 appearance by Noem with Trump at an Ohio campaign rally at which he called her “a very special woman who’s hot as a politician” and “beautiful.” Noem at the time was considered a potential running mate for Trump, who later chose J.D. Vance, then a Republican senator from Ohio.
Noem told staff that she aims to provide them the resources to carry out their mission and that her vision for the agency stems from a story from her childhood.
When she was 10, building a fence with her dad, he asked her for a tool that was in the truck. When she ran to the truck to get it for him, he told her, “You should know what I need, before I know what I need.”
“What he was doing was teaching us to think ahead,” she said. “That is what our job is as well here at the Department of Homeland Security. We prepare ahead and think three steps ahead so that people have what they need before they need it.”
Noem, whom the U.S. Senate confirmed on Saturday, will lead one of the federal government’s largest departments, with a staff of roughly 260,000 employees and a budget around $100 billion.
DHS responsibilities include border protection, disaster response, global threats, cyber and airline security and the U.S. Secret Service, among other duties.
In her address, Noem added that she specifically asked Trump to lead DHS because it is the president’s “number one priority.”