Christy Noam was confirmed by the US Senate as President Donald Trump's Homeland Security Secretary, becoming a key member of the Republican's cabinet, who is launching a large-scale campaign to limit migration, Reuters reported, quoted by dariknews.bg.
Noam, who was the governor of South Dakota, shares Trump's tough views on immigration and earlier this month, during a Senate confirmation hearing, which is part of the confirmation procedure, called illegal immigration an “invasion“.
She was confirmed by a vote of 59 to 34 in the Senate, where Republicans have majority.
Trump returned to the White House vowing to deport a record number of immigrants in the United States illegally and criticizing former Democratic President Joe Biden for the high levels of illegal immigration during his term.
Since taking office on January 20, Trump has issued a series of executive orders aimed at strengthening border security and bolstering his efforts to increase deportations. He has also introduced a number of restrictive policies.
Noem will take over the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which has 260,000 employees and oversees border security, deportations and legal immigration processing, as well as emergency response, cybersecurity, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Secret Service.
While governor of a state closer to Canada than Mexico, Noem has in recent years sent dozens of South Dakota National Guard troops to help Republican-run Texas secure the border, Reuters reported.
“It's a war zone down there,” Noem said of the border during a Jan. 17 hearing.
Noem said the administration would focus on criminals and people with final deportation orders, but did not say whether agricultural workers would be targeted. workers will be protected in response to a question during the hearing about what the Trump administration will do about undocumented workers in the agricultural sector.
The family ranch in Nome has hired dozens of temporary farm workers since 2015, according to documents showing that it is owned by her brother, Reuters notes. Some conservative groups argue that the use of temporary farm workers on guest visas is holding back wage growth and slowing technological adaptation.
The U.S. government's decision to freeze most international aid programs has led to the suspension of flights for more than 40,000 Afghans who had been approved for special visas to the United States and are now at risk of reprisals from the Taliban, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA, citing a leading human rights lawyer and a U.S. official.
Most of those stranded are in Afghanistan, while the rest are in Pakistan, Qatar and Albania, said Sean VanDiver, head of #AfghanEvac, the main coalition of veterans and human rights activists groups that work with the U.S. government to evacuate and resettle Afghans who have worked for the United States during the 20-year war.
Vandiver said he did not believe the cancellation of the flights was intentional. “We think it was a mistake,” he said.
“They fought alongside us. They bled alongside us,” VanDiver said.
The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nearly 200,000 Afghans have been resettled in the United States on special visas or as refugees since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. In an executive order signed hours after taking office, Trump froze all U.S. refugee resettlement programs.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday in Las Vegas that he might consider the possibility of the United States returning to the World Health Organization (WHO), Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Trump made the statement just days after announcing the U.S. withdrawal from the WHO over what he described as its failure to handle the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises. The departure is scheduled for January 22, 2026.
“Maybe we would consider participating again, I don't know. Maybe we would. They're going to have to sort things out," the US president said.
The US is the largest source of funding for the WHO, contributing about 18 percent of the organization's budget.
Trump said at a meeting in Las Vegas that he was not happy that the US was contributing more to the WHO than China, which has a much larger population.
He also said he would ask Saudi Arabia to invest about $1 trillion in the United States. Last week, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Trump that the kingdom wants to invest $600 billion in investment and trade with the United States over the next four years.