‘Secure our bor­der’: Mas­sive police org calls on Trump, Rand Paul to swift­ly con­firm Noem to DHS

First on Fox – The Fra­ter­nal Order of Police sent let­ters to both Pres­i­dent-elect Trump and Sen. Rand Paul, R‑Ky., out­lin­ing their staunch sup­port of South Dako­ta Gov. Kristi Noem as sec­re­tary of home­land secu­ri­ty, in what insid­ers say is the first in what will be a long list of law enforce­ment endorse­ments. 

“Gov­er­nor Noem has been a long­time ally of the FOP dur­ing both her tenure in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and as Gov­er­nor of South Dako­ta. The South Dako­ta State Lodge of the Fra­ter­nal Order of Police endorsed Gov­er­nor Noem for her re-elec­tion cam­paign in 2022, cit­ing her belief in the rule of law and com­mit­ment to pub­lic safe­ty,” Fra­ter­nal Order of Police nation­al pres­i­dent Patrick Yoes wrote in a Novem­ber let­ter to Trump, which was obtained by Fox News Dig­i­tal. 

“Once con­firmed, the FOP will work with Gov­er­nor Noem to secure our bor­der, stop the flow of fen­tanyl into the Unit­ed States, as well as sup­port all the crit­i­cal mis­sions of the DHS – which has more law enforce­ment offi­cers than any oth­er Fed­er­al Depart­ment – in defend­ing our home­land and keep­ing the Amer­i­can pub­lic safe,” Yoes con­tin­ued. 

The FOP is the largest orga­ni­za­tion of sworn law enforce­ment offi­cers, boast­ing rough­ly 377,000 mem­bers across the nation, with Yoes call­ing on both Trump and the Sen­ate to swift­ly con­firm Noem in order for police and law enforce­ment offi­cers to crack down on crimes rang­ing from ille­gal immi­gra­tion to dead­ly fen­tanyl pour­ing over the bor­der. 

TRUMP SELECTS SOUTH DAKOTA GOV KRISTI NOEM TO RUN DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

The DHS over­sees U.S. Cus­toms and Bor­der Pro­tec­tion, Immi­gra­tion and Cus­toms Enforce­ment, the U.S. Secret Ser­vice and the Fed­er­al Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency.

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In his sep­a­rate let­ter to Paul, Yoes called on the upcom­ing chair­man of the com­mit­tee on Home­land Secu­ri­ty and Gov­ern­men­tal Affairs – who will pre­side over Noem’s con­fir­ma­tion – to swift­ly con­firm Noem in the Sen­ate, while argu­ing that under the Trump admin­is­tra­tion, DHS will be allowed “the oppor­tu­ni­ty to take bold actions towards pro­tect­ing our com­mu­ni­ties.”

“The U.S. Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty (DHS) employs more law enforce­ment than any oth­er Fed­er­al depart­ment, and as such we ask the Com­mit­tee to expe­di­tious­ly review and con­firm nom­i­nees as soon as pos­si­ble to ensure a seam­less tran­si­tion. We espe­cial­ly encour­age the com­mit­tee to hold the ear­li­est pos­si­ble hear­ing on Gov­er­nor Kristi L. Noem to be the next Sec­re­tary of the U.S. Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty. The FOP sup­ports her nom­i­na­tion, and we look for­ward to work­ing with her to secure our bor­der,” Yoes wrote. 

Paul has already pub­licly said he would “expe­di­tious­ly move Pres­i­dent Trump’s crit­i­cal nom­i­nees, includ­ing Gov­er­nor Kristi Noem, in time for Inau­gu­ra­tion Day.”

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT KRISTI NOEM, THE ‘BORDER HAWK’ NOMINATED BY TRUMP TO LEAD DHS

Wash­ing­ton, D.C., insid­ers told Fox News Dig­i­tal that the FOP’s unwa­ver­ing sup­port of Noem is just the first in what is antic­i­pat­ed to be a long list of law enforce­ment sup­port behind the nom­i­na­tion. 

Trump, who ran in part on a plat­form of end­ing the immi­gra­tion cri­sis at the south­ern bor­der and crack­ing down on the dead­ly drug epi­dem­ic rav­aging com­mu­ni­ties across the nation, announced his nom­i­na­tion of Noem just days after his mas­sive win over Vice Pres­i­dent Kamala Har­ris last month. 

EX-TRUMP OFFICIAL PREDICTS ‘ENTIRE MINDSET CHANGE’ AT SOUTHERN BORDER, HAILS ‘FANTASTIC’ PICK TO LEAD DHS 

“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,” Trump’s announce­ment on Nov. 12 read. 

“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,” Trump added. 

Noem has served as gov­er­nor of the Mount Rush­more State since 2019, and notably gained nation­al atten­tion and praise from con­ser­v­a­tives dur­ing the pan­dem­ic when she bucked lock­down orders and mask man­dates com­mon in lib­er­al states such as Cal­i­for­nia and New York. 

Repub­li­can state lead­ers and oth­ers praised Trump’s pick of Noem to lead DHS, cit­ing her tough stance on ille­gal immi­gra­tion that has rocked the nation since 2021, includ­ing Repub­li­can Texas Gov. Greg Abbott dub­bing her a “bor­der hawk.” 

“On behalf of the more than 377,000 mem­bers of the Fra­ter­nal Order of Police, I com­mend you on your selec­tion of Gov­er­nor Noem to lead the DHS, and we look for­ward to resum­ing our part­ner­ship with you and your Admin­is­tra­tion,” Yoes wrote in his let­ters to both Trump and Paul.