WASHINGTON (AP) – Donald Trump has selected South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security, one of the government’s largest agencies that will be integral to his promise to secure the border and carry out a mass expulsion operation.

Here are five what you need to know about Noem:

She is a breeder

The 52-year-old was born in Watertown, South Dakota, and grew up on a ranch and farm outside of town. His father died in a grain silo collapse at the age of 49.

“When Dad passed away, it was devastating for our whole family,” she said during a 2022 interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network. “He was my best friend. He was the person I admired the most, the one I cared the most about what he thought of me, and who had planned my entire life just to grow up and work with him and do business with him.

She was involved in a number of family businesses before successfully running for the South Dakota House of Representatives in 2006. In 2010, she won the state’s seat in the General House and in 2018, she was elected the state’s first female governor. She was re-elected in 2022.

After becoming governor, Noem began working closely with Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s campaign manager in 2016. Then, during the pandemic, she became known in conservative circles for resist most government regulations to slow the spread of infections. She has since become a regular presence in Trump’s political world and was at one point considered his running mate.

She enjoys hunting pheasants and organizes the Governor’s Hunt every year. And she’s an excellent rider.

The dog’s story

She was vilified this year for a story she told in her book about murder her 14 month old wirehaired pointer named Cricket.

Cricket was Noem’s hunting dog but he was boisterous. Noem took the dog with her on a hunting trip with older dogs in hopes of calming her down.

It didn’t work and on the way home, Noem wrote that when she stopped to talk to a family, Cricket got out of Noem’s truck and attacked and killed some of the family’s chickens. Then the dog “turned around to bite me,” she wrote.

“At that moment,” Noem wrote, “I realized I had to put her down.” She led Cricket to a gravel pit and killed her.

Critics lambasted her as she defended Cricket’s killing as an example of her willingness to make tough choices.

She talks tough on immigration

Noem has been a key supporter of Trump, including supporting his tough talk on immigration.

“President Trump will deport the most dangerous illegal aliens first – the murderers, rapists and other criminals that Harris and Biden let into the country. They don’t belong here and we won’t let them back,” Noem said in a post on X after Trump’s election.

Noem joined other Republican governors who sent troops to Texas to help Texas’ Operation Lone Starwhich sought to discourage migrants.

Noem’s decision was particularly criticized because it covered most of the deployment costs with a $1 million donation from a Tennessee billionaire who has often donated to Republicans.

Noem described the U.S.-Mexico border as a “war zone” when she sent troops there, saying they would be on the front lines stopping drug and human traffickers . But the Guard files painted a more nuanced picture of their mission.

Difficult relations with the tribes

The Oglala Sioux told her in 2019 that she was not welcome on the Pine Ridge Reservation after leading efforts to pass a state law targeting protests such as those in neighboring North Dakota that ravaged the Dakota Access pipeline.

“I hereby inform you that you are not welcome in our country,” Oglala Sioux President Julian Bear Runner said in a letter to Noem. He told Noem that if she ignored the directive, “we will have no choice but to ban you” from the reservation.

The governor also clashed with the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe over Fourth of July Fireworks at Mount Rushmore. The tribe objected to fireworks at a monument it sees as a desecration of land that was violently stolen from it decades ago.

Daughter’s Real Estate Appraiser License

In 2020, the South Dakota agency responsible for licensing real estate appraisers denied Noem’s daughter’s application.

A few days later, Noem summoned the state employee who ran the agency, the woman’s direct supervisor and the state’s labor secretary to her office for a meeting with her daughter. Four months later, Noem’s daughter earned the certificate.

South Dakota lawmakers later unanimously approved a report concluding that Noem’s daughter received preferential treatment when applying for a permit.

A Associated Press report over Noem’s actions regarding her daughter’s medical license sparked the investigation. The governor said his daughter did not receive preferential treatment.

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Associated Press reporter Stephen Groves contributed to this report.