Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who has been warning of the dangers of “foreigners” driving illegally on U.S. roads, has her own checkered history behind the wheel.
Noem cited her own time behind the wheel of trucks while working on her family’s farm to highlight the dangers of people driving trucks illegally.
What she failed to mention was that she has a long rap sheet of speeding tickets and bench warrants for her erratic driving.
Speaking at an Indiana enforcement event, she touted the arrests of “23 illegal aliens on Indiana highways near the Illinois state line—including 146 truck drivers.” Noem said, “Putting these foreigners in tractor-trailers like the ones you see behind me becomes extremely dangerous…
“I have driven semis over many, many years and 18-wheelers, and understand they’re difficult to stop, maneuver.”
Those comments sit uncomfortably alongside her own driving history.
During Noem’s successful 2010 run for South Dakota’s at-large seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, Rapid City Journal reported that state court records showed she had 20 speeding tickets dating back to 1989, alongside other violations, including failure to stop at an intersection and invalid license plates.
Noem’s latest indiscretion at the time was speeding at 94 mph in a 75 mph zone on Interstate 29 in Moody County, for which she paid $130 in fines and costs on Feb. 19, 2010.
It was also reported that Noem, 53—nicknamed “ICE Barbie” for her penchant for photo ops and self-promotional law-and-order reels—had bench warrants issued years earlier when fines went unpaid. They were later cleared when she settled the amounts.
Noem said at the time that she was “not proud” of that record and tried to be “a better example.”
Her then-campaign manager, Josh Shields, said of the string of traffic violations, which did not result in her losing her license or insurance, “Kristi apologized when she was asked about it. She said the tickets were a result of haste and carelessness.
“She was trying to make up time over flat country highways, but that is never an excuse. She paid all the penalties and is working on trying to set a better example going forward.”
Herseth Sandlin, senior campaign adviser to Noem’s then-opponent, Russ Levsen, said: “Kristi Noem thinks the rules don’t apply to her.
“She repeatedly breaks the law, fails to appear in court, and has multiple warrants for her arrest issued. The last thing we need in Congress is a politician who ignores the court dates and racks up arrest warrants.”
The Daily Beast asked the Department of Homeland Security whether Noem had stuck by her vow to be better, or if she had any further brushes with the law for her driving since 2010. DHS had not responded at the time of publication.
Noem has faced separate questions around her judgment after she admitted in her 2024 memoir that she shot her family’s 14-month-old dog, Cricket.
She wrote, “I hated that dog,” describing the wire-haired pointer as “untrainable” before taking it to a gravel pit and killing it, insisting the shooting was lawful and “had to be done,” while defending her love of animals.
The controversy has lingered, with South Park lampooning Noem as a serial dog-shooter in Season 27’s “Got a Nut,” which premiered in August.
After the episode aired, DHS remained quiet, despite previously hyping the show for recruitment purposes. Noem later told Glenn Beck the parody was “petty” but did not address the dog-shooting gag.
