Trump’s Appointment Of Kristi Noem To Homeland Security Chief Raises Questions About Fed Cannabis Policy
President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he had selected South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to serve as secretary for the Department of Homeland Security.
While the role is yet to be confirmed by the Senate, Noem is expected to oversee Trump’s border policies, including the key campaign pledge of “mass deportations.” She will work alongside Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan and Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, reported ABC News.
Noem, known for being cautious around cannabis policy change, will also oversee U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the largest federal law enforcement agency of Homeland Security, which has often made headlines for marijuana seizures.
According to an earlier report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published in mid-2022, three-quarters of U.S. Border Patrol drug seizures were exclusively for marijuana.
The analysis of Border Patrol data, from 2016 through 2020, showed that officers pulled in roughly 35,700 potentially removable people as part of 17,500 events at checkpoints. Half of all marijuana seizures or 8,098 of 16,315 included “personal use quantity of marijuana and no …