Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was rushed to a hospital in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday after experiencing an allergic reaction, according to an agency spokesperson.
“Secretary Noem had an allergic reaction today,” DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to The Independent.
“She was transported to the hospital out of an abundance of caution. She is alert and recovering,” she added.
Noem has been conscious and has been speaking with her security detail, according to CNN, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Following his election, Donald Trump named the former Republican governor of South Dakota to lead the sprawling federal law enforcement agency, where she serves as the de facto chief of the administration’s anti-immigration agenda and the nation’s emergency response operations, which she has vowed to dismantle.
On Monday, Noem and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited Fort Detrick, the Maryland Army Base at the center of an FBI investigation into a biohazard incident. According to Kennedy’s recent Senate testimony, a biosafety lab was shut down after an alleged incident involving two contractors.
Last week, she held a press conference in California following protests demanding the withdrawal of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers after a series of raids that rattled immigrant communities in the Los Angeles area.
Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla, who was attending a meeting in the same building last week, was roughed up by federal agents after he interrupted her briefing to ask questions about aggressive enforcement actions in the state. He was pinned to the ground and handcuffed.
Noem and Padilla spoke for 15 minutes after the incident.
On Tuesday, New York City mayoral candidate and elected comptroller Brad Lander was arrested inside a federal building in Manhattan where he was observing immigration court proceedings. Homeland Security officials accused Lander of assaulting an officer, an accusation that he has flatly rejected. Lander was released from custody several hours later.
Before her nomination to Homeland Security, Noem served two terms as governor of South Dakota following elections in 2018 and 2022. She was among several prominent Republicans pundits considered for Trump’s running mate in 2024.
