Kristi Noem files for divorce after leaving US cabinet

Former US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem filed for divorce on Monday in a South Dakota court, according to the newspaper El Nacional, after months of public scrutiny over her tenure and subsequent dismissal from her post in the federal executive.

The legal filing formalizes the separation of the former official from her 34-year marriage, a process that coincides with the end of her time in the central administration and the political fallout from her departure from the security portfolio.

Noem, 54, a former governor of South Dakota, led the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) until March of this year, when she was fired by President Donald Trump amid controversies over the enforcement of immigration policy and incidents during federal operations in Minneapolis.

Her exit from the federal cabinet marked a turning point in the administration's security structure, disrupting continuity in the department's immigration and budgetary policies, an area central to the allocation of federal resources at the border.

Since her dismissal, the former official has kept a low profile in public life, while the federal administration reorganizes the operational and funding priorities of the agency responsible for homeland security.