Taking Action to Keep South Dakota Safe

 
By: Gov. Larry Rhoden

August 15, 2025  

I can’t sit still for long. Maybe it’s because I grew up on a ranch, where there was always something that needed doing. I’m at my most relaxed when I’m doing work with my hands, and it’s helped me out in public service. Sometimes, you just need to be willing to take action.

Recently, a couple South Dakota Highway Patrol troopers took action to keep our people safe. They didn’t wait to act – they saw what needed doing, then stepped up and did it.

One trooper took heroic action when she saw that a driver was driving on the wrong side of the Interstate near Sturgis. She sped off down the Interstate (on the right side of the road), got ahead of the vehicle, crossed the median, and pulled out in front of the vehicle. She was rearended, which was all part of the plan. Then, when the vehicle tried to pass her, she performed a tactical maneuver to force it onto the median where the driver was arrested for drunk driving.

Another trooper pulled over a speeding vehicle driving through Sturgis. What started as a routine traffic stop turned into the largest meth bust in the history of the Highway Patrol. The driver was a 42-year-old Mexican national driving cross-country with more than 200 pounds of meth in his vehicle – that’s a street value of over $12 million!

That criminal is already in immigration proceedings, and after due process, ICE will get him out of our country so that he won’t continue to traffic meth to Americans. This instance really underscored the need for Operation: Prairie Thunder, my public safety initiative that includes increased collaboration with ICE to get illegal alien criminals out of our country. A couple days later, I called the trooper who caught the perp, and he was nothing but humble.

We recently took one other action to advance Operation: Prairie Thunder, as well. The Board of Pardons and Paroles decided to parole ten criminal illegal aliens to ICE custody, individuals that my office and the Department of Corrections had helped identify as criminals who it would be appropriate to send back to their home country. South Dakota taxpayers shouldn’t be paying to house these criminals in our prisons – not when they shouldn’t be in our country to begin with.

That’s what you can count on from me and my administration: when necessary, we will take action to keep South Dakota strong, safe, and free.

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