Rollins served in the final year of Trump’s first term as acting director of the White House's Domestic Policy Council.

Conservative lawyer Brooke Rollins was confirmed Thursday as secretary of agriculture, placing a close ally of President Donald Trump into a key Cabinet position at a time when mass deportation plans could lead to farm labor shortages and tariffs could hit agricultural exports.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Brooke Rollins was sworn in as the 33rd U.S. Secretary of Agriculture by Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Clarence Thomas in a private ceremony Feb. 13 at the Supreme Court building. The U.S. Senate confirmed Rollins by a vote of 72 to 28.