OAN Staff James Meyers
10:10 AM – Monday, March 17, 2025
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem announced the construction project of a new 7-mile stretch of President Donald Trump’s border wall in Arizona.
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The 53-year-old Noem said construction would start on a fresh stretch of wall as part of her bid to “make America safe again,” in a video she shared from the border on her X account on Sunday.
“Everybody, I’m here in Arizona, and right at this spot, you can see where the border wall ends,” she said in the video.
“As of today, we’re starting 7 new miles of construction, we’re going to continue to make America safe again.”
The new project will be paid for via U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) Fiscal Year 2021 funds, according to the DHS.
Meanwhile, illegal border crossings have gone down a staggering 95% under the Trump administration, after the Biden administration had set record high numbers for illegal crossings.
“Just recently, we saw less than 200 encounters in a day. That’s remarkable. Now our agents can get back to doing their jobs and enforcing the law instead of processing,” Secretary Noem told NewsNation in an interview on Saturday.
The former South Dakota governor said the huge decrease is due to stricter border policies under the Trump administration, as well as the resumed border wall construction.
The Mexican cartels are becoming “more desperate” in response to the increased border security, she told NewsNation.
“They recognize that we’re enforcing our federal laws, that we’re not letting people just walk across the border anymore. We are building a wall, we are securing our borders, and we’re not going to let this illegal activity continue,” she said.
Meanwhile, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested over 32,000 people since Trump took office in January.
She also stated that they have made close to as many as the total number of ICE arrests that were made under the Biden administration in the entire year of 2024.
“Fentanyl hidden in watermelons. Humans smuggled in trucks. Meth concealed in charcoal. You name it, our Customs and Border Protection field officers are finding it,” she wrote on X.
“Proud of the work our officers are doing to keep America safe at Nogales Port of Entry.”
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