Trump’s border wall efforts continue with new 7-mile section in Arizona

Kristi Noem has announced the commencement of a new 7-mile section of President Trump’s border wall in Arizona, a day after the Department of Homeland Security revealed a significant 95% drop in illegal crossings under the previous administration.

The former South Dakota governor, 53, shared the news in a video from the border on her X account, emphasizing her commitment to "make America safe again", Caliber.Az reports via American media.

“Everybody, I’m here in Arizona, and right at this spot, you can see where the border wall ends,” Noem said in the video, wearing a US Border Patrol baseball cap and jacket. “As of today, we’re starting 7 new miles of construction, and we’re going to continue to make America safe again.”

Noem’s announcement builds on the Trump administration’s strong border enforcement, which she highlighted in an interview with NewsNation. She pointed to a drastic reduction in illegal crossings under President Trump, claiming that border encounters have dropped to some of the lowest levels since the Border Patrol began tracking them.

“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,” she said.

Noem was in Nogales, Arizona, a region that has historically been a major route for cartel smugglers moving people and drugs across the border. The area is now seeing illegal crossings at levels not seen since 1967, and Noem attributed the decline to stricter enforcement under the Trump administration and the continued construction of the border wall.

“The Mexican cartels are becoming more desperate,” she stated. “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, securing our borders, and we’re not going to let this illegal activity continue.”

Noem also highlighted the success of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), noting that more than 32,000 people have been arrested since Trump took office—almost matching the total number of ICE arrests in 2024 under the Biden administration

In a separate post on March 15, Noem shared the creative methods smugglers are using to bypass border security, including fentanyl hidden in watermelons, humans smuggled in trucks, and meth concealed in charcoal.

“Proud of the work our officers are doing to keep America safe at Nogales Port of Entry,” she wrote.

By Tamilla Hasanova