‘Near-Total Control’: Noem Shares Border Security Successes With House Panel

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem appeared on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to outline her budget priorities and the department’s accomplishments thus far in the second Trump term. 

Sitting before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, Noem answered members’ questions regarding securing the border and keeping American citizens safe and secure.

The secretary touted the administration’s record-breaking success at ending the illegal immigrant border crisis.

“At the southern border, we have obtained a near-total control of daily encounters now, down over 93% since President Trump took office,” Noem said. 

“March saw the lowest number of border encounters in recorded history, in the history of the United States of America, at just under 7,200,” she continued. 

The secretary also emphasized that the administration was prioritizing removing illegal aliens who have committed crimes in the U.S. 

“There are tens of thousands of illegal aliens that have committed crimes against individuals in this country, and we have worked very hard to make sure that those individuals [are the ones that we] are going after and deporting as soon as possible,” the former South Dakota governor explained. 

When asked about how many crimes illegal aliens had committed against American citizens, Noem explained that the number was hard to know exactly because the Biden administration had shut down an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office responsible for tracking criminal activity by illegal aliens. 

“The VOICE’s [Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement] office within ICE was opened under the first Trump administration, and President [Joe] Biden closed that office, I believe, to cover up exactly how many crimes were committed against people in this country by illegal aliens,” the secretary testified. 

Noem said the administration has reopened the VOICE office, which also enables the families of victims to track the ongoing criminal cases. One of the challenges the secretary noted was the sheer backlog of cases facing the immigration courts. 

“So, we have up to a million cases that are backlogged that need to be processed by an immigration judge in an immigration court in order to make sure that we are having those final removal orders and that we do take action,” the secretary noted. 

Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, asked the secretary to help facilitate updates to border practices and technologies. He noted the need to reorient river roads along the border to follow the Rio Grande itself. He also recommended cutting down carrizo cane, a species of brush that grows along the river and can obscure surveillance. Cuellar also said that only one-third of the border surveillance cameras in his district were working. 

“Procurement process needs to be better so they can move faster to buy that technology,” the Texas Democrat said. 

Cuellar said that even with all the advancements in surveillance there still are blind spots along the border. 

“Even now, with modern technology, Border Patrol can be in certain areas and dangerous areas, and they don’t have the technology and radio that’s working,” he noted. 

Noem said that she would follow up with the Texas congressman and noted that staffing recruitment at Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) was up more than 50%.

Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., asked the secretary about the morale in the department, and Noem responded that it was “fantastic.” She said there were increases in recruitment for the Coast Guard, ICE, and the Secret Service, in addition to CBP.

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