Department of Homeland Security secretary touts drug seizures at border in San Diego
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday visited the U.S.-Mexico border south of San Diego to tout the Trump administration’s crackdown on drug trafficking and touched on a range of topics, from a looming government shutdown of the DHS to the end of an immigration surge in Minnesota.
Joining her for the event at 1:30 p.m. in Otay Mesa, which highlighted “the Trump Administration’s historic border security and drug seizure efforts,” according to a news release sent out Wednesday, was Mike Banks, the chief of the Border Patrol, and Acting Executive Assistant Commissioner Diane Sabatino.
At around 1 p.m., SkyRanger 7 was overhead the Otay Mesa Detention Center, where a group of vocal protestors was outside the facility. Regarding the protesters, Noem said, “it’s a wonderful thing” they’re expressing First Amendment rights.
Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Clemente, denounced Noem’s visit as a carefully timed photo opportunity.
“Sec. Noem decided to hold a press conference at Otay Mesa on a day when there would be no members of the San Diego Congressional Delegation there to demand answers, press her on ICE abuses, or hold DHS accountable. It is nothing more than a staged photo op,” Levin said. “Noem doesn’t want to answer our questions because she doesn’t want to defend the indefensible.”
Here’s a breakdown of topics Noem spoke to on Thursday:
— On drug enforcement
Standing in front of dozens of cardboard boxes and bags the agency said were filled with illicit drugs intercepted at the border, the DHS secretary said she toured a vault that held 188,000 pounds of meth, cocaine and fentanyl seized at the Port of Entry.
“We’re winning the fight against fentanyl,” Noem said, before encouraging California Gov. Gavin Newsom to give up 33,000 immigrants whom Immigration and Customs Enforcement has accused of committing crimes.
Newsom held an event not far away less than two weeks ago and praised the California National Guard for its work seizing more than a half-billion dollars worth of fentanyl across the state over the past five years as part of expanded drug enforcement efforts at the southern border.
The governor said more than 50 million fentanyl pills worth an estimated $506 million and weighing 34,357 pounds have been seized since 2021.
The federal leaders said the increase in drug seizures was due to the return of hundreds of Border Patrol agents to Ports of Entry under the Trump administration, adding that funding from the administration’s federal spending plan would allow for the hiring of upward of 5,000 more agents and an increase in the use of technology for drug interdiction.
“Funding from the act is going to allow CBP to expand capabilities such as non-intrusive inspection technology and responsibly integrate artificial intelligence machine learning into what we do,” Sabatino said at the news conference, which came days after CBP signed a deal with Clearview AI to access its database of 60 billion images collected through facial recognition technology.
Last year, the number of servicemembers deployed at California’s Ports of Entry was doubled as part of the White House’s crackdown on transnational drug trafficking, which Newsom said was supported by a $30 million investment aimed at expanding the National Guard’s drug interdiction activities.
“Fentanyl is killing Californians every day — and we are meeting this crisis with action, not rhetoric,” Newsom said in a statement. “In 2021, we launched a focused effort to stop traffickers at the border and along our transportation corridors. The results are clear: lives saved, communities protected, and criminal networks disrupted.”
In San Diego, CHP operations conducted since last year have led to 404 arrests, 29 recovered stolen vehicles, and 104 pounds of illegal drugs seized, according to Newsom’s office.
Continuing coverage
— On allegations of deficient conditions at immigrant detention centers
Immigrants held at detention centers like the one in Otay Mesa are properly cared for, Noem said, despite reports that detainees were being served inadequate food and were constantly sick.
“We’re proud of the fact that every single individual, when they come, are well taken care of,” Noem said Thursday. “They receive food and medical care, and then we return them as quickly as we can back to their home countries if they’re being held.”
A question was asked about a person being held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center who threw a note attached to a lotion bottle over the fence. A lawsuit was also filed against the agency for conditions at the Adelanto ICE processing center in San Bernardino County.
“It’s cold here, the food is very poor,” reads the letter, a photo of which was obtained by NBC 7 but first reported by L.A. Taco. “For 290 [days] we haven’t eaten a single piece of fruit, banana, orange or anything else.”
Noem also said every immigrant held in a detention facility has the option to self-deport to their home country with a free plane ticket and $2,600, although some say their requests have been denied.
— On the removal of immigration agents in Minnesota
Noem’s visit came hours after Trump’s border czar Tom Homan announced an end to the large-scale immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota that led to months of widespread protests and the deadly shootings of two U.S. citizens by immigration officers.
Earlier in the day, Homan said the wind-down was thanks to coordination with local law enforcement. In San Diego, Noem was asked if any former partnerships had been formalized, to which Noem responded that an agreement is still being worked on and, while some operations would be changing, DHS would still be committed to investigation in the state.
— On a looming government shutdown
Funding for the Department of Homeland Security is set to expire this weekend unless a deal can be reached in Congress, which remained deadlocked on Thursday.
Noem criticized Democrats for the standstill, stating, “It’s the wrong message to send to the world at this point in time.”
Democrats have made clear they won’t accept another short-term bill without immigration reforms. A set of demands released last week included requiring agents to wear identification, get judicial warrants to enter private property and the end of agents wearing masks.
Finding agreement on the charged, partisan issue of immigration enforcement will be exceedingly difficult. Even as lawmakers in both parties were skeptical, however, a White House official said this week that the administration was having constructive talks with both Republicans and Democrats.
A shutdown means that federal employees at agencies such as FEMA, the Transportation Security Administration and the Coast Guard won’t be paid, though most of them will continue showing up for work because their jobs are considered critical, NBC News reported.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection (ICE), which is at the center of the parties’ dispute, will be even less affected by the shutdown. Employees at both agencies are expected to continue working and to continue getting paid, since those agencies still have access to $75 billion in funding approved last year in President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
— Calls for Noem’s removal
Noem and the DHS are, of course, under intense scrutiny for the actions of ICE in Minnesota and elsewhere. Calls for her impeachment or firing came from various congressional representatives in December in the wake of the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good during operations in Minneapolis. Among those seeking her removal are local representatives Juan Vargas, Scott Peters, Mike Levin and Sara Jacobs.
Democrats lack the necessary clout on Capitol Hill to achieve Noem’s impeachment, though, at least while Republicans hold the majority.
Noem’s brash leadership style and remarks in the aftermath of the shooting deaths of Pretti and Good — in which she suggested Pretti “attacked” officers and portrayed the events leading up to Good’s shooting an “act of domestic terrorism” — have been seen as doing irreparable damage, as events on the ground disputed her account. Her alliance with former Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino, who was recalled from the Minnesota operation as border czar Homan took the lead, has left her isolated on Capitol Hill. (On Thursday, officials with the Trump administration announced the end of the so-called “immigration surge” in Minnesota.)
For Republicans uneasy with the administration’s enforcement tactics but reluctant to criticize President Donald Trump directly, Noem has become the focal point for their anxiety.
“I think you have a secretary right now that needs to be accountable to the chaos and some of the tragedy that we have seen,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who said Noem should step down. Murkowski added that “we need clarity and accountability for the chaos and tragedy we have seen.”
Trump on Noem
For his part, Trump has said Noem was “doing a very good job” and would remain in his administration. In fact, Trump defended Noem at multiple junctures, strongly indicating her job does not appear to be in immediate jeopardy.
Asked by reporters as he left the White House in January for a trip to Iowa whether Noem was going to step down, Trump had a one-word answer: “No.” Pressed later during an interview on Fox News if he had confidence in Noem, the president said, “I do.”
“Who closed up the border? She did,” Trump said, “with Tom Homan, with the whole group. I mean, they’ve closed up the border. The border is a tremendous success.”
NBC News and City News Service contributed to this report — Ed.
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