NOGALES — Department of Homeland Security officials had promised a "major border wall update" during DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's Wednesday press conference at the U.S.-Mexico border wall, east of Nogales, Arizona.
But the event was conducted more like a victory lap than a news conference, as Noem and other federal immigration officials praised the U.S.'s return to "law and order" under President Donald Trump and the "most secure border in American history," in Noem's words.
Officials shared no new information at the event, and Noem didn't take any questions from the media.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at a press conference in the Nogales area Wednesday where she took no questions from the media. She and other federal immigration officials assembled there praised the "most secure border in American history," in Noem's words.
More than 200 border agents, port officers, ICE agents and military members, including 40 Coast Guard officers from California, attended the event, as well as dozens of local and national news reporters.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott told the crowd they'd brought the reporters to the Wednesday event in order to force coverage of the Trump administration's work at the southern border.
"Unfortunately, the media likes chaos and they like friction," he said. "They don't necessarily like to show America a secure community. It's boring to them. So coming here today, we're forcing the media to come right to the border and see the most secure border that this country has ever had."
Noem thanked the law enforcement and military members in attendance, adding that "Border Czar" Tom Homan was "busy up in Minneapolis today" and couldn't attend.
"In President Trump's first year back in office, we've delivered the most secure border in American history. And we did it with the immediate aftermath we are facing from that humanitarian crisis that was created from Joe Biden's open-border policies," she said. "It is so quiet here now today that sometimes we even forget how bad it was just a little over a year ago."
Border agents arrested an average of 250 migrants a day in 2025, compared to 5,100 a day in 2024, she said.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at a Wednesday press conference at the border wall east of Nogales. "It is so quiet here now today that sometimes we even forget how bad it was just a little over a year ago," she said.
In 2023, amid an international boom in migration and forced displacement, the U.S. border with Mexico experienced a massive increase in migrant arrivals, which experts also say coincided with the U.S.'s post-pandemic strong labor market. Most migrants arriving at the border surrendered to border agents and requested asylum, rather than try to evade detection.
Migrant arrivals slowed in 2024, under President Joe Biden, as Mexican law enforcement stepped up immigration enforcement, slowing migrants' progress to the U.S. border. Migrant apprehensions then fell further after Biden's controversial June 2024 "asylum rule," which dramatically limited access to asylum when border arrivals were higher than usual.
Todd Lyons, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director, said having a secure border lets ICE agents do their job in the U.S. interior.
"This last year has been remarkable results. But we still have about 1.5 million individuals in this country that have a final order of deportation," he said. More than 800 of them are "serious criminal actors," he said.
Noem said fentanyl trafficking is down, as well as fentanyl-related deaths. A significant decline in U.S. fentanyl overdoses started in 2024, under Biden, when fentanyl overdoses dropped by 27%.
Overdoses fell 21% in 2025, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While Noem said little about border-related crime in Arizona, she spoke at length about the earlier "crisis" in Eagles Pass and Brownsville, Texas, due to migrant arrivals, which she said caused "rampant" crime and "crushed" the economy.
More than 200 border agents, port officers, ICE agents and military members attended Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's event Wednesday at the border wall east of Nogales.
Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway, a Democrat, called Noem a "coward" for not inviting him to the event held in his county, but inviting Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels, a Republican.
Hathaway said he would have fact-checked Noem on any misleading statements about border-related crime in Santa Cruz County.
"Our crime statistics here are lower than the average for Arizona," Hathaway said. "It's very disingenuous. She knew I would probably refute the suggestion that our crime statistics are bad in Santa Cruz County."
CBP Commissioner Scott said he spent five years patrolling in the area where the event was held, near where the Santa Cruz River flows north into the U.S.
"We have a higher level of situational awareness on the border than ever before," he said. "We're building border wall at an unprecedented pace, we're rolling out technology and most of all, we're hiring more Border Patrol agents and more officers to make sure we provide America the border security they deserve."
U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks said morale at the agency is "through the roof" thanks to Trump's focus on immigration enforcement.
"We've heard 'whole government approach' our entire careers. We never saw it until January of last year," he said. "We've got the Coast Guard out here. We've got the Army out here. We've got anybody that's got a three-letter identifier in their law enforcement job out there fighting illegal immigration in this country."
Noem has faced bipartisan calls for her resignation and impeachment threats amid DHS's violent and chaotic immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, where 3,000 immigration agents have been deployed in recent months.
On Wednesday, "border czar" Homan said 700 of those federal officers would be leaving the city immediately, amid a public outcry over the DHS operation there, the Associated Press reported.
Noem has also faced criticism for immediately placing blame on two U.S. citizens, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, after they were fatally shot by federal agents, both long-time DHS employees, in separate incidents in Minneapolis during the last month.
Noem had called Pretti a "domestic terrorist" and falsely said he was "brandishing" a weapon at border agents, a claim debunked by ample video evidence of the shooting.
The shootings have ignited national protests against Trump's immigration policy and what critics call federal agents' use of racial profiling, interrogation and arrest of U.S. citizens, and disproportionate use-of-force in interactions with immigrants, as well as U.S. citizens trying to record or bear witness to immigration enforcement activities.
