Vice President JD Vance touted the steep decline in illegal border crossings and outlined the administration’s goals for the border wall while visiting the southern border Wednesday afternoon.
Vance visited Eagle Pass, Texas, Wednesday along with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, to meet with Border Patrol, take a helicopter tour of the area, and touch base with local and state officials.
“The reason why we’ve seen a 98% reduction of border crossings … is because President Trump has empowered — and, in fact, demanded — that his whole government take the task of border control seriously,” Vance said while speaking at the border. He added that, in order to secure the border, “we didn’t need new laws, we didn’t need fancy legislation, we just needed a new President of the United States.”
He also articulated the administration’s goals for the border wall, noting that “the President’s hope is that by the end of the term we build the entire border wall.”
“Because of what Joe Biden did at the southern border for four years, we had record increases in migrant crime, in fentanyl deaths, and just floods and floods of people who shouldn’t be in our country,” Vance charged.
The Vice President added that the prior administration had left America’s immigration enforcement system in a state of disrepair. “Rome wasn’t built in a day. We have seen significant increases in deportations and arrests, but we have to remember that President Biden gutted the entire immigration enforcement regime in this country,” Vance asserted. “We are trying to rebuild so that we actually empower people to enforce immigration laws.”
The Trump administration has enlisted the support of federal agencies like the Department of Defense in service of the border security effort, with the Pentagon now sending troops to the border.
“This is a demonstration of a true partnership on the southern border,” Hegseth remarked. “Border security is national security,” he noted, while Gabbard added that “our objective is to keep America safe.”
The visit from the Trump administration officials came just after President Donald Trump gave his address to Congress and railed against the Mexican drug cartels, which he recently designated as foreign terror organizations.
“The cartels are waging war on America and it is time for America to wage war on the cartels,” Trump charged. “Countless thousands of these terrorists were welcomed into the U.S. by the Biden administration. But now every last one will be rounded up and forcibly removed from our country.”
Border Czar Tom Homan sat down with The Daily Wire Backstage just before the speech to discuss border security and the administration’s approach to the cartels.
“We’re not just going to attack them on the southern border, we’re going to attack them across the globe,” Homan said of the drug cartels. “We’re going to use the full might of the federal government to take them out.”
The Trump official went on to explain that securing the border will collapse the cartel’s drug and human smuggling revenue, making it harder for the terrorist organizations to bribe politicians and law enforcement. “We’re going to shut them down one piece at a time. What President Trump did designating them foreign terrorist organizations is the first step to wiping these cartels off the face of this earth.”
