Kristi Noem has made known her plans to build a new seven-mile segment of the border wall initially proposed by President Trump in Arizona. This announcement comes shortly after the Secretary of Homeland Security reported a significant 95% decrease in illegal border crossings during Trump’s presidency.

The former governor of South Dakota, aged 53, expressed her intention to commence the construction of the new wall segment to enhance national security. In a video shared on her social media account from the Arizona border, she emphasized her mission to “make America safe again.”

During the video, Noem can be seen wearing a US Border Patrol baseball cap and jacket, pointing out the end of the current border wall at the location in Arizona where the new construction will begin.

“As of today, we’re starting seven new miles of construction, we’re going to continue to make America safe again.”

The Trump administration is continuing to press its advantage after making tremendous progress at the border in the first 50 days in office.

Illegal border crossings have decreased by 95% under the Trump administration compared to President Joe Biden’s tenure — with recent daily encounters dropping to some of the lowest numbers since the Border Patrol started 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,” Secretary Noem told NewsNation in an interview on Saturday.

She was in Nogales, in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, following reports that illegal crossings are now at levels not seen since 1967.

That area was known as a highway for cartel smugglers, who would use the vast open desert to traffic people and drugs across the border from Mexico.

Noem put the huge decrease down to the stricter enforcement policies under Trump, as well as the resumed border wall construction.

The Mexican cartels are becoming “more desperate” in response to the increased border security, she told NewsNation.

“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, we are securing our borders, and we’re not going to let this illegal activity continue,” she said.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested more than 32,000 people since Trump took office in January, Noem said, almost as many as the total number of ICE arrests made under the Biden administration in the whole of 2024.

On Saturday, Noem also shared some of the ingenious methods smugglers have used to try and get drugs and persons across the border illegally.

“Fentanyl hidden in watermelons. Humans smuggled in trucks. Meth concealed in charcoal. You name it, our Customs and Border Protection field officers are finding it,” she wrote on X.

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