Free Republic

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced on October 10 that the administration had approved nearly $4.5 billion for hundreds of miles of “smart wall” along the southern border... ...The agencies awarded 10 contracts in late September, adding nearly 400 miles of new security technology and 230 miles of “smart wall,” according to the release. The new wall segments will reinforce areas where the Biden administration had previously canceled contracts, adding lights, cameras, advanced detection systems, steel and waterborne barriers, and patrol roads to curb illegal crossings. These contracts are the first funded...

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced today 10 new construction contracts totaling approximately $4.5 billion were awarded in September 2025, which will add hundreds of miles of Smart Wall along the southwest border. “For years, Washington talked about border security but failed to deliver. This President changed that,” said CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott. “The Smart Wall means more miles of barriers, more technology, and more capability for our agents on the ground. This is how you take control of the border.” The Smart Wall is a border security system that combines steel...

Illegal crossings along the US-Mexico border plummeted to a 55-year low in fiscal year 2025 – with the vast majority of unlawful attempts to enter the country taking place during the final months of the Biden administration. Federal authorities apprehended a total of 237,565 migrants along the southwest border during the period between Oct. 1, 2024 and Sept. 30, 2025, according to data released Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The figure is the lowest fiscal year total for apprehensions since 1970, when authorities caught 201,780 migrants attempting to cross the...

President Donald J. Trump made finishing the border wall a central campaign promise — and he continues to deliver. Using existing funding halted by the Biden Administration and new funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill, the Trump Administration is swiftly moving forward to build hundreds of miles of new border wall and make other technological and safety improvements that will make the southern border the most secure in modern history.From The Washington Times:“Just months into his new term, Mr. Trump already has 100 miles of border barrier in the works and Capitol Hill just approved an additional $46.5 billion...

DHS already has another 100 miles of wall in the works, and more is on the wayPresident Trump appears to have finally triumphed in the border wall battle, turning a major political battleground issue into a no-brainer winner for a majority of voters and Congress.Just months into his second term, Mr. Trump has 100 miles of border barrier in the works. Capitol Hill has approved an additional $46.5 billion to add hundreds more miles and finish his marquee promise from his 2016 campaign.The money was approved this summer with barely a whimper from lawmakers as part of Mr. Trump’s...

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has signed a waiver to ensure the expeditious construction of approximately five miles of new 30-foot-tall border wall in Starr and Hidalgo Counties in the U.S. Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector in Texas... ...Currently, CBP has approximately 100 miles of new border barrier in various stages of construction and planning, funded with appropriations from prior years. In addition, CBP was appropriated $46.5 Billion for border barrier system construction in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1)”, which was signed by President Trump on July 4, 2025.

The border wall separating the United States and Mexico is being painted black to make it too hot for migrants to climb. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem revealed the project was a specific request from Donald Trump as the president celebrated 'ZERO releases' of illegal migrants into the country. 'In the hot temperatures down here, when something is painted black it gets even warmer,' Noem said during a press conference in front of the wall on Tuesday. She noted the structure is already hard to climb and near impossible to dig under, but said Trump's latest measure will help...

The materials, which were put up for auction by former President Joe Biden, will reportedly soon be returned to Trump following a fierce legal battle... ...The material, valued between $260 million and $350 million, was auctioned on GovPlanet, an online government surplus marketplace, in 2023 after Biden halted Trump's border construction in January 2021... ..."GovPlanet has reached an agreement, working with the Office of the Border Czar, to return border wall materials that were previously deemed surplus and sourced by the federal government to GovPlanet via existing contracts," the company stated. "A third-party firm that has been contracted for construction...

Upon taking office in January 2021, former President Joe Biden wasted no time in opening the border to any and all comers. In one of his first moves as commander in chief, he ridiculed Donald Trump’s efforts to build a wall and simply abandoned millions of dollars of equipment and supplies that had been intended to fortify our southern boundary. Now Trump wants it back: The global government-surplus auction house that listed unused components of President Donald Trump’s border wall under the Biden administration told Fox News Digital on Friday that it plans to coordinate with the Trump administration to...

A federal judge has dismissed the Trump administration’s lawsuit against Illinois and Chicago over sanctuary policies that the government has said interfere with federal immigration enforcement. In a ruling released Friday, U.S. District Judge Lindsay Jenkins said the government lacked standing to override local laws that limit cooperation and information-sharing between law enforcement. Jenkins said the government doesn’t have the legal authority “to commandeer states under the guise of intergovernmental immunity.” The Justice Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.

A federal judge on Friday dismissed President Trump’s lawsuit against the state of Illinois and Governor Pritzker over sanctuary city laws. US District Judge Lindsay Jenkins, a Biden appointee, dismissed the lawsuit and said federal laws do not force states to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. “Defendants’ motions to dismiss are granted. The individual defendants are dismissed because the United States lacks standing to sue them with respect to the Sanctuary Policies; Cook County Board of Commissioners is dismissed because it is not a suable entity separate from Cook County,” the judge wrote. Politico reported:

It turns out that Mexicans are as happy about US citizens legally moving to Mexico as US citizens are about Mexicans illegally crossing the border to live in the United States. Sure, Americans are bringing their money--not asking the government to pick up the tab for their lifestyles--but the influx is apparently raising housing prices and diluting Mexican culture. If you are in the United States illegally and wish to join the next protest in Mexico City, use the CBP Home app to facilitate your departure. https://t.co/P2vKuhbp65— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) July 6, 2025Now that's a twist I bet you didn't...

COLUMBUS, N.M. (AP) — Orange no-entry signs posted by the U.S. military in English and Spanish dot the New Mexico desert, where a border wall cuts past onion fields and parched ranches with tufts of tall grass growing amidst wiry brush and yucca trees.The Army has posted thousands of the warnings in New Mexico and western Texas, declaring a “restricted area by authority of the commander.” It’s part of a major shift that has thrust the military into border enforcement with Mexico like never before.The move places long stretches of the border under the supervision of nearby military bases, empowering...

Four years after Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas would be the first state to build its own border wall, lawmakers have quietly stopped funding the project, leaving only scattered segments covering a small fraction of the border. That decision, made in the waning hours of this year’s legislative session, leaves the future of the state wall unclear. Just 8% of the 805 miles the state identified for construction is complete, which has cost taxpayers more than $3 billion to date. The Texas Tribune reported last year that the wall is full of gaps that migrants and smugglers can easily walk...

The Texas Legislature cancelled the state’s program to build its own border wall as the legislative session came to a close, having spent more than $3 billion to build only about 65 miles of scattered segments. In December 2021, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced the program at a press conference along the border, the first of its kind in the country, banging a mallet on one of the wall’s metal beams as he “declared the barrier to be impenetrable,” reported The Texas Tribune, but that bold declaration soon ran into challenges: “It’s heavy and it’s wide,” he said assuredly....

Cernovich @Cernovich Rand Paul’s shell game. He says he supports mass deportations, but don’t use the military! (Nov 2024.) Trump said OK. Let’s fully fund it using ICE. Now Rand says, it’s too much money! He will always come up with a fake reason to block deportations. Open borders Rand.

White House deputy speaker Stephen Miller lit into Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) on Sunday, hammering the Kentucky libertarian for what he called a “dishonest and disgraceful” stance on border security and funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Miller blasted Paul after the senator appeared on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo, where he attempted to justify his opposition to a border funding bill. ..... Snip...... “The United States has spent trillions subsidizing open borders and mass migration,” Miller posted on X. “But when we talk about providing ICE even a modest sum to repel the invasion, the Rand libertarians are...

The Washington Post has said that a massive drop in fentanyl seizures at the southern border is "mysterious" and that it is a "more complex" story than one would think after President Donald Trump has made it a point to crack down on border security as well as fentanyl trafficking into the US. The outlet suggested that the Trump administration's policies, such as threatening tariffs on China as well as Mexico to curb fentanyl, could have little to do with the drop in fentanyl, and claimed, "New data suggest a more complex story." This year, there has been a marked...

The Pentagon is sending 1,115 additional active-duty troops to deploy to the U.S.-Mexico border, bringing the number of service members there close to 10,000.The troops will mainly help with sustainment engineering, logistics, medical and construction, U.S. Northern Command said in a statement Thursday.The additional service members mark another increase in the military’s role in supporting President Trump’s aggressive immigration control agenda.There are already just shy of 8,000 active-duty troops at the border, with the added 1,115 bringing the total to nearly 10,000, a figure approved by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier this year.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says it has secured 60 convictions against migrants who set foot in the new National Defense Area in El Paso. The convictions came through guilty pleas entered in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. The 60-foot-wide NDA running from the Texas-New Mexico state line through El Paso County near Fort Hancock, Texas, is considered an extension of Fort Bliss. “Beginning in early May, additional criminal charges were filed against individuals who illegally entered or were found illegally in the United States and who had illegally entered the National Defense Area,” the U.S. Attorney’s...