DHS Sec. Kristi Noem highlights border accomplishments, Arizona Democrats respond

PHOENIX — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem highlighted accomplishments she and the Trump administration have made at the border over the past year during a press conference in Nogales Wednesday.

Noem claimed that during 2025 President Donald Trump and his administration had delivered “the most secure border in American history.”

“And we did it with the immediate aftermath we were facing from that humanitarian crisis that was created from Joe Biden’s open border policies,” Noem said. “It is so quiet here now today, that sometimes we even forget how bad it was just a little over a year ago.”

According to Noem, the number of daily encounters by U.S. Customs and Border Protection have also fallen by 95%.

In addition, she said January marked the fourth consecutive month that Border Patrol apprehensions had declined at the southwest border with more than 6,000.

She added that it was the ninth month in a row that Border Patrol released zero undocumented migrants into the United States.

As far as drugs, Noem stated that flow of fentanyl through the border has been cut by 56% and that fentanyl deaths have fallen by 30% since Trump secured the border.

“Because of President Trump’s leadership and his bold action, this country keeps breaking historic records,” Noem said. “In fact, we have the lowest crime rate in this nation right now … since we’ve been tracking crimes, the lowest murder rate that we’ve ever recorded in this country.”

Arizona House Democrats critique Kristi Noem following border comments

Arizona U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva denounced Noem’s visit to Nogales as a publicity stunt. The congresswoman added that Noem is pushing for more militarization and treating border communities like war zones instead of places where families live and work.

“Ambos Nogales is, and always has been, a proud, vibrant community — not a prop for Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda that has sown chaos and cost American lives,” Grijalva said in a press release. “Secretary Noem is enabling violence, racial profiling and terrorizing our communities. She must stop the fearmongering, end the political theater and resign immediately — or be impeached.”

A call for Noem to be impeached or fired was a shared sentiment by other Arizona leaders, including Arizona U.S. Reps. Greg Stanton and Yassamin Ansari and Sen. Mark Kelly.

In addition, Stanton claimed that Noem prioritizes control and photo ops over Americans safety.

“At FEMA, she likely cost American lives by bottlenecking critical disaster aid to consolidate power,” Stanton said. “Now her attempts at securing the border sit stalled on her desk, as Axios reported today.”

Meanwhile, Ansari — the daughter of two immigrants who fled from Iran — emphasized that she will not sit back as the U.S. become the authoritarian regime that her parents fled from.

“Under Krisi Noem’s direction, ICE has murdered two U.S. citizens in broad daylight, and dozens have died behind closed doors in detention centers funded by your taxpayer dollars,” Ansari said.

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