EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited El Paso on Monday.

The trip included meeting with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials and a walk along the border wall near the spot where federal officials a few months ago discovered a cross-border tunnel believed to have been used by Mexican cartels to bring across drugs and “high value” migrants.

Noem’s visit followed that of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week to highlight El Paso’s importance in the Trump administration’s border security strategy even as migrant encounters have plummeted.

Noem’s trip came unannounced and wasn’t open to local news media. It came a little more than a month after DHS announced a series of international ads telling migrants not to come to America and warning they would be hunted down if they commit crimes. The president of Mexico called the ads “discriminatory” and vowed to change her country’s laws so they wouldn’t run in the future. Noem later countered saying the ads are working.

Noem was seen walking along the Rio Grande levee at Gate 28 of the border wall. That’s the spot where Border Patrol’s Confined Space Entry Team (CSET) – working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement – located a quarter-mile-long tunnel going under the river and originating in Mexico last Jan. 9.

Border Patrol agents, federal agents in several unmarked vehicles and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers accompanied Noem at the river levee. Across the border in Juarez, Mexico, dozens of Mexican National Guard troops patrolled their side of the border.

Noem was later spotted riding an ATV going west along the Rio Grande levee to West Bridge. That’s an area near the Paso del Norte port of entry where the Border Patrol in 2022 established a temporary processing center as the number of migrants overwhelmed the capacity of existing facilities in Northeast El Paso.

Noem met with CBP at their facility at PDN before her caravan departed.

After her visit, Noem took to X to highlight the drop in apprehensions. 

“Under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump, we have the most secure border in American history. In less than 100 days, daily border encounters are down 93% and migrant crossings are down 99.99% at the Darien Gap,” she tweeted. “The world is hearing our message: do not come to this country illegally. If you do, we will arrest you, deport you and you will not be allowed to return.”

The secretary previously visited the U.S.-Mexico border in February. She met with border agents and officers in Del Rio, Texas. It also comes weeks after she traveled to El Salvador, Colombia and Mexico, whom the administration considers key security partners.