The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, revealed Thursday that the southern border wall, or at least its first layer, is expected to be completed by mid-2027, as construction continues alongside the Trump administration's large-scale deportation effort.
Mullin said that finishing the initial phase of the wall would allow the department to shift greater attention to the northern border, where he said fentanyl continues to enter the country. He also blasted sanctuary states and cities for refusing to cooperate with immigration enforcement, arguing that their policies put American lives at risk.
NEW: DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin pledges to complete the border wall from the Pacific to the Gulf of America by mid-2027 as the administration ramps up construction.
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Mullin warned that securing the southern border is increasing pressure on the north, while "bad actors" and… pic.twitter.com/VlEpSFISpj
"When you start talking about the southern border, look, the president had made an initiative in his first term. He's made it a strong initiative to finish the wall in his second term. We're building miles of wall every single week," the DHS Secretary said. "We expect to have the first preliminary wall put up, and that's going to go from the Pacific to the Gulf of America by hopefully April or June of next year. Now, we still have a secondary wall we've got to build with that, but will be done before the president's out of office."
Secretary Mullin went on to say that securing the southern border would allow DHS and the Trump administration to shift greater focus to the northern border, where he said significant amounts of fentanyl also enter the country.
"So we're taking care of our border, but as we take care of the southern border, it pushes pressure for the drugs and the human smuggling pushing it to the north," he continued. "So we're seeing an increase on our northern border now that we've got to put more assets to."
He went on to slam the amount of drugs flooding the streets of major American cities and beyond, and condemned sanctuary states and cities for putting the lives of Americans at risk to score political points.
"And then just the huge threats we have every single day from chemical warfare that's trying to get into our homeland, to our port of entry and the amount of fentanyl flying into our streets. And then our sanctuary states and our sanctuary cities has put everybody at risk because the bad actors, not just illegal immigrants, but bad actors that are wanted terrorists are using sanctuary cities and sanctuary states for safe haven," he said. "And without the cooperation of the politicians in that area, it limits our ability to be able to move forward and puts us at contrast. Listen, ICE agents and HSI agents are simply wanting to do their job. And most law enforcement we work with, even though cities want to do their job, but they have a governor or mayor that's prohibiting from doing so."
This comes just a day after hundreds of federal agents swept through MacArthur Park in Los Angeles, an area long associated with drug activity, where dozens of arrests were made on drug-related charges. Authorities also reported seizing enough fentanyl to potentially kill nearly 200,000 people.