U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited with officials at San Diego Sector Border Patrol headquarters Thursday at the U.S. Mexico border.
At a news conference, Noem criticized Governor Newsom and state leaders for California's sanctuary policies that make it harder for ICE efforts to arrest criminal illegal immigrants.
She also touted the Trump administration's crackdown on drug trafficking. Standing in front of dozens of cardboard boxes and bags the agency said were filled with illicit drugs intercepted at the border, she was joined by Mike Banks, the chief of the Border Patrol and acting executive assistant commissioner Diane Sabatino.
The DHS secretary also toured a vault that held 188,000 pounds of meth, cocaine and fentanyl seized at the Port of Entry.
Banks praised the Trump administration for pulling border patrol officers away from "administrative duties" and returning hundreds of agents to Ports of Entry. Both Banks and Sabatino said funding from the administration's plan would go towards anti-trafficking technology and allow for the hiring of upwards of 5,000 more agents.
(Photo Getty Images)
Photo: Getty Images