Kristi Noem: Big, Beautiful Bill Funds the Wall ‘to Truly Secure the Border’

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem this week explained that the “big, beautiful bill” has key elements that will advance President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda and, therefore, make the country more secure.

“Now we do have a bill that’s coming before Congress I hope everybody will support, that will be a necessary resource for CBP,” she said of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Not only does the bill contain funding to build a physical wall, it will also bolster technology to “truly secure the border.”

“It’ll have over $46 billion in it, not just to continue building infrastructure wall, but to give us the surveillance and technology that we need to truly secure the border, and every border — not just our southern but our northern, our maritime borders as well,” Noem explained.

The bill also provides funding so 5,000 new CBP officers can be hired, in addition to 3,000 more CBP border agents.

“It also gives us $2.7 billion to CBP so that we can have the surveillance technologies that we need, and another billion dollars for our vehicle fleet,” she said.

Further, the measure allows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hire “10,000 new officers, which we cooperate every single day to secure our country,” she said.

“And it will also allow us to double our detention capabilities that may be necessary as we do our work. It also will address salary and bonuses, which I think is incredibly important. When you make sure that we take care of our people that work for us,” she said, noting that they are caring for families.

“I don’t know of anybody that can do their job with excellence if their family is in crisis at home,” she added.

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Her remarks come as the Senate eyes President Donald Trump’s preferred July 4 deadline to push the budget reconciliation bill through the upper chamber. During an interview with Breitbart News Saturday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) asserted that the Senate is still on track for that quickly approaching deadline.

“We are,” Thune responded when asked if they were still on track to make this a reality.

“I believe it was achievable,” he said, reminding the audience that there is a more complicated process in the Senate with “laws and restrictions and, you know, procedures that we have to operate under that are different than the House.”

“So some of that takes a little bit longer, but as we head into this next week, I’m fully confident we’re going to be ready to roll, and we have to be,” he said. “We’ve got to deliver.”