PALOMINAS, Arizona — Construction continues on a second border wall near Palominas, and Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, stopped by Thursday for a visit.
He's taking a tour, along with CBP officials, talking about the secondary wall and what this means for security along the southern border.
This all comes on the same day that new numbers come out from CBP for the fiscal year.
There's a 95 percent drop in apprehensions at the southern border compared to the Biden Administration.
I asked the secretary about those numbers.
"95 percent down from those being apprehended on the border, right?” said Markwayne Mullin. “This sector alone, we had over 500,000 known gotaways. That means that we saw them with our eyes. The only time you can count them is when you see them. That doesn't include the ones that were arrested and then turned loose. That number could easily double or triple the amount of people that come across in just this sector alone."
KGUN 9 got an exclusive view of Secretary Mullin's tour of the construction site in the Coronado National Memorial, south of Sierra Vista.
I asked him about why the Trump Administration feels they need a secondary wall.
"Since President Trump's been in office, we've arrested 2,268 terrorists,” Mullin said. “They might have crossed right here, we don't know, but terrorists inside this country. That's not people that may have been terrorists or on a terrorist watch list, that were terrorists already on a list that we were looking for. That's why it's so important that we have a secure border. You can't have a secure nation if you don't have a secure border."
Secretary Mullin toured the border wall on ATVs with CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott.
But as the construction continues, so do protests.
There has been a weeks-long effort to stall border wall construction to the west of where the secretary toured over environmental concerns.
Pat: "What do you say to them about environmental damage going on that they don't like."
Markwayne: "I don't like an illegal alien killing an innocent American either. Every single death by an illegal alien is one that is preventable. I get that there could be a cactus that gets disturbed or a bug that gets disturbed, we're not ruining the environment. But we do have to have border security, we have to have national security. I love the outdoors. I'm an avid hunter. I think it's beautiful. I love clean streams and I love open land. But I also understand the importance security. So, we're going to be good stewards of the environment, but at the same time, my number one goal is to secure this great country we have."
The ongoing construction is part of the $64.5 billion dollars designated for wall construction in the Big Beautiful Bill.
Secretary Mullin says he learned a few things by visiting the construction site in Cochise County.
"That's why it's important to be in the field. We have great ideas,” Mullin said. “I always say engineers have great ideas but the people that's doing the work has to figure out how to make it work. These guys that are doing the work, they said it could be done better and I believe them."
Secretary Mullin says he also wanted to take time during his visit to Southeast Arizona to thank the hardworking men and women of Border Patrol.