WATCH: Noem to America: 'A country that doesn't enforce its laws is a lawless country' — Arizona Border update

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, Ariz. (KGUN) — Standing in front of a stretch of newly built barrier in southern Arizona, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday framed the administration’s border policy as a turnaround from what she described as “complete chaos” under the prior administration and announced an accelerated rollout of wall construction and supporting technology.

VIDEO: Watch the full press conference below:

“We have one year of a secure border and a secure United States of America,” Noem told a crowd of Border Patrol, Customs and Border Protection, ICE and other federal and local officials. “A country with no border is no country at all. A country that doesn't enforce its laws is a lawless country.” She praised President Trump’s direction and repeatedly underscored enforcement as the remedy, saying, “The way that you fix it is you just enforce the law.”

Noem used the on‑site backdrop — the darkened, steel panels several officials referred to as a “big beautiful wall” — to contrast current conditions with scenes she described from the previous administration, recounting past incidents of cartel violence, human smuggling and overwhelmed border towns. “It is so quiet here now today that sometimes we even forget how bad it was just a little over a year ago,” she said, urging continued investment in personnel, infrastructure and technology to keep the gains.

Senior officials who preceded her at the podium echoed the message that the border is more secure and credited interagency cooperation. U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks said the agencies are operating with “a whole‑of‑government approach” and celebrated sharp declines in encounters: “They just came out with the numbers today, a little over 200,000 last year, down from over 2 million the year before,” he said, adding, “We didn't need a single new law. What we needed was the administration that said, ‘Border Patrol, go do what you know how to do.’”

Todd Lyons, senior official performing the duties of ICE director, and CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott highlighted expanded operations and intelligence sharing that they say are allowing agents to shift focus from large‑scale migrant processing to targeting smuggling networks and criminal actors. Scott said the wall and other investments “make every single agent more effective” and stressed that new infrastructure is being paired with technology and personnel increases.

Details about the announced update were framed broadly at the press conference: officials said construction will continue at pace and will be paired with new sensors, vehicles and staffing to improve detection and response. Scott and other speakers repeatedly stressed that the effort is intended to be multi‑agency and long‑term, and that the current administration will continue to fund and expand the work.

Noem also highlighted enforcement outcomes cited by the administration, attributing reductions in drug flows and migrant encounters to stricter border control. “Because we have a president in the White House that puts the American people first … President Trump believed that we still have a country, and he believed that it was a country worth fighting for,” she said, framing the construction and law enforcement activity as part of a broader return to “law and order.”

At the conclusion of the event, National Border Patrol Council President Paul Perez led a short recognition ceremony honoring border patrol agents Jack Gamblin, Brandon Fleming and Bryce Gundry. Perez — who opened the program earlier praising the agencies’ morale and the wall’s impact — presented awards and commendations to the agents for their service over the past year. Perez told those honored, “It’s because of the men and women that come in every day and are allowed to do the job that they were hired to do,” thanking them for their work and saying the new resources have renewed recruitment and morale.

The outdoor event drew a roster of federal, state and local law enforcement officials and military partners. Officials said construction and technology deployments will continue in the coming months; they urged the public and media to visit the border to see the work firsthand.