Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revealed on Tuesday that the “entire” border wall will be painted black at the behest of President Donald Trump to deter illegal immigrants from climbing the barrier along the southern border.
Noem said “technology, cameras, sensors” will be added to the border wall in addition to the new paint job.
“Today, we are also going to be painting it black. That is specifically at the request of the president, who understands that in the hot temperatures down here, when something is painted black, it gets even warmer, and it will make it even harder for people to climb,” the secretary said at a press conference in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, where she was joined by Customs and Border Protection officials.
The border wall is not only tall but deeply entrenched in the ground, factors that the Department of Homeland Security chief noted make it difficult for illegal immigrants to bypass the structure.
The announcement came one month after Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which allocated $46.5 billion out of the total $165 billion that the DHS received for the construction of the border wall.
“We had an incredible amount of resources allocated to us in the big beautiful bill, because that’s going to allow us to continue construction,” Noem said.
“Construction right now is at the pace of a little bit less than a half a mile a day,” she added, “and the border wall will look very different based on the topography and the geography of where it is built.”
It remains unclear how long it would take to paint the whole border wall black and how much it would cost.
TEXAS STOPS FUNDING US-MEXICO BORDER WALL AFTER FINISHING JUST A FRACTION OF STATE WALL
The first Trump administration built a 452-mile stretch of the border wall. After Trump left office in 2021, then-President Joe Biden halted construction before later taking up the project. However, after losing a lawsuit last year, the Biden administration voluntarily filled in certain portions of the wall, becoming legally obligated to continue construction with previously appropriated funds.
During his first term, Trump considered painting the border wall black to make it harder for illegal immigrants to climb during the summer. At the time, CBP officials tested the black coating on certain sections of the wall using coal tar epoxy. Trump is now reviving the strategy.
