Noem Says Border Wall Will Be Painted Black

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday that the entire border wall along the southern border with Mexico is going to be painted black to make it hotter and deter illegal immigration—and she credited President Trump with the idea.

• Noem spoke during a visit to a portion of the wall in New Mexico, where she also picked up a roller brush to help out with the painting, the AP reports. She touted the height of the wall, as well as the depth, as ways to deter people seeking to go over or under it. And then Noem said Homeland Security was going to be trying black paint to make the metal hotter.

• "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. So we are going to be painting the entire southern border wall black to make sure that we encourage individuals to not come into our country illegally," Noem said.
• US Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks, who attended the event with Noem, said the paint would also help deter rust.

• During Trump's first term, building the wall was a central focus of his hard-line immigration policy. During the president's second term, his mass deportation agenda with arrests in the interior of the country has been the main focus, but Homeland Security will be getting about $46 billion to complete the wall as part of new funding passed by Congress this summer.
• Noem said they've been building about half a mile of barrier every day. "The border wall will look very different based on the topography and the geography of where it is built," she said. She noted that in addition to barriers like the one she visited Tuesday, the department is also working on "water-borne infrastructure." Long sections of the roughly 2,000-mile border between the US and Mexico sit along the Rio Grande in Texas