Our southern border with Mexico continues to be a mass of confusion - 'border wall' is a perfect example.

 

DHS officials point fingers over delays in border wall construction

By Anna Giaritelli February 3, 2026 washingtonexaminer.com

Border wall construction during President Donald Trump’s second term is far ahead of where it was at the same point in his first term, but Department of Homeland Security officials say it should be moving much faster this time around.

Officials involved in planning and implementing the border wall system along the 1,950-mile U.S.-Mexico border can agree that more progress should have been made by now, but they cannot agree on who is to blame.

A government document that outlines border wall progress as of Jan. 27, obtained by the Washington Examiner on Monday evening, states that more than 100 miles of wall and 93 miles of waterborne barriers in Laredo, Del Rio, and Big Bend, Texas, have stalled because the final approval is waiting on DHS Secretary Kristi Noem — a claim that the DHS denied.

The Customs and Border Protection memo states that the Big Bend, Laredo, and Del Rio regions of Texas will receive 102 miles of steel bollard wall, more than 90 miles of waterborne “buoy” barriers, and 2 miles of smaller replacement fencing.

The document states that the contract awards are ready to be made for those three sections of the wall but that they are still pending approval from Noem, who is referred to in the document as “S1.”

The two-page document also states that CBP is awaiting DHS approval before awarding contracts to procure bulk steel; a project in El Centro, California; and a project in El Paso, Texas.

In mid-2025, Noem said she would personally review all contracts across the department that are worth more than $100,000, which government employees feared would lead to a major slowdown in grant and contract approvals.

Four senior federal sources told the Washington Examiner that they believe Noem’s demand to review all contracts is the reason for the delay in wall construction.

“She has required all contracts over 100K be signed off by her. I don’t think she fully understands how many 100K contracts DHS has. It has slowed several things down,” the official wrote in an email.

However, the DHS has pointed the finger at CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott. In a story published by Politico in January, anonymous sources said that Scott, who was confirmed in his job in June, was holding up progress.

DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin wrote in an email on Tuesday afternoon that “there are no wall contracts currently sitting in front of Secretary Noem.” McLaughlin added that because the wall funding was passed through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, contracts did not fall under the $100,000 contract approval process that Noem implemented last year.

“Bottom line is the premise of your story is inaccurate because wall contracts don’t even follow the $100k process,” McLaughlin told the Washington Examiner, “nor are there any border wall-related contracts pending the Secretary’s review.”

Following publication, the DHS sent more information about three individual projects totaling 100 miles of new wall. The DHS maintained that “CBP [had] just sent over” paperwork related to the three border wall projects “today” and that the memos had requested Noem’s approval between Feb. 6 and 16. However, the CBP memo makes no mention of the deadlines and says that each project was awaiting Noem’s “approvals.” Other projects outlined in the memo had specified deadlines.

“Again, there are currently no border related contracts pending the Secretary’s review and just last year the Secretary review over 1,000 contracts related to border Security,” McLaughlin wrote in an email. “The Department has already awarded over $12 billion in contracts for hundreds of miles of border wall from OB3.”

A second senior federal source said that, regardless of the $100,000 approval process Noem implemented last year, the contracts have been sitting since December.

“The process doesn’t require all this s***,” the official said in a phone call. “This is Trump’s agenda. Why isn’t it getting through?”

As of Jan. 26, CBP had completed 29.5 miles of border wall during the second Trump administration, including 12 miles installed over the past 45 days.

In 2025, Republicans tucked $46.5 billion for border security projects into the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. That means that more than 1,400 miles of the entire southern border will have a physical barrier to deter people from crossing by the time the current and future projects are completed.

The remaining 535 miles are not viewed by planners as ideal for building a wall or are considered low-risk areas for illegal crossings. CBP is installing 550 miles of technology in parts of the border that have a physical barrier but lack ground sensors, cameras, and other tech.

Over the past four months, CBP has put $11.4 billion in funding toward 16 new wall projects across the southern border, the memo states.

TRUMP’S BORDER WALL SYSTEM GOES FAR BEYOND JUST A WALL. HERE’S WHAT TO KNOW

The Border Patrol is averaging 2 miles of wall installed per week as of mid-December 2025 and intends to increase this to 10 miles per week, according to Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks.

Banks explained during an interview in Brownsville, Texas, on Jan. 7 that the smart wall system comes with technology, lighting, infrastructure, ground-sensing radars, roads, and more.

 

The 5th Circuit Court of appeals rules in favor of 'mandatory detention'!

 

Trump immigration win in Fifth Circuit on mandatory detention

The decision is binding precedent in the Fifth Circuit.

Wendi Strauch Mahoney | February 10, 2026 www.americanthinker.com

An important decision rendered by the Fifth Circuit on Feb. 6, 2026 sided with the Trump administration on the issue of detention without bond for certain noncitizens arrested in the U.S. interior.  Reuters reports that this “marked the first time an appeals court upheld” the Trump administration’s policy of mandatory detention without the opportunity to be released on bond while removal proceedings are pending for noncitizens who entered the country unlawfully and are later arrested in the U.S. interior.

The decision comes after hundreds of lower-court rulings nationwide declared mandatory detention unlawful.  In its opinion, the Fifth Circuit noted that “well over a thousand” habeas petitions have been filed challenging this policy shift, and it cited a New York decision that cataloged 350 district-court rulings granting relief to detainees.

For the majority, with Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan joining, Judge Edith H. Jones wrote that the relevant statute, 8 USC §1225(b)(2)(A), requires mandatory detention of “applicants for admission” who are not “clearly and beyond a doubt entitled to be admitted,” and that the petitioners fell within that category even though they were arrested years after entering unlawfully.  The court concluded that being an “applicant for admission” necessarily means the person is also “seeking admission” for purposes of §1225(b)(2)(A), rejecting the argument that “seeking admission” applies only to people actively trying to enter at a port of entry.  The panel reversed both district courts’ orders and sent the cases back for further proceedings consistent with its opinion.

The consolidated appeals involved two Mexican nationals — Victor Buenrostro-Mendez (who entered in 2009) and Jose Padron Covarrubias (who entered in 2001) — who were detained in 2025 after immigration officers determined they were inadmissible because they were present in the United States without having been admitted or paroled.  Both sought bond hearings, and immigration judges found them ineligible under the government’s reading of the statute.  Two federal district judges disagreed and ordered bond hearings, after which both men were released.  The government appealed.

The Fifth Circuit decision aligns with a Sept. 5, 2025 Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) ruling in the Matter of Yajure Hurtado, which concluded that many noncitizens who entered without inspection and have not been admitted are subject to mandatory detention under §1225(b)(2) rather than discretionary detention under § 1226(a).  After DHS began applying that interpretation in 2025, the Fifth Circuit reported that the shift triggered a nationwide wave of habeas challenges.  The majority (in the Fifth Circuit) also said its reading fits Congress’s 1996 immigration overhaul (IIRIRA), which sought to eliminate what courts have called the “entry anomaly” — the idea that unlawful entrants could end up with more favorable treatment than people who tried to enter lawfully.

In Yajure Hurtado, the respondent (a Venezuelan national) crossed into the United States without inspection in November 2022 near El Paso, Texas; received Temporary Protected Status in 2024; and was charged as inadmissible after that status expired in April 2025.  The BIA held that immigration judges lack authority to conduct bond hearings or grant bond to noncitizens who are present in the United States without admission and are detained under §1225(b)(2)(A).

Judge Dana M. Douglas wrote the dissenting opinion, warning that the government’s interpretation “would mean that, for the purposes of immigration detention, the border is now everywhere.”  She added, “That is not the law Congress passed, and if it had, it would have spoken more clearly.”

Judge Jones, on the other hand, emphasized that “Section 1225(b)(2) does not include any exception that permits the government to release detained aliens on bond.”  In a footnote, citing Torres v Barr, she writes,

By covering both unadmitted aliens present in the United States and those who arrive at the country’s borders, Section 1225(a)(1) ensure[d] that all immigrants who have not been lawfully admitted, regardless of their presence in the country, are placed on equal footing in removal proceedings under the INA.

The Fifth Circuit’s published decision is binding precedent in the Fifth Circuit (Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi), but it is not binding in other circuits.  Parties may seek rehearing en banc, and other federal appeals courts may weigh in, which could increase the odds of Supreme Court review — especially if the circuits disagree.

 

Wow! The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issue a sound ruling!

 

Federal appeals court hands Trump big win, ends protections for migrants from three nations

By Misty Severi 2-9-26 justthenews.com

The San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the federal government would succeed on the grounds that Noem's decision "was not arbitrary or capricious."

A liberal-leaning federal appeals court in California on Monday night unexpectedly sided with the Trump administration by allowing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to end Temporary Protected Status for migrants from three countries.

The San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order freezing a lower court ruling that would have vacated Noem's decision to end protections for immigrants from Nepal, Honduras and Nicaragua, according to Fox News.

The court ruled that the federal government would succeed on the grounds that Noem's decision "was not arbitrary or capricious." 

Noem had argued the grounds for the temporary protected status no longer existed because they were tied to specific events that happened years ago, and the DHS has argued that the designations were designed to be temporary. 

"This is a crucial legal win from Justice Department attorneys that helps clear the way for President Trump’s continued deportations," Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X. "As the court found, ‘the government is likely to prevail in its argument’ that ending Temporary Protected Status for some immigrants is sound and lawful policy. We are proud to represent the Trump Administration in court every day."

Temporary Protected Status is given to people from countries that are unsafe because of a natural disaster, political instability or other dangerous conditions. The protections are granted for six, 12 or 18 months and allow the recipient to work in the United States and prevents them from being deported.

 

For over half a century, illegal immigration has been one of the most horrific crimes committed in our once great Republic. It is not ending soon!

 

Border crime busts in TX, OK: cartel tunnel trafficking, fake ID enterprise

By Bethany Blankley | The Center Square contributor

In Tulsa, an HSI-Dallas and HSI Tulsa-led investigation uncovered a nationwide counterfeit document scheme resulting in the sentencing of a Mexican couple who produced and sold thousands of fake IDs.

Several major arrests have led to convictions and sentencings for border crimes in Texas and Oklahoma.

In El Paso, Texas, a 20-year-old man was sentenced to 33 months in prison for smuggling illegal foreign nationals through a tunnel connecting Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, to El Paso. The case dates to 2024 when Homeland Security Investigations-El Paso and Border Patrol agents began investigating a cross-border tunnel smuggling operation. 

Intelligence revealed a sophisticated tunnel had been built under the Rio Grande River by members of La Nueva Empresa, an international drug cartel. The tunnel was equipped with electricity and ventilation and led to a box car with a trap door to move people inside and into the U.S.

Investigators uncovered that Oscar Ivan Carrillo and his co-conspirators used handheld tools to connect existing storm drains to the tunnel and guided illegal border crossers through them. Once they exited the storm drain they climbed up into a modified box truck through a trap door to avoid detection. Once inside, they were smuggled into Texas and throughout the U.S.

Carrillo was indicted last April and arrested last June. He pleaded guilty in November to conspiracy to use a border tunnel. His arrest led to other arrests of key members of LNE and the confiscation of tools and building materials used to construct the tunnel.

After the sentencing, HSI El Paso acting Special Agent in Charge Taekuk Cho said, “Criminals continue to innovate and exploit our border for profit, putting lives at risk and undermining our nation’s security. Through coordinated efforts and strategic partnerships, we are committed to identifying, investigating and dismantling these dangerous smuggling networks.”

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection El Paso Sector has a 100% prosecution rate and zero tolerance policy for border crimes under the Trump administration, The Center Square reported. The cases, including this one, were prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas. The office filed a record 11,542 border crime charges in 2025, The Center Square reported.

In Tulsa, an HSI-Dallas and HSI Tulsa-led investigation uncovered a nationwide counterfeit document scheme resulting in the sentencing of a Mexican couple who produced and sold thousands of fake IDs.

According to court documents, from August 2020 until February 2025 when they were arrested, they created and sold thousands of fraudulent immigration documents, including Social Security cards, lawful permanent resident cards, state driver’s licenses and foreign passports.

Karina Garcia-Salazar, 47, was sentenced to five years in prison and three years of supervised release for her role in the conspiracy. She was also ordered to forfeit $32,000 in cash and 45% of the proceeds from the sale of property used in the offenses. Her co-defendant, Jorge Augusto Prieto-Gamboa, 41, was sentenced in December to 15 months in prison and three years of supervised release for his role in the conspiracy.

The Social Security Administration, Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office, Tulsa Police Department and Oklahoma Highway Patrol were also involved in the investigation. The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma prosecuted the case.

The investigation found that the couple charged up to $150 per fake document and at least one document was sold to an individual who was later convicted of smuggling and trafficking narcotics into the U.S. A search warrant at their residence led to the discovery of 67 completed fake documents, more than 2,000 digital identification documents and $32,000 in cash, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Investigators also seized electronic devices, client ledgers and evidence of nationwide distribution, it said.

“Counterfeit IDs open the door to a range of criminal activity, from drug trafficking to identity theft. This sentencing sends a clear message: Those who manufacture and distribute fake documents will be found and prosecuted,” HSI Dallas Special Agent in Charge Travis Pickard said. “Our special agents and partners worked tirelessly to shut down this operation and protect communities nationwide.”

Their sentencings came as several hundred illegal foreign nationals are being prosecuted for operating 18-wheelers in violation of state and federal law, The Center Square reported. Those arrested were from 15 countries with criminal histories including convictions of assault and battery, soliciting prostitution, and DUI, authorities found.