Kristi Noem touts drug seizures, border security in San Diego amid bitter immigration funding fight

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited San Diego Thursday for a press conference in a federal building in Otay Mesa where she spoke about the administration’s efforts to seal the southern border from unlawful migration and stem the flow of narcotics. 

Noem’s 20-minute afternoon appearance occurred weeks after she came under harsh criticism for her defense of federal agents’ killing of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, which led to widespread condemnation and protests in Minnesota and beyond.

Hours before Noem’s remarks, Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s border czar, said he’d proposed and the president had agreed that the federal immigration crackdown in Minneapolis will “conclude.” 

Noem’s visit and Homan’s announcement precede a Saturday deadline for Congress to pass a Homeland Security funding package and avoid a partial government shutdown. Democrats want major reforms for immigration enforcement agencies. President Donanld Trump is taking the lead for Republicans.

Noem’s remarks, made against a backdrop of numerous “lethal doses of fentanyl,” focused on drug interdictions at ports of entry including those locally in San Ysidro, Otay Mesa and Tecate. As she spoke in Otay Mesa, around 100 protesters gathered outside.

“This is a dangerous situation that we’re in,” Noem said. “The Democrat party has chosen to shut down the department that was created after 9/11. This department was created recognizing that we are vulnerable to terrorist attacks and that the American homeland needs to be funded and focused on keeping us safe within our own borders.”

The news conference was streamed live on the DHS website. Two inewsource journalists tried to attend in person but could not gain access. One of the inewsource journalists had unsuccessfully attempted to contact DHS and CBP to register for the news conference in the morning, hours before it began.

Noem spoke more about drugs than internal immigration enforcement, which now appears to be led by Homan. Gregory Bovino, the longtime El Centro Sector Border Patrol chief, had been the face of Trump’s immigration agenda, but Bovino quietly returned to Imperial County in recent days as outrage mounted nationwide in the wake of the deaths of protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last month.

Now the focus has shifted to Congress.

Unlawful migrant crossings across the southern border, including in San Diego, are near record lows. Upon beginning a second term last year, President Trump launched a sweeping crackdown on unlawful crossings, deploying the U.S. military to the region, establishing “military zones” along the border, and adding concertina wire to the border fence and painting parts of it black.

Drug seizures by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, whose agents staff ports of entry and also include the Border Patrol, were about the same in December as they were last year, according to the most recent available data. CBP reported seizing 39,200 pounds of drugs in December 2025, down from 41,400 pounds the prior December. Typically such seizures involve marijuana, methamphetamines and cocaine. Fentanyl has also been a focus in recent years.

Outside the building where Noem spoke, protestors held signs, chanted and sang through bullhorns and blew whistles. One woman, Carolina Moran, came with her dog and 4-year-old daughter. 

“Nobody wants what’s happening,” Moran said in reference to recent immigration enforcement. “We are a nation of immigrants.”

James L. Smith II, a former U.S. Marine and current director of Black Deported Veterans of American, said he came to Otay Mesa to support immigrants who fought for the U.S. in the military but who were later targeted by the administration for deportation. 

“This whole immigration thing is not just about our Latino brothers and sisters,” Smith said. “It’s about everyone. This is not a brown thing. This is an American thing.”

A short drive from the press conference, the Otay Mesa Detention Center currently holds about 1,500 people, according to average daily detention data from the Department of Homeland Security. About 80% of those being detained had no criminal convictions. 

San Diego Rep. Juan Vargas was denied entry to the detention center last Friday when he attempted an unannounced inspection of the facility, which is in his congressional district. He said he wanted to visit after detainees threw notes over a fence detailing poor conditions inside. 

Vargas was denied entry despite a ruling just four days earlier by a federal judge who blocked a DHS policy requiring seven-day advance notice for such congressional visits. 

Congressional Democrats in California have ramped up calls for Noem’s resignation in recent weeks after increasing criticism about the Trump administration’s handling of immigration enforcement. According to a recent NPR/PBS News/Marist poll, about two-thirds of Americans say Immigration and Customs Enforcement has “gone too far.” 

Despite the administration’s early claims to focus its immigration crackdown on immigrant “murderers, pedophiles, and rapists,” data from ICE show that most of the immigrants arrested in San Diego and Imperial counties have had no criminal charges or convictions.

Update, 4:4o p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12: This story was updated with comments from protesters.