Vance, Hegseth and Gabbard visit southern border in Texas

Washington—Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard are at the southern border Wednesday to highlight the Trump administration’s efforts to combat illegal crossings and drug trafficking, the day following President Trump’s joint address to Congress in which immigration played a prominent role.

The top administration officials are in the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, roughly 100 miles west of San Antonio. Vance and Hegseth represent the highest-ranking administration officials to visit the southern border since Mr. Trump’s inauguration. They arrived one day after the Trump administration imposed 25% tariffs on nearly all imported goods from Mexico, citing Mexico’s handling of the situation at the border, a move that sent stocks tumbling.

“We need Mexico and Canada to do much more than they’ve done, and they have to stop the fentanyl and drugs pouring into the USA,” the president said Tuesday night. “They’re going to stop it. I have sent Congress a detailed funding request laying out exactly how we will eliminate these threats to protect our homeland and complete the largest deportation operation in American history.”

Illegal border crossings at the U.S. southern border have plummeted since Mr. Trump took office. In February, his first full month in office, the White House says illegal border crossings reached the lowest level in at least 25 years. And the administration says more than 50,000 people in the country illegally have been removed from the U.S., a figure that includes migrants with violent criminal histories.

Two U.S. officials say there are no Department of Defense flights scheduled to take migrants in the U.S. illegally to Guantanamo or to other foreign countries, after the Pentagon began supplying costly deportation flights. One of the officials said the Department of Homeland Security is currently going with other options, but the Pentagon is standing by in case they are asked to provide more flights.

The 28,000-person town of Eagle Pass, where Vance and top officials are heading, is in Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales’ district. His district spans the majority of the length of Texas’ portion of the border with Mexico.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Gonzales are present for the visit, and officials held a roundtable to discuss the situation at hand.

“We need new laws to secure the border,” Vance said during the roundtable. “We needed a new president. And thank God we have that.”