Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will visit Del Rio, Texas, on Sunday to meet with Border Patrol staff and rank-and-file agents. The staff will provide Noem with an operational briefing.
Noem will be accompanied by newly appointed Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks. Both arrived in Del Rio on Saturday night and are slated to spend much of Sunday with the Del Rio Horse Patrol Unit on the Rio Grande.
Noem announced her arrival at the Texas border late Saturday night. The secretary said border crossings have dropped by 93 percent since President Donald Trump took office.
Daily encounters at our southern border have plunged 93% since President @realDonaldTrump took office.
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) February 2, 2025
I'm at the border tonight & tomorrow to help our team reverse the damage the Biden regime has done to our country. pic.twitter.com/OQRFRqEeRM
The tour will conclude with an aerial tour of the nearby Eagle Pass border crossing region later Sunday afternoon. Noem is slated to engage in a ride-along with the Del Rio Sector Horse Patrol whose members at one time were falsely accused of “whipping migrants” by President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
During a border crisis involving nearly 30,000 mostly Haitian migrants making landfall across the Rio Grande near Del Rio in September 2021, a photographer captured photos depicting the Border Patrol’s mounted agents attempting to stop migrants from moving back and forth across the Rio Grande.
The images captured on video and still photography by journalist Paul Ratje were widely circulated. They sparked the false claims by Biden administration officials despite further examination indicating the agents were using long reins to retain control of the horses and keep distance between the horses and the migrants. Ratje confirmed as much in a subsequent news interview: “I’ve never seen them whip anyone.” Ratje added, “He was swinging [the reins], but it can be misconstrued when you’re looking at the picture.”
Shortly after the incident, President Joe Biden condemned the actions during a press conference, saying, “It’s horrible what you see, what you saw, to see people treated like they did, horses really running them over, people being strapped. I promise you; those people will pay.”
Despite a lengthy investigation that ultimately confirmed the allegations as false, several members of the Del Rio Sector Horse Patrol were subjected to administrative discipline for lesser policy violations.
Secretary Noem’s visit to Del Rio and Eagle Pass is not her first. As Breitbart Texas reported, Noem, as governor of South Dakota, dispatched resources, including South Dakota Army National Guard soldiers, to assist Texas Governor Greg Abbott with his efforts to secure the Texas-Mexico border.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @RandyClarkBBTX.
