Homeland Sec. Noem comes to New Mexico to paint border wall black because Trump thinks it will make it too hot to climb – New Mexico Political Report

The Trump administration’s has a new tool in its arsenal to deter undocumented immigration and you can get one on sale at Home Depot for $5.67.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Krisit Noem arrived in Santa Teresa, New Mexico yesterday armed with a paint roller and a can of black paint to paint President Donald Trump’s signature border wall black because the president believes that black paint will make the border wall too hot to climb.

According to a summary of her statements from the Associated Press:

“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.

Trump said he wanted to paint the wall black during a visit to a San Diego section in 2019 but he told reporters that the Army Corps of Engineers, which was responsible for the construction, found that unnecessary.

“[The Army Corps of Engineers] feels that we’re better off letting it be a natural rust, letting it be the way it is.  We’ll make a determination as to painting it later,” Trump said at the time. “This will be a good strong rust color.  And we’ll see.  We’ll make that — it’s not a big deal.  The black attracts more heat, even than this color.  But this is your natural steel and I think we’re going to see how it works out.  We can paint at it at a later date if we decide to do it.”

Noem’s visit to the New Mexico border included a flight on a private government jet to the location, a helicopter survey of the border with Mexico and the press event where she painted a small section of the wall.

Noem later traveled to Ruidoso, New Mexico to view disaster cleanup progress following recent flash flooding there.

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