President Trump attended the swearing-in Friday of new Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and promised to get funding from Congress for the border wall.
“We’re going to get the wall. If we don’t get the wall, we’ll have a lot of unhappy people, starting with me,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump acknowledged the importance of the swearing-in of the Cabinet official, an event wasn’t on the president’s public schedule. Vice President Mike Pence administered the oath.
“This is a very special occasion, because I ran on it,” Mr. Trump said, citing tougher immigration enforcement and the border wall. “This is one of the real big issues.”
The president lauded his administration’s border-enforcement efforts for resulting in a dramatic decrease in illegal border crossings; the government reported this week that crossings have declined by 45 percent this year.
“A lot of people aren’t trying to come in so much because they know it’s not easy,” Mr. Trump said.
He said under Ms. Neilsen, the administration will take border enforcement “to new levels.”
“In addition to the wall, we have to toughen up the borders even more. And we have to toughen up air travel, too,” the president said. “It’s not just walls, it’s lots of people fly in and they come in through other means.”
Ms. Nielsen takes over the DHS post from retired Gen. John F. Kelly, who left the helm of the department this summer to become Mr. Trump’s chief of staff.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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