The miles of steel slats along the southern border are getting a fresh coat of paint meant to disincentivize would-be crossers, drawing praise from Republicans and new criticism from Democrats.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced while in New Mexico this week that President Donald Trump had instructed her to paint the “entire” reddish brown wall black to make the beams hotter and more difficult for climbers to scale.
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“It’s tall, which makes it very, very difficult to climb, almost impossible. It also goes deep into the ground, which would make it very difficult, if not impossible, to dig under. And today we are also going to be painting it black,” Noem said in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, on Tuesday evening.
“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,” Noem said.
Today marks seven months of @POTUS Trump’s second term. When we got to work, America faced the worst border crisis in history. Today, that crisis isn’t just under control— it’s been obliterated.
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) August 20, 2025
This wall is part of the difference. Too high to climb. Too narrow to squeeze… pic.twitter.com/pPxfVWVSCU
The Trump administration’s plan to paint the beams was met with strong support from Republican lawmakers in Washington.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday that “this latest step will be one more deterrent that signals to the world that coming illegally through our southern border will not be possible.”
“After only seven months in office, President Trump has completely turned around the disastrous mess the Biden administration created at the border, with crossings now down to their lowest level in decades,” Scalise wrote in a statement. “America is once again a nation that enforces our laws.”
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), whose district encompasses 800 miles of the 1,950-mile U.S.-Mexico border, said he thanked Noem on Tuesday during her visit to what was one of the epicenters for illegal immigration during the Biden administration.
“I completely agree with President Trump’s approach to building more wall, which is one of the reasons why I voted yes on the one big beautiful bill, making it harder for criminals to scale the existing wall. Black is the new orange!” Gonzales wrote in a text message on Wednesday.
Not all lawmakers support Trump’s paint project, however. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said the money could be better spent elsewhere.
“This is unfortunately a cruel waste [of] taxpayer dollars that were stolen from healthcare programs in our communities,” Thompson said in a statement, referring to the billions in border dollars provided in the recently passed GOP tax law. “The American people deserve better.”
The idea of painting the slatted beams, which range from 18 to 30 feet tall, is not new. In May 2020, amid the pandemic, Trump reportedly told his advisers that painting them would make the steel hotter and that he preferred “matte black.” The project was said to cost around $500 million.
On Tuesday, U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks said during a press conference in New Mexico that painting it black would also prevent the steel beams from rusting in the open elements.
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Plans to repaint the steel slats come as the Trump administration works to build more of the border wall. In his first term, Trump surpassed 450 miles of new border wall, roughly the same amount funded but not completed by the day he left office in January 2021.