Officials involved with President Donald Trump’s border wall construction are reportedly awaiting sign-off from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to begin building more than 190 miles of barriers at the US-Mexico border. An internal memo from Customs and Border Protection, obtained by Axios and the Washington Examiner, indicates that as of 27 January, approximately 102 miles of steel wall and 93 miles of water buoy barriers were awaiting approval from Noem.
The memo states that contracts were already awarded for construction, but they are pending approval from 'S1' – referring to Noem – who mandated that all contracts over $100,000 be personally approved by her. An unnamed official told the Washington Examiner that Noem 'has required all contracts over 100k be signed off by her; I don’t think she fully understands how many 100k contracts DHS has. It has slowed several things down.'
A senior DHS official confirmed to Axios that the contracts had not yet been signed, but DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin denied that Noem’s signature was holding up construction. McLaughlin said: 'Any claims that border wall construction are being held up by the Secretary are false, there are currently no border wall related contracts pending the Secretary.' She added that border wall contracts follow a different process under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, involving a dedicated office before reaching Noem.
Regardless of the approval process, Noem has faced scrutiny for the $100,000 contract policy. Last year, sources accused her of holding up funding to FEMA during catastrophic flooding in Texas, an allegation DHS denied. Trump’s border wall has been a signature policy since his first administration; around 30 miles have been completed since he took office again in January 2025.
