“The president’s hope is that by the end of the term, we build the entire border wall,” Vance said during a press conference just steps from the international boundary between Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras, Coahuila, in Mexico.

Live on the border with Vance who is taking a lap celebrating Trump’s victory shutting down the border pic.twitter.com/4mqqW73Lub

— Anna Giaritelli (@Anna_Giaritelli) March 5, 2025

The trip was his first to the southern border since becoming vice president and signified a broader role in public policy matters that Trump has entrusted him with since taking office in January.

Vance’s wall comment followed a helicopter trip along the border wall, which he marveled over during a flyover before the press event.

“We took the helicopter ride over here, and we saw a big chunk of border wall. And I said, ‘Is that the federal government’s border wall?’ And they said, ‘Well, it was ordered during the first Trump administration that Joe Biden wouldn’t let us actually build it,’” Vance recounted.

The border wall was a central component of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign but less so during his run in 2024.

Vance flew from Washington to Del Rio, Texas, Wednesday morning, then took a helicopter roughly 60 miles southeast to Eagle Pass, which allowed him to see the remoteness of the borderlands in this region.

NOW: @VP @JDVance arrives on the border in Eagle Pass pic.twitter.com/XJsy7pVred

— Anna Giaritelli (@Anna_Giaritelli) March 5, 2025

The vice president sat down at a private roundtable in Eagle Pass with Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX), Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-TX), Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks, National Border Patrol Council President Paul Perez, and Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas.

In a secure outdoor setting, Vance spoke in front of two armored military vehicles with his back to the Mexico border, just a few dozen feet behind him. Secret Service agents stood atop cargo ship containers that surrounded an enclosed area in a large field neighboring the Rio Grande. Six mounted Border Patrol agents stood at the entrance and watched over the event.

Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), who represents an 800-mile stretch of the southern border and both border towns, joined Vance on the trip. Gonzales told the Washington Examiner that he was “grateful” Vance chose to visit this particular stretch of international boundary.

Arrests of immigrants who illegally crossed the southern border fell in February to the lowest level recorded by the Border Patrol since 1967. The drop in illegal immigration came just weeks after Trump entered office and took more than a dozen executive actions that stowed up border security and targeted illegal immigrants for deportation. The actions halted immigrants and handed Republicans a big victory early on in Trump’s term.

During his speech Tuesday evening, Trump touted a 95% reduction in illegal immigrant arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border compared to high points during the Biden administration and vowed to go after all criminals in the United States illegally who have targeted Americans.

Speaking at a conservative think tank summit in Austin, Texas, last month, Abbott revealed that illegal border crossings in Eagle Pass had plummeted in the month since Trump was sworn into office — from thousands of people per day to very few.

Vance, a former Ohio senator, has increasingly taken on more matters and expanded his portfolio in recent weeks, including with Wednesday’s trip to the southern border.

Vance sat next to Trump during last week’s showdown in the White House with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and went after the foreign leader for how, he said, Ukraine took America’s billions of dollars in aid for granted.

GREG ABBOTT: ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CROSSINGS IN EAGLE PASS NEARLY CEASE UNDER TRUMP

In February, Vance waded into religious matters and called out the Catholic Church and alleged bishops for being more “worried about their bottom line” after losing $100 million in federal grant funding, which Catholic charities received to help illegal immigrants at the border.

Trump also recently entrusted Vance to travel to the Munich Security Conference in Germany as the face of his administration, where Vance scolded European allies for not doing more to protect free speech.