Trump pets drone in first-ever tour of Border Patrol station

Various Homeland Security Department officials escorted Trump around the station’s hangar facility and explained how Predator’s unmanned aerial systems and other tools are used to thwart illegal immigration.

Trump was shown a table decked out with objects — a tray, empty fire extinguisher, metal canister, and car parts — that the Border Patrol had found drugs hidden inside in previous busts.

Trump viewed a Border Patrol helicopter and boat, then went on to shake the hands of agents. He made some of the agents laugh with a few quips.

The president was joined by former Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, who is now his current White House chief of staff; White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller; Homeland Security chief of staff Kirstjen Nielsen; Andrew Bremberg, director of Trump’s Domestic Policy Council; Tom Bossert, assistant to the president for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism; Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Tom Homan; and Customs and Border Protection Acting Commissioner Kevin McAleenan.

The trip marks the first time Trump will return to the southern border town as president. He visited the Laredo, Texas border line in July 2015, weeks after announcing his campaign for president.

The trip out west, just hours before he rallies supporters in Phoenix, is meant to reiterate the administration’s stalwart approach to immigration and deter Central American migrants from making the trek north when they will be turned away by immigration agents.

ICE leader Homan said the new administration’s push for enhanced deterrence methods will decrease apprehensions of illegal migrants.

“Look, I think the President’s message is, we need a strong border and we need strong interior enforcement. What he’s done so far has worked, so we need the funding to make it permanent. We need funding to build a wall,” Homan told reporters at the tour. “Look, I’ve been doing this 33 years; I started in the Border Patrol. The border wall is successful. Wherever that border wall has been built, the numbers have declined. Less drugs, less bad people, less illegal aliens coming in. I mean bad people, I mean anybody who wants to come into this country and do harm.”

Among Trump’s first executive actions in January, he signed two items that instructed all immigration policies to be fully carried out and mandated a southern border wall.

While he led DHS, Kelly oversaw the enforcing of policies that the Obama administration had allowed cities and localities to ignore, including the allowance of local law enforcement not to cooperate with ICE detainer requests.

Trump will also speak with Homeland Security officials about advancing Kate’s Law, No Sanctuary for Criminals Act, border wall funding, and money for 15,000 additional Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents.