Kristi Noem launches international ad campaign telling would-be migrants 'don't even think about' coming to the US illegally

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has launched an ad campaign urging those considering entering the US illegally "don’t even think about it."

"Let me deliver a message from President Trump to the world: If you are considering entering America illegally, don’t even think about it," Noem said. "Let me be clear. If you come to our country and you break our laws, we will hunt you down. Criminals are not welcome in the United States."

Noem said that "for too long, weak leadership has left our borders wide open, flooding our communities with drugs, human trafficking, and violent criminals. Well, those days are over."

She said that the department, under the Trump administration, is focused on "defending American families and restoring their safety."

"If you try to enter illegally, you will be caught, you will be removed, and you will never return. Follow the law and you’ll find opportunity. If you break it, you’ll find consequences."

The video is part of what Noem said is a "nationwide and international multimillion-dollar ad campaign" aimed at warning illegal immigrants "to leave our country NOW or face deportation with the inability to return to the US. This serves as a strong warning to criminal illegal aliens to not come to America. If they do, they will be hunted down and deported."

Nearly four years ago, former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told migrants seeking to come to the US, "We are not saying don’t come, we are saying don’t come now because we will be able to deliver safe and orderly process to them as quickly as possible." The Biden administration saw record-high numbers of illegal border crossers.

The second Trump administration has cracked down on illegal immigration, bringing it down to a fraction of what it was under the prior administration. The New York Post revealed that in February so far, around 359 migrants per day have been caught crossing the southern border, down over 90 percent from February 2024.