Donald Trump to paint entire US-Mexico border wall black for key reason

The entire wall on the Mexico-US border will be painted black to make it hotter and more difficult to climb, officials have said. The move was announced by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who credited US President Donald Trump with the initiative.

A crackdown on illegal migration and illegal crossings on the US southern border have been a primary source of focus for the Trump administration since returning to the White House in January. Earlier this summer, Trump allocated $46m (£34m) for additional wall construction, with approximately half a mile of wall being built every day according to Noem. She told reporters: "Donald Trump 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."

The building of a wall between the US and Mexico was one of the key messages of Trump's 2016 election campaign, with the then presidential hopeful claiming that he would force Mexico to pay for its construction as he vowed to clamp down on illegal crossings.

Since his return to office, crossings and detentions of undocumented immigrants have dropped sharply, with June seeing a 92% reduction when compared to the same month the previous year.

Official figures indicate that just 6,000 people crossed in June and less than 5,000 made the journey in July.

At points in Joe Biden's presidency, crossings peaked as high as 6,000 people each day.

Immigration officials have also surged their arrests of those within the country without the right to remain, with Immigration, Custom and Enforcement (ICE) officials increasing their detention of undocumented migrants across the country.

Earlier this month, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that as many as 300,000 undocumented immigrants had been detained in the interior of the US since January.

The Trump team said throughout the election period that it would primarily target undocumented migrants with criminal histories, a line it continues to stick to.

However, critics have argued that ICE agents are targeting those guilty of minor infractions or with no criminal convictions at all.

An attempted detention by ICE agents in LA in June saw protests break out across the city which saw hundreds of people arrested and led to Donald Trump deploying Marines and the National Guard to maintain the peace.