By: Staff Writer
March 10, 2026
A top US official highlight security and the fight against the drug cartels at Shield of the Americas Summit Working Lunch with regional leaders this past Saturday in Doral Florida.
Kristi Noem, special envoy to the Shield of the Americas, told regional leaders this past Saturday that: “The Shield of the Americas is becoming a real vision. This is intended to be a group that works together to make sure that we’re each defending our own sovereignty, we’re each defending our own security and economic prosperity, but then also continuing to build on these relationships to ensure that we can do that in a way that’s effective, defeating the enemies that we have amongst us in the cartel organizations, which our country has designated As Foreign Terrorist Organizations, but then also by adding that security element. We have an opportunity then to have economic prosperity that blesses all of our people.”
The Shield of the Americas is a multinational military cooperation initiative announced by U.S. president Donald Trump during a summit with leaders from countries across the Western Hemisphere.
Noem also said: “This Shield of Americas will be a powerful example to the rest of the world about what’s possible. There’s nothing like this happening today anywhere else in the world, and the way that we cooperate on our shared ideals of freedom and of democracy and safety and security will be a shining light to all of those who wish to be more like all of us.”
Noem, who was recently appointed special envoy to this regional body, was just formerly the Secretary for Homeland Security. She left the DHS role to be appointed as a special envoy for “The Shield of the Americas,” bringing her tumultuous tenure atop DHS to an end.
US President Donald Trump’s Thursday announcement of her removal also comes as the country faces a partial government shutdown due to lawmakers’ refusal to fund the department until agencies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Border Patrol get overhauled.
Noem also said: “In the last year, as Secretary of Homeland Security, we have focused on securing our border. We have transformed our country from one that was being invaded by enemies, millions of them that were coming in, unvetted that we didn’t know who was there and who wished to harm us.
“We’ve secured that border. We’ve focused on removing public safety threats, and over 3 million people have been deported or removed from our country in the last year.
“Secure borders has changed everything for our country. It’s allowed us an opportunity to focus on business and investment relationships with other countries, and has ended the crisis that our country was going through in the years previous to President Trump’s leadership.”