Piecing together plans for a big wall along Mexico border
From his first speech as a candidate to some of his first actions as president, Donald Trump has promised to build a “big, beautiful” wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
But beyond Trump’s assurances that a nearly 2,000-mile wall would stem the flow of undocumented immigrants, criminals and drugs, there have been few details. That began to change in February when U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency tasked with securing the border, outlined the first steps: choosing and testing designs to see what will work best.
That process has, however, been bumpy. The latest hitch came this week in the form of a last-minute deadline extension because of confusion over the agency’s request for proposals.
Here’s what we know so far about plans for the border wall.
What will the wall look like?
Trump has said the border wall would be a physical, concrete structure spanning the 1,900-mile southwest U.S. border.
His Jan. 25 executive order instructing CBP to build it amplified that definition to a “contiguous, and impassable physical barrier.” And CBP’s February request for design proposals included these requirements:
» “Imposing in height,” which the agency defined as at least 18 feet but ideally about 30 feet tall, and extending 6 feet underground to discourage tunneling. of the border.
When does construction begin?
Trump said he would like to see construction start in September. CBP appears to be trying to stick to that time line, but it will be challenging given the delays.
The deadline to submit design ideas for the wall prototypes already has been extended three times. The latest due date was Tuesday.
Prototype testing is expected to take between three and four months, following a 30-day period for construction sometime in June/July.
Experts said that time line is surprisingly short.
Patrick Malyszek, chief operating officer for M3 Federal Contract Group, a consulting firm for government contractors, said moving that fast on a big project without clearly defined expectations can lead to confusion and disputes between the government and contractors, driving up costs and causing delays.
Who will pay for it?