‘Have to have seethrough’:
The president articulates a key feature that he’d like to see in a border wall.
TIJUANA, Mexico – Although President Donald Trump did not pick a favorite design among the eight border wall prototypes he visited on Tuesday, he did point out a feature he’d like: that the wall be see-through.
“I do have a preference,” Trump said during his tour of the prototypes, in the desert east of San Diego. “The problem is: you have to have see-through. You have to know what is on the other side of the wall.”
Trump also said Tuesday that he wanted the wall designed to keep people from scaling over, likening border crossers to “professional mountain climbers.”
On the campaign trail, Trump had talked about building a “big, beautiful wall” of solid, reinforced concrete.
But after his election, his preferences changed as his administration, including then-Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, who later became Trump’s chief of staff, met with border agents who drove home the importance of being able to see through border barriers to the other side.
Last March, and under Trump’s direction, U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued formal requests for proposals to build the eight prototypes.
One called for walls made of “reinforced solid concrete.” The other called for designs made from “other” construction materials.
The specification for the “other” designs required that the first 12 feet incorporate a way to see through the wall.
That, the request for proposal said, was to help “situational awareness.”
There was no such requirement for the concrete designs.
Three of the eight 30-foot long prototypes that Trump visited on Tuesday had a see-through feature.
Trump said such a feature was important for the agents that patrol the border.
“You can be two feet away from a criminal cartel and you don’t even know that they are there,” Trump said.
Both the concrete and “other” designs had to meet certain requirements to be considered.
Those were outlined in the 132-page Requests for Proposals. which was modified several times creating confusion among bidders.
Outside of the see-through requirement for the “other” walls, the proposals were nearly identical.
Those requirements included:
A “physically imposing” height of no less than 18 feet but preferably 30 feet tall. All eight of the prototypes built in San Diego were 30 feet tall.
Anti-climbing mechanisms, either by ladder or other tools like hooks that humans may be able to get across.
Prevent tunneling 6 feet below ground.
For breaches to the wall (using building or cutting tools, or torches) to take at least one hour in concrete designs, and 30 minutes in the “other” designs.