US authorities have posted a call for proposals on two different kinds of wall - one solid concrete, one see-through. It has to look aesthetically pleasing, but only on the American side.
Image: Getty Images/J. Moore
Advertisement
The US-Mexico wall should be 30 feet (9 meters) high, difficult to climb or cut through and look good from the north side, according to US government contract notices.
Two calls for tender were posted by Customs and Border Protection, the Homeland Security Department agency that will oversee the project and eventually patrol and maintain the wall.
The first notice asks for a solid concrete wall, while the other asks for proposals for a "see-through" structure.
Both require the wall to be "physically imposing in height," ideally 30 feet high - but potentially just 18 feet. Neither should be scalable, even using sophisticated climbing aids, and both should be sunk at least six feet into the ground to avoid tunneling.
They would have to withstand prolonged attacks with "sledgehammer, car jack, pick axe, chisel, battery operated impact tools, battery operated cutting tools, Oxy/acetylene torch or other similar hand-held tools."
The walls would include 25- and 50-foot automated gates for pedestrians and vehicles.
The wall is deeply reviled in Mexico, with lawmakers calling for sanctions on Mexican firms involvedImage: Getty Images/S.Olson
'Pleasing in color' - on the US side
Both should be "aesthetically pleasing in color" and texture consistent with the general environment, but only from the north side.
Successful applicants would be asked to build a 30-foot-wide sample wall in San Diego for final selection.
Trump's new budget proposal included a $2.6 billion down payment for the wall, but the total cost of the project was still unclear.
The Government Accountability Office estimated it would cost about US$6.5 million per mile (3.8 million euros per kilometer) for a pedestrian-proof fence and about $1.8 million a mile for a vehicle barrier. Congressional Republicans said the wall would cost between $12 billion and $15 billion, and Trump suggested $12 billion.
An unnamed government official involved in the project told The Associated Press that an internal report estimated the cost of building a wall along the entire border at about $21 billion.
One of the proposals calls for a see-through component that "facilitates situational awareness but does not detract from its functionImage: Getty Images/J. Moore
Senator Gabriela Cuevas of the opposition National Action Party was due to introduce a bill barring the government from doing business with any Mexican firm that participates in the wall's construction.
Mexican cement giant Cemex back-flipped on comments that it was ready to supply materials for the wall. Its stocks had risen to eight-year highs on speculation that the wall would require US$1 billion of concrete.
A company in the central Mexican state of Puebla called Ecovelocity pulled back after initially saying it wanted to install lighting for the wall.
Trump's insistence that Mexico pay for the wall, together with his attacks on Mexican immigrants as "criminals" and "rapists," caused a diplomatic row between the two neighbors with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto canceling a White House visit in January.
aw/rc (AP, Reuters, AFP)
Wild Horses and the Mexican Border
To secure that "big, beautiful wall" as President Trump called the border wall to Mexico, U.S. Border Patrol initiated the Wild Horse Inmate Program.
Image: Reuters/M. Blake
Wild Horse Inmate Program- What's it about?
Prisoners participating in the Wild Horse Inmate Program train mustangs that will eventually be adopted by the U.S. Border Patrol, providing the agency with inexpensive but agile horses. The inmates on their turn will be equipped with skills and insights they hope to one day carry with them from Florence State Prison.
Image: Reuters/M. Blake
Along the Mexican border
The horses are trained in Florence, Arizona and applied in border cities like Jacumba and also San Diego in California. They are critical for patrolling the rugged and remote stretches of the Mexican border to detect illegal crossings by migrants and drug trafficking. Just 654 miles (1053 kilometers) of fence exist between the United States and Mexico, accounting for about a third of the border.
Wild country
The rest is defined by mountains, rivers, private ranches and wild country - terrain more suited for horses, which all agents had back when Border Patrol was founded in 1924. Here, Border Patrol agents head out on patrol along the fence near Jacumba, California.
Image: Reuters/M. Blake
Why horses?
On horseback, the agents can navigate desolate stretches of land that vehicles cannot. The mustangs are sure-footed on steep terrain, crossing creekbeds without hesitation and stepping spryly over rattlesnakes. Some 55,000 mustangs roam the Western United States. Here, wild horses are herded into corrals in Milford, Utah.
Image: Reuters/J. Urquhart
Inexperienced prisoners and wild mustangs
At the prison in Florence, a cactus-dotted town about 140 miles north (225 km) of the Mexican border, most inmates don't have experience with horses. Over the course of four to six months, the men train their horses to tolerate bridles and saddles, respond to commands to trot and canter and perform footwork that will come in handy on the uneven desert terrain along the border.
Image: Reuters/M. Blake
Border Patrol at work in California
The task of the Florence inmates who train the horses is, at times, thick with irony: Some are Mexican nationals, apprehended on the border for drug-related offenses. The inmates, though, say they don't mind that the horses help law enforcement. They are simply happy the animals no longer face thirst and starvation in the drought-stricken West.
Image: Reuters/M. Blake
Patrolling at the beach in San Diego
The San Diego border patrol unit has 28 horses, of which many were adopted from the Florence prison. These adoptions are key to the government's effort to stem the growing population of mustangs. A federal law tasked the Bureau of Land Management with managing wild horse and burro populations, both to protect the animals and to ensure that vegetation was not overgrazed and water sources depleted.
Image: Reuters/M. Blake
Program a success
Florence began its horse training program in 2012, and while it is too early to assess the long-term effects on participating inmates, of the 50 or so who have gone through it and have been released, none has returned to prison.
Image: Reuters/M. Blake
Wild West romance
"It really feels like the Wild West out where we patrol for sure," says Bobby Stine, supervisory agent of the San Diego Sector Horse Patrol Unit. "There's just not a lot of law enforcement presence, except for us."
