The U.S.-Mexican border in Arizona.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has pushed back its deadline for proposals for a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border and made public details of what it is looking for.
The proposals were due last Friday, but the department moved the deadline to this Friday, March 17, and added language that hint at the specifics it wants to build in.
First, perhaps as a nod to President Donald Trump’s desire for a "big, beautiful wall," the department has added aesthetic requirements. It also said the wall should be at least 30 feet high and made of concrete.
Ralph Hicks of R.E. Staite Engineering in San Diego said his company plans to place its bid and will include state-of-the-art detection equipment in the structure it proposes.
"It will be a smart wall where we integrate advanced electronics into the wall system itself," Hicks said.
Construction of the wall will begin around the Border Patrol’s Tucson and El Paso sectors sometime this year, federal officials have said.
About 700 miles of the 2,000-mile border are fenced, and Trump has said he wants the entire border walled off.
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