Border wall prototypes, a first small step on Trump campaign promise

A couple of miles from the bustling Otay Mesa border crossing in San Diego, eight towering chunks of concrete and steel stand as high as 30 feet tall against the sky, possible models for what Trump has promised will one day be a solid wall extending the full length of the southern border, from California to Texas. 

Whether any of the eight different prototypes, constructed over the last month, become part of an actual wall remains highly uncertain. The US Congress has so far shown little interest in appropriating the estimated $21.6 billion it would cost to build the wall.

Still, border patrol officials on Monday welcomed the momentum on Trump’s pledge, which generated a groundswell of voter support that helped elect him to office. “Our current infrastructure is well over two decades old,” Roy Villareal, deputy chief patrol agent of the US Border Patrol’s San Diego sector, said during a tour with media organisations on Monday morning. “Is there need for improvement? Absolutely.” 

Currently, 654 miles (1,052 km) of the 1,900-mile (3,058-km) border with Mexico is fenced, with single, double or triple fences. The second line of fencing in San Diego, about 18 feet (5.50 m) tall, has been breached nearly 2,000 times in the last three years, Villareal said. 

Even if Trump’s wall never gets funded, Villareal said, the border patrol might incorporate one or more of the new wall designs as it replaces worn sections of the existing fence.