The Department of Homeland Security wants companies to begin submitting designs for President Donald Trump’s border wall beginning March 6.
On Feb. 24, the DHS released its notice on FebBizOpps.gov:
The Dept. of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) intends on issuing a solicitation in electronic format on or about March 6, 2017 for the design and build of several prototype wall structures in the vicinity of the United States border with Mexico. The procurement will be conducted in two phases, the first requiring vendors to submit a concept paper of their prototype(s) by March 10, 2017, which will result in the evaluation and down select of offerors by March 20, 2017. The second phase will require the down select of phase 1 offerors to submit proposals in response to the full RFP by March 24, 2017, which will include price. Multiple awards are contemplated by mid-April for this effort. An option for additional miles may be included in each contract award.
President Trump promised to begin building the U.S.-Mexico border wall again on Friday during his CPAC speech.
“We have to, to turn things around. The era of empty talk is over. It’s over. Now is the time for action,” he said.
The administration is moving quickly. Trump transition officials also requested that the Obama’s deputies in the Department of Homeland Security ” assess all assets available for border wall and barrier construction,” and look into expanding detention capabilities for illegal aliens and aerial surveillance of the U.S.-Mexico border:
In response to the transition team request, U.S. Customs and Border Protection staffers identified more than 400 miles along the U.S.-Mexico border, and about the same distance along the U.S.-Canada border, where new fencing could be erected, according to a document seen by Reuters…
One program the transition team asked about, according to the email summary, was Operation Phalanx, an aerial surveillance program that authorizes 1,200 Army National Guard airmen to monitor the southern border for drug trafficking and illegal migration…
Adding 413 miles of fencing on the southwest border would be more expensive, according to the estimate of $11.37 billion, because it would be aimed at keeping pedestrians as well as vehicles from crossing.
The meeting between transition team and DHS officials took place Dec. 5, according to Reuters.
Every single illegal alien in the U.S. is subject to deportation, Trump said in a major policy speech given in Phoenix, Arizona, about two months before his election win. There will be “zero tolerance” for illegal immigration under a Trump administration, he said.
A study released by the non-partisan Center for Immigration Studies found that a border wall stopping as little as nine percent of illegal alien border crossers would easily pay for itself and save taxpayers billions of dollars.
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