Construction of the “smart wall” across the U.S. border with Mexico is now well underway. The smart wall is made up of components ranging from actual physical walls and barriers to technology meant primarily for monitoring, such as drones, surveillance towers, and seismic sensors.
The smart wall is designed not to completely stop illegal aliens from crossing the southern border, but rather to detect and track those who do get in so they can be apprehended by law enforcement.
Terrell County Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland says that shift in strategy is critical. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s California, Arizona, New Mexico, or even Texas—a barrier isn’t an end-all,” he explained. “People can still cross over, under, and through it. We see images of that daily.”
According to reporting from Newsmax, the entire project is projected to cost around $45 million and is already effectively underway. Cleveland warned that it needs to move quickly, because if it’s not finished within the next two years or so, the whole thing could be shut down.
So what does the actual timeline for completion look like? According to Cleveland, “The administration has high hopes that it’s going to be finished, at least out in the Big Bend area, by the end of 2027. I foresee it taking a lot longer because of the terrain in a lot of the areas where they’re looking to put an actual physical barrier.”