DHS Chief: Don't Expect Border Wall 'From Sea to Shining Sea'

Company proposes storing nuclear waste along wall
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 6, 2017 12:33 AM CDT
DHS Chief: Wall 'From Sea to Sea' Is Unlikely
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly appears before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President Trump's vision of a "big, beautiful wall" along the entire length of America's border with Mexico probably won't become reality, Homeland Security chief John Kelly admitted during a Senate hearing Wednesday. Kelly told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that he couldn't give them an estimate of how much the wall would cost, and it was unlikely that a physical barrier would be built "from sea to shining sea," NBC News reports. "I don't know what it will be made of, I don't know how high it will be, I don't know if it's going to have solar panels on its side and what the one side is going to look like and how's it's going to be painted," Kelly said.

Kelly said he was committed, however, "to putting it where the men and women say we should put it." In response to a question from Sen. John McCain, Kelly said the "wall" Trump has been talking about could include electronic detection systems combined with patrols and fences in a system much like the existing one, the Los Angeles Times reports. Tuesday was the deadline for companies to propose border wall designs, the AP reports, and while the government won't identify bidders until contracts are awarded, those that publicly released proposals include Gleason Partners, which wants to include solar panels, and Clayton Industries, which proposes storing nuclear waste along the wall. (The White House has requested $1 billion for the first 62 miles of wall.)

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