Reinforced walls and detection technology: The ‘smart wall’ the US is building on the border
The Trump administration is moving forward with its plans to expand and diversify the barrier on the border with Mexico
The U.S. government is reinforcing the border wall with Mexico and now describes it as a “smart” one. Following the 2025 passage of Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which includes a $46.5 billion budget package for border infrastructure construction, the United States is expanding and erecting new 32-ft-high steel bollard walls (nearly 10 meters), transforming water barriers, building roads, improving lighting, and installing high-tech detection tools such as infrared cameras and motion sensors. In addition, the area will be constantly monitored by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The types of physical border barriers that currently exist include steel bollard walls between 16ft and 30 ft (5m and 9m), old pedestrian fences (made of metal mesh, stakes, or grating), and concrete retaining walls with steel bollards and temporary barriers (barbed wire, spiral barbed wire, metal mesh fences).
CBP has added an interactive map to its website where users can track the progress of the construction, as well as locate the existing wall and where work is underway — or will be underway. For example, the wall built in the 1990s runs from Ciudad Juárez to the Santa Elena Canyon to the east. Cameras and motion sensors will be installed along it.
From Santa Elena Canyon to the town of La Amistad in Coahuila, the area will be entirely dedicated to technology. Following a campaign by environmentalists and local communities, there will be no physical wall dividing the territory, as most of this area comprises National Parks, whose wildlife and ecological balance would be negatively impacted by a physical barrier.
On the west coast, however, the work focuses on “improving” what has already been built and constructing a second wall to reinforce security. In Baja California, this work has already claimed a sacred site for the Kumiai people, on Cuchumá Hill.
According to community reports, the United States used explosives as part of the construction work, which damaged a 35-meter-tall monolith. As of this publication, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), the agency responsible for protecting and investigating what has happened in Mexico, has not commented on the matter nor responded to this newspaper’s requests for comment.
Despite the U.S. government’s offensive, not everything along the border is under construction. The same map shows which areas are planned (representing the total mileage planned or funded for construction, but for which contracts have not yet been awarded), awarded (contracts have been granted and the project is in the design phase or has begun initial construction activities), under construction (representing projects where border wall panels or water barriers are currently being built or installed), and completed (representing the total mileage completed as of January 20, 2025). The site was last updated on February 11 of this year.
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