Reinforced walls and detection technology: The ‘smart wall’ the US is building on the border | U.S.
Reinforced walls and detection technology: The ‘smart wall’ the US is building on the border | U.S.
Publish Date: 2026-04-26 00:00:00
Source Domain: english.elpais.com
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,…
