Trump's border wall prototypes in San Diego delayed until the winter

The Trump administration said the prototypes would be delayed until November in an email to members of Congress earlier in the day, and Border Protection confirmed publicly in a statement late Thursday, referring to complaints sent to the Government

By Phillip Molnar

San Diego Union-Tribune

July 27, 2017 5:10 PM PT

Border wall prototypes that were supposed to be built in June in San Diego have been likely delayed until winter because of complaints about the bidding process, Customs and Border Protection said Thursday.

Two companies that bid on mock-ups of the proposed border wall with Mexico, a keystone of President Donald Trump’s campaign, made formal protests after failing to make it to the second round. The Associated Press was the first to report the news.

“(Customs and Border Protection) expects GAO’s decision on these protests in early October 2017, which would delay construction to late October or early November, which is beyond our original summer 2017 timeline,” the agency said in a statement emailed to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The agency also said it was possible to continue reviewing contracts if the protests are resolved earlier.

All was not lost Thursday with the president’s border wall. The House approved an appropriations bill that included $1.6 billion to build 74 miles of border wall, including $251 million for 14 miles of fencing in San Diego — separate from the prototypes that received $20 million in funding earlier in the year.

The amendment from Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, was attached to a spending bill for the 2018 fiscal year for the military and veterans in the Rules Committee, meaning it did not need a vote in the full House. The government’s fiscal year begins in October.

The Senate still needs to come up with its own funding bill that will probably lead to a fight in September on the overall budget, including the $1.6 billion for the border wall. But, Thursday’s vote was significant in that it was the first time Congress had voted to spend taxpayer money on the project.

Trump said during his campaign that Mexico would pay for the wall but his administration appears to have abandoned that idea.

No contracts have been awarded yet for the prototypes, considered the first step in building the wall. The AP said the companies that protested were Fort Worth-based Parra Group and WNIS, a company not immediately found among lists of previous bidders. The Government Accountability Office has dismissed WNIS’ protest but is still reviewing Parra’s complaint.

Parra told The AP it proposed a wall built of solid concrete in some sections and see-through steel mesh in others.

Border Protection said in its bid that prototypes must be 30 feet tall, can’t be climbed and constructed to prevent digging below the wall for at least 6 feet. Roughly 460 companies replied to requests for proposals to build the wall prototypes, including 23 in San Diego County.

Even if the $1.6 billion for the wall is approved by the entire Congress, and prototype complaints are dismissed, the border wall still faces several hurdles.

Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Downey, introduced a motion late Thursday to strip border wall funding from Carter’s amendment.

“In spite of the president’s assurances, Mexico is not paying for this wall,” she said in a statement. “The American taxpayer is. My motion to recommit would prevent that from happening.”

The prototypes are the subject of two lawsuits that allege lack of information and environmental concerns from the Trump administration from watchdog groups American Oversight and the Center for Biological Diversity.

“Trump’s border wall fixation now has legs, thanks to House Republicans,” Brian Segee, an attorney with the center, said in a statement.

State Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, introduced a bill in the California legislature in April that would block any company that works on the border wall from getting a state contract. He said this week he plans to change the bill to after primary contractors on the proposed walll, not every single worker or small California business that steps on the job site.