Trump Advances $46B Smart Wall with Steel Fencing and High-Tech Surveillance

The Trump administration advances a $46B smart wall on the US-Mexico border that combines 30-foot steel fencing with sensors, cameras, autonomous towers and underground fiberoptic detection.Customs and Border Protection is building roughly 6 miles weekly, has signed contracts for hundreds of miles and is adding patrol roads, vehicle barriers and river buoys while limiting physical fencing in some protected lands.Critics including the Southern Border Communities Coalition and Taxpayers for Common Sense say the project militarizes the border, infringes on privacy, risks environmental harm in Big Bend and lacks sufficient cost and oversight controls.