Arizona company one step closer to designing President Donald Trump's border wall
The winning design to build President Donald Trump's signature wall along the U.S.-Mexico border could come from Arizona.
A Scottsdale company, Dark Pulse Technologies, has advanced to the second stage of the bidding process to design and test prototypes for the massive construction project, a signature campaign promise of Trump's.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has said it will not disclose the names of companies involved in the project until contracts are awarded. But Dark Pulse CEO Dennis O'Leary said the company — part of a group of companies that teamed up to submit the proposal — was notified last week that it would be moving forward in the process.
CBP issued a notice last week stating it had received "hundreds" of submissions and planned to narrow the field to no more than 20 for each of the two design categories: concrete and "other."
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The Dark Pulse bid falls into the former category, and they will have until May 30 to submit a full proposal, O'Leary noted.
Ballistic concrete, underground sensors
The original rendering for the company's design features a ballistic concrete wall with sensors embedded in the structure to notify Border Patrol of breaches. Below ground are buried fiber cables to prevent tunneling.
Underground sensors could also be deployed in rough terrain, where a wall is less practical, according to the bid.
"It's not necessarily going to be this concrete barrier from one end of the United States to the other," O'Leary said. "It kind of makes sense, this layered solution. And in fact we're king of banking on that because our portion of the project is directly linked to technology."
O'Leary said he is prohibited from disclosing other members of the bidding group, but noted it involves companies with different specialties, such as in construction of physical barriers, and, in his case, technology.
"I'm very optimistic. We have a very strong team," he said. "We have a long history of doing these types of projects. I think in terms of costs we can be extremely competitive."
The Arizona Republic surveyed all the Arizona-based companies that expressed interest in the project. Of the six that confirmed they submitted bids, only Dark Pulse acknowledged receiving the green light from the government to continue.
The next step
In phase two, the remaining contractors must submit more detailed plans for their proposal, including a 30-day construction timeline and subcontracting plans, as well as how much it would cost to build a 30-foot prototype.
The prototypes will be built near San Diego's Otay Mesa neighborhood.
O'Leary said he was not allowed to discuss construction costs because the process is ongoing. But he said it would stay within the $200,000 to $500,000 range CBP stipulated.
The group also plans to submit an analysis of the costs per kilometer to build it along the entire border, he said.
Any such construction plans are on hold until the Trump administration can secure funding. Congress allocated earlier this year about $20 million for the wall-prototype bidding process, but funding for construction of the actual wall will be hotly debated by Congress.
Trump backed away from seeking border-wall funding in the 2017 budget appropriations to avoid a government shutdown. But he indicated he will fight for an additional $2.6 billion for the Department of Homeland Security for that purpose in next year's budget.
Exposure and criticism
Some companies have faced criticism for their interest in the controversial project. California legislators have proposed a law blacklisting companies that participate, making them ineligible for state contracts.
Dark Pulse has received some criticism over “morality and politics,” O’Leary said.
But the company's bid has also gained significant exposure. O'Leary talked about the proposal on "Fox & Friends," a Fox News program Trump is known to watch and admire.
O'Leary said he is certain his appearance on the program had nothing to do with their selection. “I think they went on the merit of the bid itself, the proposal,” he said.
As an Arizona-based company, O’Leary said he has witnessed firsthand the security needs on the border. He has toured tunnels that agents have uncovered in the area, and has even tested some of the technology included in the bid, he added.
As a former narcotics investigator, he believes his technology could prevent drug trafficking and even deaths.
“Everybody is sort of wrapped up in ‘it’s a racist thing,’ or ‘we’re excluding certain groups,’ ” he said. “But I think in this instance, for me, I look at it as ‘it’s a way to at least slow down drug trafficking.’ I don’t think you could ever make it go to zero. I think you can definitely slow down human trafficking.”
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