Homeland Security chief: Parts of border wall will be transparent

President Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall will rely in part on surveillance technology in place of a physical structure, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly told Fox News. 

“Kelly said the wall will take a multi-layered approach,” Fox News reporter Catherine Herridge said. “There will be the physical wall and then parts of the wall that you can actually see through because it will rely on sensors and other technology.”

In an on-camera interview with Fox, Kelly said that construction on the wall will begin within months and would first target areas where it is needed most.

{mosads}“It will be built where it’s needed first, and then it will be filled in,” he said. “That’s how I’m looking at it.”

He also laid out a rough timeline for the massive project, saying he hoped the wall would be completed within the next two years.

Trump has charged the retired Marine general with overseeing the construction of the border wall — one of the president’s highest-profile campaign promises.

But the idea of the wall being more of a transparent barrier between the two countries, at least in part, contradicts Trump’s claim that he will erect a “big, beautiful wall” along the entire length of the border.

The administration still faces the challenge of paying for the wall, which independent estimates peg in the tens of billions. But Kelly brushed off the issue of funding in his interview with Fox News, saying he had confidence the the money would not be an issue.

“I think the funding will come relatively quickly and like I said, we will build it where it’s needed first as identified by the men and women who work the border,” Kelly said.

Trump has vowed to make Mexico pay for the wall, despite repeated refusals to do so by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.