US: Bidding to start next month for border wall

The Department of Homeland Security Customs Border Protection announced Friday it would solicit "the design and build of several prototype wall structures in the vicinity of the United States border with Mexico".

The bidding starts March 6, and awards are planned for mid-April, according to the online posting.

The wall has been a long-coming pledge by President Donald Trump, who is a vocal critic of the existing US immigration policy.

Trump signed the executive order for the wall five days into his tenure.

Washington-Mexico City ties have been strained by the wall and new guidelines stipulating that undocumented persons coming from the southern border be returned to Mexico even if they are not Mexican citizens.

Mexico’s Interior Minister Miguel Osorio Chong expressed disagreement Thursday "with some of the measures announced by the US government that have implications for our country and compatriots".

President Enrique Pena Nieto canceled a planned trip to Washington D.C. last month after Trump ramped up the wall rhetoric.