Story highlights Trump has described solar panels and "openings" in recent comments about the wall

Congress has yet to appropriate any money for the administration to build new barriers

Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump may have a vision of what his border wall should look like, but he's not involved in the process to make those decisions, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Despite Trump's recent comments on how the wall will take shape, including references to it including solar panels and transparency, Customs and Border Protection is handling the process to choose prototypes to be built and have not briefed Trump on the options, the department said Tuesday.

"We have not involved the President in the procurement process," DHS spokesman David Lapan said in a briefing with reporters.

Late last week, Trump told reporters that any border wall had to have "openings" so agents could see what's on the other side, a point that Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and border officials have made since the start of the administration. Trump has also suggested that a wall could have solar panels on it as a way to pay for it, something that was included in some of the pitches submitted by companies to Customs and Border Protection's request for proposals.

But Lapan said those comments came independent of what the agency is doing.

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