FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2022
According to reports, work crews have been placing hundreds of double-stacked shipping containers topped with razor wire along Arizona’s eastern boundary with Mexico.
The project continued on despite concerns from environmentalists and objections from the government and incoming governor. On Thursday (Dec. 15), the U.S. government announced it was suing the state and Governor Doug Ducey over the placement, citing they were trespassing on federal lands.
What’s Happening
While protesters have reportedly slowed and halted work in the recent weeks, work continued on the shipping container wall as recent as this week.
The Associated Press reports that Ducey insists Arizona holds sole or shared jurisdiction over the 60-foot strip of land the containers sit on, and that they have a constitutional right to protect residents from “imminent danger of criminal and humanitarian crises.”
The effort reportedly began in late summer in Yuma, Arizona, filling in areas left open from when former President Donald Trump’s 450-mile border wall was being built. This project cost about $6 million and was completed in 11 days, with 130 of the containers covering about 3,800 feet.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a lawsuit against Arizona for building a border wall made of shipping containers on federal land. https://t.co/HK6vok5K1z
— Intl. Business Times (@IBTimes) December 15, 2022
Construction continued to the San Rafael Valley where, last week, cranes transported more than 900 blue or rust-colored metal containers to be double stacked to 17 feet. The latest project, so far, has cost about $95 million using 3,000 containers to cover 10 miles.
These containers, alongside waist-high vehicle barriers of crisscrossed steel, were bolted together by workers. Sheet metal was then welded over the gaps. However, reports indicate that there are still “yawning gaps” remaining in the container wall.
Now, a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court from the Department of Justice asks for Arizona to be ordered to halt placement and remove the containers in the remote San Rafael Valley in southeastern Cochise County.
“Officials from Reclamation and the Forest Service have notified Arizona that it is trespassing on federal lands,” the complaint reads. The action also reportedly seeks damages to compensate the United States to fix any damage along the border.
The Justice Department sued on behalf of the Bureau of Reclamation, the Department of Agriculture and the Forest Service it oversees. The complaint was filed three weeks before Ducey will leave office, making way for new Governor-elect Katie Hobbs.
Ducey reportedly told U.S. officials that Arizona is ready to help remove the containers, which he says were placed as a temporary barrier. However, he wants the U.S. government to say when it will fill any remaining gaps in the permanent border wall as it announced it would a year ago.
Hobbs, who opposes the construction, said last week she was “looking at all the options” and hasn’t decided what to do about the containers after her Jan. 5. inauguration. She has previously suggested the containers be repurposed as affordable housing, an increasingly popular option for homeless and low-income people.
AZ Border Wall News
At the beginning of the year, Arizona Senator Wendy Rogers introduced new legislation to appropriate $700 million in state funding to pay for a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The State Bill 1032 bill proposal, which was filed Dec. 17 alongside two dozen other proposals, states that the funds would be used to “administer and manage the construction and maintenance of a physical border fence.”
The bill would take approximately 5% of the state’s almost $13 billion 2022-2023 fiscal year budget towards these actions. According to reports, the senator did not respond to questions about where it would take place or how the cost could be justified.
The proposal came days before the Department of Homeland Security announced that Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas authorized U.S. Customs and Border Protection to move forward with activities necessary to address life, safety, environmental and remediation requirements for border barrier projects. These projects were previously undertaken by the Department of Defense and fall in the Centro, Tuscon, El Paso and Del Rio Sectors.
At the end of June, Arizona lawmakers passed a bill that budgeted $335 million for a border wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, but according to reports, the barrier could potentially be a “virtual wall” instead of a physical one.
Arizona Governor Ducey’s spokesman C.J. Karamargin told reporters that a virtual wall could include motion sensors, infrared cameras, mobile towers and aerial drones. Border Patrol and other law enforcement currently use this type of surveillance technology.
Additionally, the border wall funding could go towards protecting critical infrastructure, such as canals, wastewater treatment plants and defense installations like the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Ranger or Fort Huachuca. An additional $209 million in funding was also approved for a border security fund.
According to reports, less than 20 miles of the 226 miles for the Arizona-Mexico border wall needed to be completed when President Joe Biden stopped federal construction of the wall in January 2021. Data provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers notes that those unfinished areas are near Sasabe and Nogales in Pima County, Naco in Cochise County, and areas in Yuma County.
However, due to 60-foot-wide federal easement that runs adjacent to the entire Arizona-Mexico border, the structure also would not be constructed directly on the border. The easement was created by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907 to keep all public lands along the border in California, Arizona and New Mexico “free from obstruction.”
The state could reportedly build on land it owns that is north of the easement, but a majority of public land against it is federally owned. Areas on private land could be constructed with permission, but privately owned parcels by acreage along the border account for just 3.7% and some of these areas already have a border wall.
Karamargin said at the time that the state is in talks with private property owners about building some type of barrier on their land.
Tagged categories: Construction; Government; Laws and litigation; Lawsuits; Ongoing projects; Program/Project Management
