Arizona Governor Doug Ducey came up with a clever plan to protect American citizens in the United States from a mass influx of illegal immigrants crossing the border: construct a wall made of stacked shipping containers. However, progressive environmentalists have found a way to jeopardize it.
Hundreds of double-stacked shipping containers were topped with razor wire were placed on the state’s border with Mexico. Protesters and environmental activists have overwhelmed the area forcing the Governor’s plan to be halted.
“Federal agencies, including the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Forest Service, have told Arizona the construction on U.S. land is unlawful and it must stop. In response, Ducey sued federal officials on October 21” reports National Review.
The outgoing governor has argued the state holds sole or shared jurisdiction over the 60-foot area at the state’s remote eastern border with Mexico. He said the state has a constitutional right to protect residents from “imminent danger of criminal and humanitarian crises.”
“Arizona is going to do the job that Joe Biden refuses to do — secure the border in any way we can.” Ducey said in announcing the lawsuit last month. “We’re not backing down.”
Of course environmentalists have come up with a sneaky way to force their agenda; claiming it’s for the homeless. The protesters warned the containers could not only harm natural water systems and endanger species, but also rallied behind Democrat Governor-elect Katie Hobbs’ assertion that the containers could “possibly be repurposed as affordable housing.”
Environmental activists stood in front of construction vehicles last week, stopping work at the site of container wall construction in Cochise County. Ducey’s border wall project began this summer in Yuma, a popular crossing point where containers filled gaps in former president Donald Trump’s border wall. Now, crews have begun focusing on San Rafael Valley, an area of the border that does not see many border crossings, according to the Associated Press.
The initial project in Yuma cost roughly $6 million and included 11 days of work erecting 130 containers to secure some 3,800 feet.
The new work, which will use up to 3,000 containers to secure 10 miles in Cochise County, is costing the state $95 million. The new wall has gaps of several hundred yards in some areas due to steep terrain.
Ducey argues the container wall is necessary as the U.S. sees a record influx of illegal immigrants crossing the border. U.S. border officials recorded 2.38 million migrant encounters at the border last fiscal year, a 37 percent increase from the year before.