PHOENIX (AP) — A border barrier made of shipping containers built by former Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey was largely dismantled just in time for the new Democratic administration and cost tens of millions of dollars in just a few months as they were erected and dismantled again .
The removal of the bulky red, gold and blue steel boxes is creating a dramatic visual shift in the affected areas of Arizona’s southern landscape as a new governor takes office and another $76 million of public funds is spent on container removal on top of $95 million. the cost of placing them there.
Ducey said the containers, placed at an opening along the border near the western settlement of Yuma and across a pasture valley in Cochise County in eastern Arizona, were intended as a temporary measure until the Biden administration began permanent construction to secure the border.
Gov. Kathy Hobbs, who was sworn in this week, was among the Democrats who called it a political stunt.
Border security has been a key issue of Donald Trump’s presidency and remains a focus for many Republicans. Hobbs’ GOP rival Kari Lake campaigned by promising to send the National Guard to the border on her first day in office.
The case went to federal court after Ducey filed a lawsuit demanding that Arizona be recognized as having sole or general jurisdiction over the strip of federal land on which the containers were placed. He also argued that Arizona has the right to protect its residents from illegal immigration, which he called a humanitarian crisis.
An agreement between Ducey’s administration and the federal agencies named in his lawsuit required the containers to be delivered by Wednesday, the day before Hobbs’ inauguration. But the court later suspended all time limits in the case for 30 days to give Hobbs and new Attorney General Chris Mays time to review the situation.
In Yuma, all 130 containers about 3,800 feet (about 1,160 meters) long had been removed by Tuesday.
Workers continue to dismantle a container wall in Cochise County, said Russ McSpadden, who regularly visited the site in the remote San Rafael Valley as a southwest advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity.
About a third of the approximately 3,000 containers were installed there, raising concerns about potential harm to local wildlife and natural water systems before protesters halted work in early December. Environmentalists said the work in the Coronado National Forest has endangered endangered or endangered species such as the western yellow-billed cuckoo and the Mexican spotted owl.
Yuma Mayor Doug Nicholls said this week that while the US government is planning permanent construction to close a large gap around the Morelos Dam site that immigrants often make their way through, he is worried about gaps that are not planned for construction.
The US Border Patrol announced Friday that construction will begin next week to close a breach near the Morelos Dam, noting that the rushing Colorado River poses a potential risk of drowning and other injuries to migrants and the agency’s own staff.
“The containers were never going to completely stop people from crossing the border, but it was a way to better control it,” said Nicholls, a Republican who is in constant contact with the White House and US agencies about the hundreds of asylum seekers arriving in his small country. city daily.
Nicholls said he was already in talks with the Hobbs administration about border security and wanted the governor to visit the area.
“I hope she gets here sooner rather than later,” he said. “We still feel like this is an emergency.”
Under Ducey, Arizona transported hundreds of migrants from the Yuma region to the US capital.
Nicholls said regular bus service to Washington continues despite changing governors, with the non-profit Regional Border Health Center taking over the contract.
He said that without some kind of migrant shelter, Yuma is ill-equipped to help newcomers who need a place to live, and that bus trips to Washington allow many to travel to the East Coast for free, where they can have family.
Unlike the migrant buses sent to East Coast cities from Texas, non-profit groups in Washington said the buses from Arizona arrive with detailed lists of passengers and their nationalities, agreed arrival times, and medical personnel on board each trip. Since May, the Ducey administration has sent more than 2,500 migrants on about 70 trips to Washington.
The Ducey administration had previously estimated that each bus ride cost about $80,000 in public funds, which is over $5.6 million to date.
A spokesman for the Regional Border Health Center in Somerton, Arizona, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how the contract is currently being implemented.
Nicholls said the Federal Emergency Management Agency would reimburse the center for travel expenses.
