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A4 U.S. NEWS
Monday 12 deceMber 2022

Arizona Gov. Ducey stacks containers on border at term's end

By ANITA SNOW and areas there are gaps nearly
ROSS D. FRANKLIN three feet (1 meter) wide.
Associated Press Environmental activists
SAN RAFAEL VALLEY, Arizo- demonstrating at the Co-
na (AP) —Work crews have chise County site in the
steadily erected hundreds past week largely stopped
of double-stacked ship- the work in recent days by
ping containers topped by standing in front of con-
razor wire along Arizona's struction vehicles. One re-
remote eastern boundary cent day, a dozen dem-
with Mexico in a bold show onstrators sat atop stacked
of border enforcement by containers or in camp
Republican Gov. Doug Du- chairs near tents and ve-
cey even as he prepares to hicles where they sleep.
leave office. The work in Yuma cost
Until protesters slowed, about $6 million and
then largely halted the wrapped up in 11 days
work in recent days, Ducey with 130 of the containers
pressed forward over the covering about 3,800 feet
objections of the U.S. gov- (about 1,160 meters). The
ernment, environmentalists Bureau of Reclamation told
and an incoming governor Arizona it violated U.S. law
who has called it a poor by building on federal land.
use of resources. Activists gather near and sit on newly installed shipping containers along the border creating a The Cocopah Indian Tribe
Democratic Gov.-elect wall between the United States and Mexico in San Rafael Valley, Ariz., Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022. also complained the state
Katie Hobbs said last week Associated Press did not seek permission to
she was "looking at all the suing federal officials over from "imminent danger of in Yuma in western Arizona, build on its nearby reserva-
options" and hasn't de- their objections, sending criminal and humanitarian a popular crossing point, tion.
cided what to do about the dispute to court. crises." The federal agen- with scores of asylum-seek- The newer project is far larg-
the containers after her Environmental groups say cies want Ducey's com- ers arriving daily and often er, costing some $95 million
Jan. 5. inauguration. She the containers could im- plaint dismissed. finding ways to circum- and using up to 3,000 con-
previously suggested the peril natural water systems Border security was a focus vent the new barriers. The tainers to cover 10 miles
containers be repurposed and endanger species. of Donald Trump's presi- containers filled areas left (16 km), in Arizona's south-
as affordable housing, an "A lot of damage could dency and remains a po- open when Trump's 450- eastern Cochise County.
increasingly popular op- be done here between tent issue for Republican mile (724 km) border wall The U.S. Forest Service also
tion for homeless and low- now and early January," politicians. Hobbs' GOP ri- was built. But remote San told Arizona to halt its work
income people. said Russ McSpadden, a val, Kari Lake, campaigned Rafael Valley — the latest in the Coronado National
"I don't know how much it Southwest conservation on a promise to dispatch construction site — is not Forest, and recently alert-
will cost to remove the con- advocate for the Center the National Guard to the typically used by migrants ed visitors to potential haz-
tainers and what the cost for Biological Diversity who border on her first day in and was not contemplat- ards posed by construction
will be," Hobbs told Phoenix has regularly traveled to office. Texas Republican ed in Trump's wall construc- equipment involved in the
PBS TV station KAET in an in- the site since late October. Gov. Greg Abbott, recent- tion plan. McSpadden said state's "unauthorized activi-
terview Wednesday. Ducey insists Arizona holds ly reelected to a third term, he has not seen migrants or ties." The Center for Biologi-
Federal agencies have sole or shared jurisdiction has pushed to keep build- Border Patrol agents there, cal Diversity has sided with
told Arizona the construc- over the 60-foot (18.2 me- ing Trump's signature wall just hikers and backpack- the federal government's
tion on U.S. land is unlawful ter) strip the containers rest on the mostly private land ing cyclists. position that the construc-
and ordered it to halt. Du- on and has a constitutional along his state's border with The construction there tion violates U.S. law.
cey responded Oct. 21 by right to protect residents Mexico and has crowd- stretches from oak forests While Ducey's lawsuit does
sourced funds to help pay in the Huachuca foothills not address environmental
for it. He also has gotten at- southeast of Tucson and concerns, groups like the
tention for busing migrants across the valley's grass- center say the work in the
to Democratic-led cities far lands. As of the middle Coronado National For-
from the southern border, of last week, cranes had est imperils endangered or
including New York City, transported more than 900 threatened species like the
Chicago, Philadelphia and blue or rust-colored metal western yellow-billed cuck-
Washington, D.C. containers down a dirt road oo and the Mexican spot-
Ducey's move comes amid freshly scraped into the ted owl, as well as big cats
a record flow of migrants landscape, then double including the occasional
arriving at the border. stacked them up to 17 feet ocelot.
U.S. border officials have (5.2 meters) high alongside The biologically diverse re-
stopped migrants 2.38 mil- waist-high vehicle barriers gion of southeastern Ari-
lion times in the fiscal year of crisscrossed steel. Work- zona is known for its "sky is-
that ended Sept. 30, up ers bolted the containers lands," or isolated mountain
37% from the year before. together and welded sheet ranges rising over 6,000 feet
The annual total surpassed metal over gaps. (1,828 meters) above "seas"
2 million for the first time in Still, yawning gaps remain of desert and grasslands.
August and is more than in the new container wall, Wildlife cameras in the re-
twice the highest level dur- including an open space gion regularly photograph
ing Trump's presidency, in of several hundred yards black bears, bobcats, ring-
2019. (meters) on terrain far too tails, spotted skunks, white-
Ducey's container wall ef- steep to place the contain- nosed coatis and pig-like
fort began in late summer ers. In some low lying wash javelina.q