Border tension.
Doug Doucey, the Republican governor of Arizona, has decided to end his term by redoubling his bet on one of the greatest symbols for conservatives, the border with Mexico.
The local president has reinforced the line, near the community of Yuma, with some 3,000 containers, a gesture that supposedly cuts off the flow of immigrants in the region.
This Wednesday, the federal government has responded to the controversial maneuver, criticized by activists and environmentalists for being built in a nature reserve.
The Department of Justice has sued the local government, after several months of push and pull, considering that the work invades federal land.
Ducey ends his term on January 5.
It will be then when Democrat Katie Hobbs takes the reins of the State, who has questioned the effectiveness of the metal barrier in containing migration.
Hobbs, a moderate politician, has said she is exploring options for what to do once she comes to power next year.
She has said the containers could be repurposed to serve as temporary housing for the homeless in cities that have seen an increase in the problem, such as Phoenix.
Washington warned Arizona Monday that it would take legal action in federal district court because the metal barrier posed "serious risks to public safety and environmental damage."
The governor responded a day later, assuring that the real crisis that has motivated the construction of the wall has been the lack of action by the Biden Administration to combat illegal immigration.
Doucey conditions in his response the collaboration of his Government.
He assures that his Administration will help remove the containers, which he plans to extend over 16 kilometers, once the Biden Administration finishes the controversial physical wall erected by Donald Trump.
“The Department of Homeland Security said it would start filling the holes in the wall in December 2021. A year ago,” Doucey reproaches.
“There is no information on when construction could start, although various Arizona agencies have requested updates from their federal counterparts.
So there has been no other option but to attend to the crisis at the border with a temporary barrier," the text continues.
Despite what Ducey maintains, the Customs and Border Protection Office has indicated that in January they will begin blocking the holes in the wall with mesh and Border Patrol vehicles.
One of the disputed areas is a narrow strip of land known as the Roosevelt Reservation.
The president created it in 1907 for security reasons, to fight against smugglers.
The presidential text requires that the strip be free of obstructions.
Ducey, however, claims that the proclamation is unconstitutional because it was not endorsed by Congress.
The Republican Administration of Arizona has sent more than 2,000 migrants detained in the border area by bus to the capital of the United States.
This coup, following a trend started by the Texas and Florida governments, has cost $5 million since October, according to a public contract obtained by the
Arizona Central
newspaper .
Ducey ordered the controversial measure in a year that has broken all immigration records.
The Biden Administration reported in October 2.3 million encounters with illegal immigrants in the last fiscal year (between September 2021 and September 2022).
This represents an annual increase of 37% driven by the arrival of more migrants from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.
The figure doubles the maximum revenue recorded during Trump's term in 2019. Washington's demand comes on the same day that the US media have published images of El Paso, Texas, where dozens of people are crossing the border days after the The Biden government lifts Title 42, a measure that allows migrants to be returned on the fly and with almost no legal consequences.
Some Democratic Party lawmakers have welcomed Washington's legal action.
“We need immediate action against the useless and illegal wall erected on federal and native tribal lands,” said Congressman Raúl Grijalva, chairman of the Capitol Hill Natural Resources committee, who has harshly criticized the $95 million spending. of the public budget to build the work.
The controversial wall has also received condemnation from various environmental organizations, who argue that people are not the only ones who cross the border, an imaginary limit for dozens of species.
Activists say the containers cut a corridor that extends into the Huachuca mountains, affecting a destination area for jaguars and ocelots that move through both countries.
The Center for Biological Diversity, located in Tucson, entered the legal suit against the barrier in early December.
The environmental organization showed the video, taken in 2018 and 2019, of an ocelot walking less than four kilometers from the area where the container wall stands today.
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