With the start of 2023, the end of the controversial container wall on the Arizona border has begun.
Outgoing Governor Doug Ducey had promised to start removing the metal boxes on December 29.
The order, however, was postponed until last Sunday, January 1.
It was then that some workers began to remove the barrier, which has drawn criticism from environmental groups and rejection from Ducey's successor, Democrat Katie Hobbs.
It took the Federal Government to initiate litigation against Arizona for Ducey to relent.
Washington argued in federal court that the local government was invading federal territory by placing 182 metal boxes, supposedly to control the flow of immigrants arriving from Mexico in Yuma and Cochise counties.
The lawyers also affirmed that the Republican's political maneuver was affecting the Coronado National Forest, the only forest body on the more than 3,000 kilometers of border between Mexico and the United States.
Ducey knew that his temporary wall had its days numbered.
Hobbs, who won the election in November and was sworn in for four years on Monday, believes the barrier falls short of reducing illegal immigration.
The arrival of immigrants, in fact, increased while the boxes blocked the border.
The governor considers that these boxes can be used for another purpose, such as providing temporary accommodation to the homeless of the entity.
For now, they will be transferred to the state prison located in Yuma County.
The project that Ducey had devised was never completed, since he only managed to place a third of the containers that would make it up.
The state government invested more than 80 million dollars in the task.
The Hobbs Administration will now have to spend about $76 million to remove the boxes, under a contract with the construction contractor, Ash Britt, Inc. This spending of public money has sparked anger among many Arizonans.
Border security will be one of the main issues to be discussed at the summit to be held on Monday, January 9, by US presidents Joe Biden;
Justin Trudeau, from Canada, and the Mexican Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who will host the meeting of the representatives of North America.
As part of the activities, Biden is expected to make his first visit to the border since he took office.
The details, however, have not been confirmed by his Administration.
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