The Arizona General Reclamation Action filed by the Attorney General in a U.S. District Court on Arizona’s Border Promiscuity
In August, the governor of Arizona gave the order to use shipping containers to fill in any gaps along the border, without any authorization or permits, CNN previously reported. The federal government has been battling with the state ever since to get the containers removed, according to the lawsuit.
“Officials from Reclamation and the Forest Service have notified Arizona that it is trespassing on federal lands,” the complaint reads. Damage to the United States is one of the objectives of the action.
The Department of Justice filed the suit in the US District Court for the District of Arizona.
The number one pubic safety risk and environmental harm has been caused by the federal government’s inability to secure the border since January of 2021, according to a letter written by Arizona’s governor.
Ducey’s office said in a letter sent to the Justice Department on Tuesday that the government had made a “series of unfounded and inaccurate claims” in an earlier letter stating the department’s intent to file a lawsuit.
In a letter to the federal government, the office of Governor Ducey said that Arizona was ready to participate in the construction of a border wall. Ducey’s office directed CNN to the letter when asked for comment on the lawsuit.
Title 42, a public health authority that was created at the start of the coronaviruses epidemic and allowed officials to turn away migrants more than two million times, faces a deadline in December to be abolished by the Biden administration. A federal judge stopped the administration from trying to maintain the authority last month and set an expiration date for next Wednesday.
The San Francisco Valley Importport Container Wall Project: Why the 450-mile (424 km) Border Wall was Built in 2010 and When Trump Becomes President of the United States
The governor steps down for a Democratic Gov.-elect, who has said she dislikes the construction, three weeks from now.
The container wall effort began in late summer in a popular crossing point in western Arizona where scores of asylum-seekers arrive daily and often find ways to evade the new barriers. The containers filled areas left open when Trump’s 450-mile (724 km) border wall was built. San Rafael Valley is not typically utilized by migrants and was not considered in Trump’s wall plan.
The U.S. “owes it to Arizonans and all Americans to release a timeline,” he wrote in a Tuesday letter, responding to news of the pending federal complaint.
The Department of Justice complaint asks the court for Arizona to be ordered to halt placement and remove the containers in remote San Rafael Valley in southeastern Cochise County.
Protesters have held up the work in recent days because they do not agree with the $95 million cost of placing up to 3,000 containers.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement from Washington that the project “is not an effective barrier, it poses safety hazards to both the public and those working in the area and has significantly damaged public land.”
Local leaders and communities have to be involved in serious solutions at the border. Vilsack said that Stacking shipping containers isn’t a good solution.
Grijalva, a Democrat who represents southern Arizona, applauded the complaint. The project was called an illegal border wall by him.
Russ McSpadden said that the federal complaint should be the beginning of the end for Doug Ducey’s “lawless assault” on protected national forestlands and wildlife.
Ducey wrote federal officials after being informed of their intent to file the complaint and rejected their argument that the containers “present serious public safety risks and environmental harms.”
The flow of migrants is at a record high. The fiscal year that ended September 30, 2010, saw the US stop 2.38 million migrants, up 37% from the year before. In August the total reached 2 million, which is more than twice the highest level during Trump’s presidency.
The governor’s office said the containers stand about 22 feet tall when stacked, welded together and topped with razor wire, while border fencing is 30 feet high.
The two shipping containers fell after the project began. A reporter who shared photos of the fallen containers claimed that contractors told her that the strong winds were to blame. The office said they suspected foul play. No such incidents have been reported since then, said Karamargin.