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Arizona governor uses shipping containers for makeshift border wall, keeping people and animals out [1]
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Date: 2022-12-02
In the latest case against the makeshift wall, the Department of Justice has asked the court to dismiss this claim, arguing that the shipping containers were placed on federal and not state land, Fronteras reported.
But where the shipping container wall is placed is not the only issue. Outside of how horrible the idea of a border wall even is, this specific one is not only wasteful but bad for the environment. Alongside the government, Arizona environmentalists have joined the fight against Ducey’s ongoing efforts to install a wall on the state’s Mexico border.
According to KGUN, officials from Coronado National Forest (CNF) warned the public not only about the "safety hazards" but about "unauthorized armed security personnel" in the area where the wall is placed.
“The roads are not designed to handle these large of vehicles. They are designed to handle small passenger cars, trucks. So they are getting impacted by this much traffic," Starr Farrell of the U.S. Forest Service said. "There is a possibility people who are armed out there and so we don’t want any of those conflicts to occur.”
To make matters worse, KGUN noted that the “wall” was also constructed against the Cocopah Tribe’s wishes. Ducey not only filled in parts of a Trump administration border wall but constructed beyond that with his containers. But that’s not all: The “wall” doesn’t only impact people living in the area, but the animals as well.
“We’re seeing an impact to our environment," Farrell said. "These are going in very quickly and because these are getting placed so quickly, normal procedures [didn't take] place. This was an unauthorized project and because of that these containers did not go through a normal process that we would normally do to make sure that area would be able to support the installation.”
x In 20 years of reporting on the US-Mexico border this is one of the most destructive, truly damaging and wasteful things I've ever seen, which is really saying something. This will cost $100 million, keep nobody out & forever harm endangered ocelots, jaguars and other species pic.twitter.com/WoPVwjAHbS — Melissa del Bosque (@MelissaLaLinea) November 30, 2022
According to Arizona Central, the state’s contractor is placing the shipping containers on a line in an area known to have a population of endangered jaguars and ocelots.
Environmental advocates fear the containers will result in “extensive damage” to the animals’ habitats and wreck important migration corridors for larger species while blocking the ability of smaller ones to cross the border.
“That wall is harming endangered species as we speak,” said Russ McSpadden, a Southwest conservation advocate. McSpadden provided Arizona Central with video footage of an ocelot captured by motion-sensing cameras less than 2 miles north of the new wall in 2018 and 2019 to argue his case.
x Ducey's shipping container is crossing one of the most spectacular conservation areas in the borderlands. Four species of wild cats inhabit the surrounding mountains -- bobcat, puma, ocelot & jaguar. The land on the Mexican side is Rancho Los Fresnos, protected lands spanning... pic.twitter.com/OLbirnA0DM — Russ McSpadden (@PeccaryNotPig) December 1, 2022
Arizona Central also noted that the areas where the shipping containers are located stretch farther than what was planned for Trump’s border wall. These areas have extensive wildlife, causing many advocates to argue that the shipping containers would be more effective at keeping out wildlife than people.
In order to keep people out, Ducey and his contractors placed gaps with metal sheets in areas with gaps between the containers. As a result, any migrants who might try to cross may get cut by the steel.
x Ducey's shipping container wall on the AZ-MX border is worse than I imagined. I went down yesterday to see it myself for a Border Chronicle story. Imagine 10 miles of this through a national wildlife forest. This is happening right now👇👇 pic.twitter.com/mqCjVo59iA — Melissa del Bosque (@MelissaLaLinea) November 30, 2022
How far Republicans will go to keep migrants out is ridiculous.
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