Funviralpark (Reuters) – Arizona will remove rows of shipping containers along the U.S.-Mexico border. The US government has filed a lawsuit, alleging that a makeshift wall designed to deter immigration was illegally built on state land.
According to an agreement between state and federal officials that reached late Wednesday and was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona, Arizona will release the containers and the equipment, materials, and vehicles used to install them in early January. be removed by
The two sides settled the issue two weeks before anti-construction Democrat Katie Hobbs took office as governor.
Current Republican Governor Doug Ducey signed an executive order in August to bridge the gap by double-stacking shipping containers along Arizona’s 370-mile (600 km) border with Mexico. directed to state government agencies.
“Our border communities are being overwhelmed by law enforcement, hospitals, nonprofits and residents, and are being used as gateways to the United States,” Ducey said as he signed the executive order.
In that lawsuit, the Justice Department alleged that the containers were illegally built on federal land.
Ducey has previously said he has a right to defend Arizona and protect its citizens. His office called the increase in migrant crossings “ominous” and threatened to overwhelm border communities.
Conservationists objected to the 22-foot (6.7 m) improvised wall strung with accordion-like wires that were harmful to local wildlife.
The work to put up to 3,000 containers at a cost of about $95 million was about a third of the way done.
Reporting by Kanishka Singh, Washington; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien
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