A “A new makeshift fence was illegally erected on the Arizona-Mexico border by Republican state governor Doug Ducey before handing it over to his successor, Democrat Katie Hobbs”elected new Arizona governor in the Nov. 8 midterms and set to take office Jan. 2, 2023, the newspaper reports The Guardian.
This project to seal the gaps in the border wall erected by order of Donald Trump from an array of cargo containers stacked on two floors is highly controversial, because it encroaches on federal lands and natural forest parks, points out the British newspaper. the Keeper says Republican Gov. Doug Ducey issued an executive order last August to begin construction in the Yuma area, before expanding the work to other sections of the Arizona-Mexico border.
While his plan has met strong opposition from the federal government, numerous environmental advocacy organizations and Native American tribes, the Republican governor filed a lawsuit in October to declare that border lands belonging specifically to the reservation of Roosevelt [qui s’étend sur trois États américains le long de la frontière sud] are not owned by the federal state but by the state of Arizona, and that the state has a constitutional right to protect itself from what Doug Ducey called“invasion of innombrebles migrants” which is accompanied by an increase “of drug trafficking, crime and humanitarian problems”.
While the case is still pending in court, local environmental activists, such as Mark Ruggiero, a former National Forest Service ranger in Cochise County, continue to criticize the construction site arguing that this new wall made of shipping containers poses environmental hazards. He jeopardizes the binational firefighting agreement between American and Mexican firefighters, while not being a real barrier to illegal immigration.
“This wall poses a threat to endangered animal species, including jaguars and ocelots, which are used to migrating through this territory, disfiguring the landscape.”
