On a dusty road in Arizona, a pick-up rushes and takes away a large metal box. On the border between the United States and Mexico, a wall of containers, installed for tens of millions of dollars only a few months ago, was being dismantled this weekend.
In the months preceding the end of his mandate, the Republican governor of Arizona, in the southwest of the United States, had ordered that a gigantic row of containers be placed on the border with Mexico, in order, according to him , to curb illegal immigration.
But after being sued by the federal state for placing the containers on federal land in the Coronado National Forest, Governor Greg Ducey, since replaced by Democrat Katie Hobbs, agreed in December to remove them. .
“I can’t believe Governor Ducey thought it was a good idea,” Debbie McGuire, a former Arizona resident who came to watch the dismantling operations, told AFP.
“It’s completely absurd to put containers that were never going to be able to keep people out,” she says. “It’s ridiculous and a complete waste of taxpayers’ money.”
The construction of the container wall began in mid-2022 and quickly faced a powerful slingshot. Critics say the assembly is nothing more than a cynical political maneuver that damages the environment and has no impact on the number of illegal border crossings.
– Steep relief –
They say the container wall, which stretches nearly seven kilometers across federal lands, encroaches on an important environmental conservation area.
The relief there is also so steep that according to them, migrant smugglers have never really used this area.
In practice, the containers were inadequate to prevent migrants from crossing them: their rigid shape meant that they were not always aligned according to the terrain, leaving gaping holes between the boxes.
“It’s a charade and a waste of public money,” said Bill Wilson, a resident of the neighboring town who came to see the dismantling of the container wall on Friday.
The septuagenarian also denounces “a political strategy”.
Arizona shares some 600 kilometers of border with Mexico, passing through protected areas, national parks, military zones and Native American reservations.
Illegal migrant arrivals from South and Central American countries are a recurring theme in Republicans’ attacks on Joe Biden, who has promised to increase immediate deportations.
More than 230,000 arrests were still recorded in November at the southern border of the United States, a record level.
Until the arrival in the White House in 2017 of Donald Trump – who had campaigned on the slogan “Let’s build the wall” – there was not really a physical barrier between Arizona and Mexico.
Now, large sections of the border have a grid that rises in places up to nine meters high.
In the Coronado National Forest, which can only be reached by small dirt roads, the border was demarcated before the arrival of the containers only by a barbed wire fence.
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