Arizona Fills in Gaps at Mexico Border Wall

WASHINGTON, DC, Aug 17 — Last week Joe Biden made it easier for illegal immigrants to walk across our border with Mexico. He succeeded in getting a judge to overturn President Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, which required would-be migrants to remain south of the border while they await an okay to cross the border. The ruling lets them cross the border for a hearing on whether they can remain in the U.S. and wait in-country for a judge’s decision; it makes it easier for them to avoid detention and deportation.

Meanwhile, Biden’s lackadaisical response to the border crisis has forced Arizona and Texas, the states hardest hit by the unprecedented rush of illegal migrants seeking to enter the U.S., to take matters into their own hands to check the surge as best they can. It has forced Governors Doug Ducey [AZ] and Greg Abbott [TX] to take the action and the responsibility that the president seems unwilling to initiate.

In a statement issued by Governor Ducey a few days ago, he stated that: “Arizona has had enough. We can’t wait any longer. The Biden administration’s lack of urgency on border security is a dereliction of duty. For the last two years, Arizona has made every attempt to work with Washington to address the crisis on our border. Time and time again we’ve stepped in to clean up their mess. Arizonans can’t wait any longer for the federal government to deliver on their delayed promises.” 

Ducey announced that, since the federal government hesitates to fill the gaps in President Trump’s protective wall along the state’s border, Arizona is doing the job on its own, using “60 double-stacked shipping containers reinforced with concertina wire on top.” The container stacks would be 22-feet high.  They will be linked and welded together.  A 25-person team was already on the job and the project will be completed in a matter of days, he said.

“The barrier mission delivers on the most meaningful border security legislation in Arizona history, which passed the Arizona Legislature this year. Of the $335 million investment in the Arizona Border Security Fund to construct and maintain a border fence, it will take $6 million to fill the thousand-foot gap in Yuma.” Last year, Abbott used shipping containers to fill in gaps in the Texas wall last year.

Washington has neglected pleas for help as lawless intruders have overwhelmed the residents of Arizona and Texas for more than a year and a half — almost from the day President Biden was sworn in. Biden did nothing and so It was left to Governors Ducey and Abbott to deal with the “invading” illegals. Among other measures, in addition to patching up the wall, they’ve been sending those migrants who wish to go elsewhere in the U.S. — particularly those cities that are proud to call themselves “sanctuary cities” — to help alleviate the burden in their states. Ducey and Abbott have bused more than 6,000 of them to New York City and Philadelphia whose mayors are objecting. They don’t like it, nor are they as welcoming as they claim to be.

But Mark Morgan, who headed up the Customs and Border Protection Agency under former President Donald Trump sent this message for the sanctuary city mayors: “Welcome to the party. Where have you been for the last year and a half?” he rhetorically asked. “So, she’s (Muriel) got about 5 to 6 thousand illegal aliens in her city over the past few months. Meanwhile, there are border states and communities in Texas and Arizona that get that every 24 hours.” According to Governor Abbott: “This just shows the hypocrisy of the liberal leaders up in the Northeast who think the border crisis created by Joe Biden. That’s fine as long as it’s Texas that has to deal with it.”