Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has ordered 60 double-stacked shipping containers to be placed in border fence gaps near Yuma, the state’s busiest illegal border crossing area.
The containers will be reinforced with concertina wire at the top, according to the governor, who issued an executive order for the work to begin on Aug. 12.
“Arizona has had enough,” Ducey, a Republican, said in a news release.
“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.”
Contractors started placing the shipping containers on Aug. 12 and expect to complete the 1,000-foot gap in the border wall on Aug. 14. It’s expected to cost $6 million.
The stacked shipping containers will reach about 22-feet high and will be linked together and welded shut, Ducey said. The existing border wall constructed during the Trump era is 30-feet high.
Border Patrol agents in the Yuma Sector have experienced the largest spike in apprehensions along the southern border since President Joe Biden took office.
During fiscal year 2022, minus three months still to be reported, border agents have arrested more than 162,700 illegal crossers, according to Customs and Border Protection data.
In fiscal 2021, the total was more than 184,500, while in fiscal 2020 Border Patrol agents apprehended just over 8,700 illegal crossers.
Yuma Mayor Doug Nicholls declared an emergency in his city on Dec. 9, 2021, due to an overwhelming influx of illegal aliens.
During that influx, the local 911 dispatch center was tied up for hours with calls from illegal aliens asking for transport, food, and clothing, Yuma County Sheriff Leon Wilmot told The Epoch Times.
Nicholls said Yuma—which has nearly 100,000 residents—doesn’t have the resources to handle the thousands of people now crossing.
“The surge of migrants the federal government has allowed to trek over the border has the grave potential to greatly impact and strain our community,” Nicholls said on Aug. 12 in a press release. “Washington must send a clear message that this is not the way to immigrate to our country.”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has repeatedly said the “border is closed.”
Border Wall Halted
Biden halted all border wall construction the day he took office on Jan. 20, 2021.
“It shall be the policy of my Administration that no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall,” Biden’s executive order states.
Millions of dollars of unfinished border wall materials have lain in the deserts of Arizona since.
A report by Senate Republicans issued in July 2021 states that the construction stoppage is costing taxpayers $3 million per day.
The senators who produced the report estimated that the administration has spent between $618 million and $708 million on contractors between Jan. 20, 2021, and July 15, 2021, and will ultimately spend up to $1.2 billion more to exit the border wall projects.
Yuma County Supervisor Jonathan Lines welcomed the shipping container wall.
“National security starts with border security. Biden’s border crisis deteriorates daily while the White House is silent,” he said in a press release. “Border communities like Yuma bear the burden of a broken border while narcotics poison our youth, human smuggling rises and mass amounts of migrants wear on our nonprofits.”
Term-limited as governor, Ducey has pledged to support GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake, who will face Democrat Katie Hobbs in on Nov. 8.
Lake has pledged to declare the border crisis an invasion on day one, should she win.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich issued an opinion on the invasion clause in the Constitution on Feb. 7.
“The on-the-ground violence and lawlessness at Arizona’s border caused by cartels and gangs is extensive, well-documented, and persistent. It can satisfy the definition of ‘actually invaded’ and ‘invasion’ under the U.S. Constitution,” the Brnovich opinion reads.
“The federal government is failing to fulfill its duty under Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution to defend the States from invasion. The State Self-Defense Clause exists precisely for situations such as the present, to ensure that States are not left helpless.”
As commander-in-chief for Arizona, Ducey has the power to “engage in defensive actions within its own territory at or near its border,” according to Brnovich.
Ducey has stopped short of enacting his power to use the National Guard and militia forces in such a way.
Smart move on part of Arizona! Send Bill to Biden!
Way to go, Gov. Ducey! I don’t know how using the National Guard will complicate matters, but they’re already so bad that stopping illegal immigration in any legal way sounds like a winner to me. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be living in one of our southern border states. Power to the states and to the people!
There is no rational explanation for letting this free-flow of people from countries around the world through our border. Recent reports cite several dozen people on the FBI terrorist watch list getting through. This is a serious breach of national security whether biden realizes it or not. He and his administration are a joke–a bad one, at that. They’re clueless and they don’t care. You’d think the person responsible for keeping America safe would at least give the impression that he’s “working on it”. They don’t even try to hide their ineptness any more. Bizarre.
(P.s., check inside the containers before sealing them.)
SHOOT the invaders as they cross the border…I guarantee they will stop!!
well, AZ turned blue last election, so they got what they voted for. they should have known better.
Biden was a good little Commie DemocRat when he stopped installation of all Southern border fence installation. The DemocRats need thos illegals to use for ballot rigging!!!!
I do think the USA needs a treaty with the other Nations that are sources for entry to the USA illegally (especially Mexico) that requires them to take custody of illegals that cross FROM their country and be responsible for punishing the illegals that cross the US borders and according to what laws they think are needed to insure they return to their country of citizenry and do NOT re-attempt future efforts to reenter illegally either country. I fear that in the long run the death penalty may have to be instituted to stop a significant fraction of illegals. I think the only way to really stem the tide of illegals attempting to enter this country.is to make sure they know that it will NOT be tolerated by the USA or the country from which they attempt entry..
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Brilliant! Guess kari lake is his motivator!
Good for them. This is about survival plain and simple. It is about admitting and facing the fact that the feds are absolutely not going to be there for the American people. Facing the fact we are on our own is the first step in our survival. Do what needs to be done. Darwin’s offspring will most likely not survive this. Help where you can…but not at the expense of your children and family.
I really don’t understand why the border Governor’s don’t have the courage to declare an invasion.
Why wouldn’t they utilize every option available to protect their citizens??
Ducey should have acted sooner. He should know not to put his trust in the FGeds. Kyle L.
I can’t wait to see the looks on the faces of the idiots who are fleeing their own countries. They will soon find that they have fled their own tyrannical countries, only to belatedly find that we have become a worse tyranny, run not by voters, but by an army of cartel-loving crooks who have trampled the Constitution and regard its citizens as sheep to be robbed and completely controlled..
George Soros and certain other America-hating Hollyweird Elitists (such as Leonardo DeCaprio)
must be gloating.
It’s about time.
Are they planning on burying those shipping containers down 120 or so feet before they start stacking them 90 or so feet high?
The tunnel moles tend to be resourceful….you see!
Thank God for the governors of Arizona, Texas and Florida. They are doing what the traitor Biden should!
Joe Biden dismantling the efforts to “protect and defend” this country from the invasion of illegals is TREASON and he should be impeached. He gave a direct command to his vice-president to handle this crisis and she did nothing, also contrary to the Constitution and again is TREASON and should be removed from office. That would make the Speaker of House the acting President as happened with Nixon ( heaven forbid ), but since any member of Congress who did not support President Trumps initiative to build the wall in the first place acted in TREASON they are impeached too and cannot vote in any other action of impeachment. Therefore, there needs to be a SPECIAL ELECTION to elect a President and Congress to run this country!!!
Don’t think there are very many Democrats on this forum but when They tell you the border is closed and you know that’s a big lie, no recession, and that a lie and the media lying about everything which comes from the Democrat party, how can Democrats keep voting for Democrats, It’s like a religion to them. Sorry about venting but all this ruining our country needs to stop and I don’t know how to do it when Democrats and our FBI And justice department are fine with cheating at elections.
SEND ALL OF THE illegals TO THE WHITE HOUSE AND THE fbi OFFICES (NOW THE RUSSIAN , KGB)
If the states can actively define, why aren’t they. I can pretty much guarantee that National Guard on the border with guns, shooting invaders would work. It’d only take a few attempts to solve the problem.
Whatever it takes to secure our borders, we need to be doing. Since the Biden administration is protecting illegal immigrants who enter the U.S., we need to prevent them from being able to enter in the first place. Also blast tunnels.