By: Brittany Bernstein – nationalreview.com – December 12, 2022

The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the state of Arizona and Governor Doug Ducey over the state’s temporary border wall made of hundreds of double-stacked shipping containers.

The government argues the makeshift wall is illegal, dangerous, and interferes with federal duties, and has asked a judge to order the removal of the containers from U.S. land.

The suit requests damages for the state’s “unlawful trespasses” and asks for “a declaration that Arizona’s use and occupancy of lands owned by the United States without the required permits or other authorization constitutes unlawful trespasses.”

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for Arizona on Wednesday on behalf of the U.S. departments of Agriculture and Interior.

Work on the container wall had paused in recent days in response to protests from environmental activists and objections by the federal government, according to the Associated Press.

Federal agencies, including the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Forest Service, previously told Arizona the construction on federal land is unlawful and it must stop. In response, Ducey sued federal officials on October 21. The outgoing governor has argued the state holds sole or shared jurisdiction over the 60-foot-wide strip along the state’s remote eastern border with Mexico. He said the state has a constitutional right to protect residents from “imminent danger of criminal and humanitarian crises.”

“Arizona is going to do the job that Joe Biden refuses to do — secure the border in any way we can.” Ducey said in announcing the lawsuit last month. “We’re not backing down.”

The Justice Department Office of Legislative Affairs said that “the state’s actions have substantially curtailed federal law enforcement personnel from freely accessing the border area, and Arizona’s placement of armed guards on federal land risks putting federal law enforcement officials in danger,” according to an email obtained by the Arizona Republic.

“Arizona’s actions have also stymied federal efforts to complete construction of border infrastructure projects in certain locations,” the email adds.

Environmentalists have warned the containers could harm natural water systems and endanger species, while Governor-elect Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, called the containers a waste of resources and has suggested the containers could possibly be repurposed as affordable housing.

Ducey’s border wall project began this summer in Yuma, a popular crossing point where containers filled gaps in former president Donald Trump’s border wall. Now, crews have begun focusing on San Rafael Valley, an area of the border that does not see many border crossings, according to the Associated Press.

The initial project in Yuma cost about $6 million and required eleven days of work to erect 130 containers to secure some 3,800 feet.

The new work, which will use up to 3,000 containers to secure ten miles in Cochise County, is costing the state $95 million. The new wall has gaps of several hundred yards in some areas due to steep terrain.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is set to fill gaps on the border near Yuma with temporary mesh fencing and vehicle gates beginning in January, according to the Arizona Republic.

A spokesman for the governor celebrated the news.

“The shipping containers were always a temporary solution to an ongoing problem,” spokesman C.J. Karamargin said. “From our perspective, the shipping container mission is a success. Not only have we plugged gaps in the border barrier, but we got the federal government to do their job.”

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Source: Arizona Shipping Container Wall: Justice Department Sues Arizona Over Governor’s Border Wall | National Review