Arizona Governor Doug Ducey is rejecting President Biden’s demand to remove shipping containers that are being used to block a portion of the state’s border with Mexico.
On Wednesday, Gov. Ducey said, “Arizonans cannot — and will not — wait for federal bureaucrats to do their job and secure the border. We’re taking action now.”
Governor Ducey’s refusal comes after Biden’s Department of Interior said in a letter last week that Arizona was violating federal law by placing the containers on federal land and on the land of Cocopah Indian Tribe’s West Reservation, according to The Daily Wire.
“The unauthorized placement of those containers constitutes a violation of federal law and is a trespass against the United States,” the letter read. “That trespass is harming federal lands and resources and impeding Reclamation’s ability to perform its mission.”
A spokesperson for Ducey responded to the letter stating the governor will not entertain any proposals that directly endanger Arizonians’ safety.
“The suggestion by any federal bureaucracy, that we take action to make the border easier to cross, is completely unacceptable. Gov. Ducey takes the responsibility to protect Arizona very seriously — that’s why we put up these containers,” Ducey’s communications director, C.J. Karamargin, said in a call with the outlet. “What they’re suggesting, that we take them down and make Arizona less safe, is a nonstarter.”
The shipping container border barrier was created after the Governor signed an August order that authorized the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs to begin emergency construction to fill in a 1,000-foot-long gap in the border wall in the Yuma sector.
“Arizona has had enough,” Ducey said. “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.”
Arizona has experienced a massive influx of migrants since President Biden signed an executive order on his first day in office that stopped the construction of the border wall authorized by Trump. The nearly two-year crisis has caused multiple Arizona border towns to declare a state of emergency.
