(PatriotWise.com) – In settling a lawsuit brought by the US government over claims that it was trespassing on federal lands, Arizona agreed to take down the makeshift border wall made of shipping containers.
Last week, the Biden administration and Arizona Governor Doug Ducey entered into an agreement that the state would stop installing the containers in the Coronado National Forest, according to court documents filed in US District Court in Phoenix last Wednesday.
As part of the agreement, Arizona will remove the containers already installed in the San Rafael Valley in southeastern Cochise County and in the Yuma area where the US Bureau of Reclamation has an easement on the Cocopah Indian reservation.
The removal of the containers must be completed by January 4.
Governor Ducey has long said that the containers were only a temporary structure and had asked the federal government to confirm when it planned to fill any remaining gaps in the permanent border barrier as it announced it would a year ago.
C.J. Karamargin, the governor’s spokesperson told the Associated Press that the Biden administration has been touting its effort to resume construction on a permanent barrier for over a year. Karamargin said the administration only decided to act after the situation at the Arizona/Mexico border “turned into a full-blown crisis,” adding “Better late than never.”
According to Karamargin, the final details of the cost of the permanent barrier and when construction will begin “are still being worked out.”
In a statement last week, Governor Ducey said the Biden administration “owes it to Arizonans and all Americans to release a timeline” on the construction of the permanent barrier.
The Biden administration sued the Ducey administration last week on behalf of the Bureau of Reclamation, the Department of Agriculture, and the Forest Service.
Arizona’s work installing about 3,000 containers for $95 million was about a third of the way completed.
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