Arizona Gov. Accused of Trespassing Over Anti-Migrant Shipping Container 'Wall' Along US Border

In August, Doug Ducey stressed that “Arizonans can’t wait any longer for the federal government to deliver on their delayed promises” to resolve the US migration crisis.

The Biden administration has accused Arizona Governor Doug Ducey of trespassing on federal land, referring to his efforts to fill gaps along the US southern border with shipping containers.

In a letter to Arizona government, Jacklynn Gould, regional director for the Bureau of Reclamation’s Lower Colorado Basin, noted that “the unauthorized placement of those containers constitutes a violation of federal law and is a trespass against the United States.”

"That trespass is harming federal lands and resources and impeding Reclamation’s ability to perform its mission,” Gould, whose bureau falls under the Department of the Interior, added.

The remarks came a few weeks after Ducey responded to federal agencies’ demands to remove his shipping containers from the Arizona-Mexico border by lodging a lawsuit, which claims that land at the border shouldn’t be under federal jurisdiction and that the state has a constitutional right to take action.

The Grand Canyon State’s governor pointed out at the time that "the lack of planning and action from the Biden administration demonstrates that border states like Arizona cannot rely on the federal government to ensure its security."

He said that the state’s border communities are “overwhelmed by illegal activity as a result of the Biden administration’s failure to secure the [US] southern border.”

"Arizona is taking action to protest on behalf of our citizens. With this lawsuit, we’re pushing back against efforts by federal bureaucrats to reverse the progress we’ve made. The safety and security of Arizona and its citizens must not be ignored. Arizona is going to do the job that Joe Biden refuses to do — secure the border in any way we can. We’re not backing down,” Ducey emphasized.

This followed the Arizona governor’s order to start using shipping containers in August so as to fill gaps in the southern border, a move which Ducey argued aims to tackle “the inaction of the Biden Administration in stopping migrants from entering the state from Mexico.” Ducey’s plan stipulates covering a 10-mile (16-kilometer) section of the border using more than 2,700 containers, each 60-feet long.

The US remains in the grip of a migration crisis, with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data revealing recently that the number of illegal migrants apprehended on the US southern border hit a new record.

The CBP reported a whopping 2.3 million migrant apprehensions at the southern border over the last 12 months, in what surpassed the record high set last year. The annual total, which includes those who were stopped at the border more than once, soared by 37% from 1.7 million in 2021.

In a separate development, US Border Patrol figures showed that the agency’s 2022 fiscal year, which wrapped up September 30, became the deadliest twelve months for migrants. More than 800 of them died on the journey to the US, with drowning and heat exhaustion being among the top causes of death.

The crisis on the US southern border began almost immediately after Biden took office in January 2021 and revoked Donald Trump’s migration policies, including the 45th president’s signature border wall and the “Remain in Mexico” programs. Other measures, including promises to “restore and expand” the US asylum system, and to potentially provide a “path to citizenship” for more than 11 million undocumented immigrants already residing in the US, resulted in a further surge in entry attempts.