December 12, 2022

"Arizona’s Republican governor.... Doug Ducey is driving a project that is placing double-stacked old shipping containers through several miles of national forest, attempting..."

"... to fill gaps in Donald Trump’s intermittent border fencing. The rusting hulks, topped with razor wire and with bits of metal jammed into gaps, stretch for more than three miles through Coronado national forest land, south of Tucson, and the governor has announced plans to extend that up to 10 miles, at a cost of $95m (£78m). The area, with mountain ranges rising abruptly from the desert and a diverse environment of plants and animals, is federal land maintained by the US Forest Service."

The Guardian reports, in "Arizona governor builds border wall of shipping crates in final days of office."

If it's federal land, maintained by the federal government, why doesn't the federal government stop this ramshackle building project? Is this just another side of the federal government's inability/unwillingness to control the border?

It turns out, there is a lawsuit:

In October, Ducey filed a lawsuit in which he claimed that the federal land along the border known as the Roosevelt Reservation actually belongs to the state, not the US government, and that Arizona has the constitutional right to protect itself against what he termed an invasion, citing “countless migrants” resulting in “a mix of drug, crime and humanitarian issues”...

Dinah Bear, an attorney and former general counsel for the council on environmental quality within the executive office of the White House said, “There’s just no question that this is federal property.... there’s no legal difference between the land they’re putting the shipping containers on and Grand Canyon national park.”

Then why don't they physically stop the project? All they are doing is waiting for the case to proceed in court and waiting for the new governor, Democrat Katie Hobbs, to take office, on January 2d. Will she tear down this wall?

Meanwhile, the sheriff of Santa Cruz county said that "if anyone tries to put the containers in his jurisdiction they will be arrested for illegal dumping."

It's quite ugly:

32 comments:

Big Mike said...

It's quite ugly:

Ditto young people dying from fentanyl.

Owen said...

Ducey should have commissioned this as an artwork inspired by Christo. Not only would the lawsuits evaporate, he could sell postcards and autographed posters.

Enigma said...

"National Forest" makes it seem as if southern Arizona is full of trees rather than miles and miles of deserts. Well, look at those photos or take your next vacation in the Tucson area and see for yourself. It's the same as a National Park, well yeah. The Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is on the Arizona-Mexico border and has a very long highway on the Mexican side. It was a major smuggling route for decades (see below -- Ranger was shot and killed in 2002). Visiting tourists have long been strongly warned about potential border issues. This National Monument also has no trees, just lots of cactus on former cattle grazing land.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_Pipe_Cactus_National_Monument

I guess Biden - Lake may be pushing the environmental angle hoping that vigilante farmer "militias" return and make martyrs of the immigrants. The most obvious logic is to lay groundwork for further state control ("The Lives of Others"), or a pretext for attacks on anti-Biden citizens and politicians.

To forecast the future, review the late days of the Roman Empire...

Duke Dan said...

Someone from the federal government would actually have to go to the border to remove it. We know that doesn’t happen.

wendybar said...

Why do we even have laws when our Federal Government refuse to enforce the ones on the books??

hawkeyedjb said...

Democrats want free passage for the Fentanyl mules. Jaguars and ocelots are an afterthought.

Dave Begley said...

Big Mike is right. Melissa is worried and complaining about aesthetics and people are dying because of drugs.

The remedy is mandamus. I’m the Nebraska expert on it.

Birches said...

Eh, the colors of the shipping containers blends well with desert colors. Looks pretty Sedona Red to me.

Temujin said...

No worries. Katie Hobbs will get right on it, removing the storage cars and any bits of the actual wall while she's at it. I simply cannot believe the people of AZ voted this person in as Governor. But then, I'm the one who still doesn't believe 81 million people voted for that Sack O'Potatoes we've got as President.

SteveWe said...

Temujin,

There are a lot of really stupid voters in these not-so-united states.

dbp said...
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dbp said...
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dbp said...

"This will cost $100 million, keep nobody out & forever harm endangered ocelots, jaguars and other species"

It's a magical wall: Not capable of stopping any Human from passage, but will utterly stop the passage of the considerably smaller and agile ocelots!

If you think of the wall as art, it's quite picturesque.

Howard said...

We gotta take these bastards. Now we could do it with conventional weapons, but that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part!

Bryant said...

All the "horrible" pictures are just close-up shots of a few containers. If this is some remote location and you can't see it from anywhere then how it is worse than a train moving across the plains?

mikee said...

Those aren't a wall, they are free housing for the immigrant community. Or at least for the any of them with a SawzAll to cut windows and doors.

donald said...

I saw this in Algadones last week. He’s gotta ‘em stacked right next to the wall. When you drive west on I-8 there appears to be nothing.

My teeth are a revelation to me. I’m now a good lookin old long hair type. People think I’m a peace and love hippie out here. Heh, I’ll show them.

hawkeyedjb said...

SteveWe said...
"There are a lot of really stupid voters in these not-so-united states."

While Joe Biden and Katie Hobbs are probably two of the stupidest people in public life in this country, those who vote for them are not necessarily stupid. They will get what they want from their chosen candidate, which is all that matters. There aren't very many people who think Joe Biden is actually "The President," but those who voted for him are happy with the situation.

Temujin said...
"I simply cannot believe the people of AZ voted this person in as Governor."

They didn't, really. They voted for whoever is pulling Katie's strings, one of which (unfortunately) is George Soros.

hombre said...

The Biden feds don't give a rat's ass about the forest. The purpose of any such lawsuit is to restore unfettered entry to the country for people shuttled by the cartels.

Big money!

Bob Boyd said...

"BREAKING: A huge migrant caravan of over 1,000 people crossed illegally into El Paso, TX last night, making it the largest single group we have ever seen. The city of El Paso reports Border Patrol now has over 5,000 in custody & has released hundreds to city streets."

Video here:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1602301863822491650

Michael K said...

Sadly, the Soros creature, Hobbs, will start dismantling this attempt to stop the invasion as soon as she takes office.

Anthony said...

Temujin said...
I simply cannot believe the people of AZ voted this person in as Governor.


Some people did, but there's no way of knowing who got the most actual votes because the voting system is so corrupt and incompetent.

PM said...

Seems like a Christo thing to force Federal action. Pretty smart.

Lurker21 said...

Should have built the "big, beautiful border wall" instead.

Jaguar and Ocelot sightings are quite rare in Arizona. The ones who have been spotted have been male. LGBTQ?

Joe Smith said...

Ugly containers vs raped women and children, drugs, failing school districts, and overcrowded hospitals.

I'll take the shipping containers...

n.n said...

"It's quite ugly:"

Ditto young people dying from fentanyl.


And girls raped, and the "burden" of evidence aborted, perhaps cannibalized, then sequestered [in a sanctuary state], at both ends of the bridge and at the border, while emigration reform is pushed to the back of the bus in favor of immigration reform with "benefits".

n.n said...

"It's quite ugly:"

Ditto young people dying from fentanyl.


And girls raped, and the "burden" of evidence aborted, perhaps cannibalized, then sequestered [in a sanctuary state], at both ends of the bridge and at the border, while emigration reform is pushed to the back of the bus in favor of immigration reform with "benefits".

Achilles said...

Looks like a wall with a bunch of gaps and holes in it.

Now on the other hand if the Arizona National Guard is sitting on top of it with guns I think it could work.

Paul A. Mapes said...

Ducey's container wall isn't "illegal" it's just undocumented.

Paul A. Mapes said...

Ducey's container wall isn't "illegal," its just undocumented.

Dude1394 said...

Sex trafficked children is uglier.

typingtalker said...

... and the governor has announced plans to extend that up to 10 miles ...

The Pima County public library tells us that the Arizona-Mexico border is 370 miles long. That's a lot of containers.

Pima County Public Library