TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Arizona Governor, Doug Ducey has agreed to remove the makeshift border wall built of stacked shipping containers as well as halt any further installments.
This agreement is a byproduct of a lawsuit filed by the Biden Administration, settling a dispute with the U.S. Government over trespassing on federal lands.
“It’s a settlement. The court case that is going forward challenging the right of the federal government, interior, those departments from being able to require, as they do of any other organization, any other government, any other individual, to go through a process to permanently alter or change the public landscape of public lands than all of us own, he didn’t do that,” said Democratic Representative Raúl M. Grijalva.
The Biden Administration argued that Ducey’s wall was illegally constructed on federal land, and was also causing harm to the local environment, damaging wildlife and natural resources.
“In the first mile alone of the new road, over 70 mature oak trees were cut down and 20 washes were blocked,” said Emily Burns, program director at Sky Island Alliance.
Burns says the shipping containers have also repelled wildlife from their core habitat.
“We are concerned about the lasting impact it’s going to have on the species that rely on the Coronado National Forest,” Burns said.
The agreement is to remove all shipping containers and halt construction by January 4, 2023.
According to Ducey's communications director C.J. Karamargin, the governor is continuing the conversation with the federal government over a permanent border wall.
"For more than a year, the federal government has been touting their effort to resume construction of a permanent border barrier," Karamargin told KGUN 9. "We’re working with the federal government to ensure they can begin construction of this barrier with the urgency this problem demands."
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Breanna Isbell is a reporter for KGUN 9. She joined the KGUN 9 team in July of 2022 after receiving her bachelor’s degree in sports journalism from Arizona State University in May. Share your story ideas with Breanna by emailing breanna.isbell@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, or Twitter.
