As the migrant crisis continues, various conservative groups and individuals have decided to take action in preventing migrants from being able to cross over while simultaneously instilling fear into our communities. We have seen more conservative podcasts, mass shootings, and anti-immigrant legislation. In Arizona, we saw now-former Governor Doug Ducey take extreme action in the Coronado National Forest.
Ducey argued that the federal government was not doing enough to control the number of migrants coming into the United States so he decided to take matters into his own hands. He created a makeshift border with shipping containers to fill in the gaps at the current border. In his final days, activists occupied the construction site to halt construction. However, in only a month 4 miles of shipping containers were put in place in what was to become 10 miles of a new border.
Construction of this makeshift border was estimated to cost about $80-$82 million. As one can imagine, there was immediate backlash, not just by immigrant rights groups but also by environmental groups. The Coronado National Forest is one of the last wildlife corridors with endangered animals like the jaguar and ocelot. While humans can still cross over shipping containers, animals can not and are severely impacted by this environmental damage. Environmental groups like Sierra Club, Wildlands Network, and the Center for Biological Diversity fought for permits to get within the area and determine the environmental damage done by the shipping containers. However, permits were abruptly canceled and activists were escorted out of the forest by the Forest Service.
The Florida-based contractor, AshBritt, Inc., was in charge of creating this shipping container wall and has a history of supporting conservative representatives. AshBritt was caught illegally donating $500,000 to Trump’s super PAC America First Action and was forced to pay a $125,000 fine. Additionally, the contractor donated $120,000 to the Republican Governors Association which is a top donor to Florida Governor DeSantis, and whom Ducey is co-chair. AshBritt’s contract with Arizona included $123.6 million to build the shipping container walls Ducey so desperately wanted.
Ducey and AshBritt were eventually forced to stop construction after a lawsuit from the Biden Administration declared their actions unlawful. The lawsuit orders that the shipping containers come down by the first week of January. According to the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs, 1,700 shipping containers will be removed at an estimated cost of $76.5 million. Current Democratic Governor, Katie Hobbs, has promised to ensure that the shipping containers come down.
Activists also filed a lawsuit against Ducey and Ashbritt for violation of the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. However, a court ruled that the violation of the Endangered Species Act is moot, meaning the violation is no longer valid since the shipping containers are said to be removed soon. Activists are now hoping that the lawsuit regarding the Clean Water Act does not get dismissed as well so that Ducey and Ashbritt can be held accountable for their xenophobic and environmentally reckless decisions.
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