The Grind:
The Justice Department (DOJ) is suing Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey and his administration over the use of shipping containers to build a wall along the state’s southern border with Mexico.
The DOJ filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona on Wednesday, claiming that the project trespasses on federal property.
The Details:
“Arizona has unlawfully and without authority failed to remove the shipping containers from lands owned by the United States or over which the United States holds easements, thereby damaging the United States,” the lawsuit argues.
The legal move comes after Ducey issued an executive order in August directing the state’s Department of Emergency and Military Affairs to begin a Yuma County project. The 3,820 feet of the previously open border was closed with 130 shipping containers in just 11 days.
The project then expanded to other parts of the border, with 6,680 feet of containers stacked two-high throughout Cochise County by early November. That section is estimated to take more than 2,700 shipping containers to fill the 10-mile gap along the southern border. Read more…