'Arizona did the job the federal government failed to do': Gov. Ducey's Yuma border wall completed



Over 1.9 million illegal aliens have stolen across the southern U.S. border in 2022 — more than ever before in recorded history. Yuma, Arizona, is a particularly high-traffic sector, which has seen a 250% increase in migrant encounters this year, with over 259,895 illegal aliens encountered between October 2021 and July 2022.

Citing "the worst border crisis in over 20 years," Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed a bill into law on June 30 that would finance the construction of a wall along his state's border with Mexico. Accordingly, $335 million in state funds were directed to "construct and maintain a border fence, purchase or install border security technologies, and to pay associated administrative costs." An additional $209 million was allocated to fund "border-related enforcement."

Although President Joe Biden halted construction of the southern border wall when he took office and ended former President Donald Trump's Remain in Mexico policy, his administration announced in July that it would complete the Trump-funded U.S.-Mexico border wall, specifically in the Yuma sector.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, part of the administration's reasoning for completing the project near Yuma was to protect illegal aliens from getting hurt near the Morelos Dam.

Ducey found the Biden administration's initiative dubious and issued a statement on August 12, asserting that "Arizona has had enough. We can't wait any longer. The Biden administration's lack of urgency on border security is a dereliction of duty." Ducey indicated that he would fortify gaps in the state's border, using 60 double-stacked 8,800-pound shipping containers, all reinforced with concertina wire at the top.

Despite an allegedly deliberate effort by persons unknown to topple portions of the new build last week, on August 24, Ducey announced that 3,820 feet of open border near Yuma had been filled. Now plugging the gaps in Yuma's border barrier: 130 containers (70 more containers than originally promised), all double-stacked, linked together, and welded shut.

\u201c\ud83d\udd3911 days\n\ud83d\udd395 gaps\n\ud83d\udd39130 shipping containers\n\ud83d\udd393,820 linear feet\n\ud83d\udd3948 workers\n\nWe did it. Yuma is safer today.\u201d
— Doug Ducey (@Doug Ducey) 1661378098

Concerning the barrier's completion, Ducey said, "In just 11 days, Arizona did the job the federal government has failed to do — and we showed them just how quickly and efficiently the border can be made more secure — if you want to."

Douglas Nicholls, the mayor of Yuma, said that the Morelos Dam, now covered with shipping containers, was where 50% of the illegal aliens crossing in the Yuma sector would come through.

Arizona Department of Homeland Security Director Tim Roemer suggested that the containers will force illegals to "go through Border Patrol" and minimize the number of future "gotaways on the southwest."

Arizona straddles 300 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. Although Yuma is now more secure, Ducey cannot presently run shipping containers the entire length of the border or everywhere install border security technology, since a significant stretch of it is reservation land.

\u201cHundreds of migrants waiting to be processed by Border Patrol in Yuma, AZ today. This is on the edge of the Cocopah Indian Reservation. With many of the border wall gaps now filled, most migrants are crossing through reservation land because that\u2019s where the wall can\u2019t be built.\u201d
— Robert Sherman (@Robert Sherman) 1661338642

Sixty miles of the Tohono O'odham Nation's land, for instance, runs along the border. One tribal leader, Chairman Ned Norris Jr., likened the construction of a wall along the border near tribal land to the DHS "building a 30-foot wall along Arlington cemetery."

Gov. Ducey recognizes the border wall construction at Yuma as a "win for Arizona, our communities, our farmers and our law enforcement," but stated that "the effort to secure our border is far from complete. Washington must act. Border security is a federal responsibility. They need to fix the border they've broken."

EXCLUSIVE: Border wall built with shipping containers near Yuma complete; here’s what it looks like YouTube

Jean-Pierre insists that Biden is not 'finishing' Trump's wall when Doocy asks about plan to close border wall gaps in Arizona



White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday repeatedly insisted that the Biden administration is not finishing President Donald Trump's border wall, even though the administration said it will complete unfinished gaps of wall in Arizona.

Yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security announced that four wide gaps in the border wall near the Morelos Dam in the Yuma sector will be completed using funding from the agency's 2021 budget. The decision to complete the project comes after President Joe Biden halted border wall construction upon assuming office and vowed that not a "single foot" of new wall would be built during his time in the White House.

So on Friday, Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy asked Jean-Pierre about the obvious reversal in Biden's policy at the daily White House press briefing

"Why is the Biden administration building a border wall in Arizona?" Doocy asked.

"We are not finishing the wall. We are cleaning up the mess the prior administration left behind in their failed attempt to build a wall," Jean-Pierre said.

She emphasized that the Biden administration returned $8 billion that the Trump administration had diverted from the Department of Defense to fund wall construction.

"We gave that back to the military for military families, for schools, for bases. That's what that money was being used — that's what it was taken away from," she said, neglecting to address the question.

"But President Biden, when he was a candidate, said that 'there will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration.' So what changed?" Doocy followed up.

"We are not finishing the wall," the press secretary insisted.

Doocy tried another approach with his questions.

"If walls work in that part of Arizona, is this the administration trying to get migrants to cross somewhere else, like in Texas? What is the plan?"

Jean-Pierre repeated her previous answer before adding, "we are trying to save lives."

"By finishing the wall, is this —" Doocy began before Jean-Pierre cut him off.

"We are not finishing the wall," she said.

"By filling in? Finishing?" Doocy probed, searching for a word to describe how a previously uncompleted section of physical barrier at the southern border will now be completed under Biden's directive.

"We are not finishing the wall," Jean-Pierre said for the fifth time.

"By filling in the wall, is this racist? Because in 2019, when the former guy was proposing a wall, you said that it was this racist wall. So how is this any different?" Doocy asked.

"I'm not even sure how you get to your first question to this question that you just asked me. I will say this, a border wall ... is ineffective use of taxpayer dollars," Jean-Pierre said. She went on to repeat for the sixth time that the Biden administration is not "finishing" the wall and that it is "cleaning up the mess that the last administration made."

\u201c.@pdoocy destroys the Biden Admin's hypocrisy for building a border wall in AZ.\n\nKJP: We're not finishing the wall. We're fixing the mess of the previous Admin\n\nDoocy: So by filling in the wall, is this racist? You said it was when Trump did it.\u201d
— MRCTV (@MRCTV) 1659120001

DHS explained Thursday that the Biden administration is finishing the border wall in the Yuma sector to "address operational impacts, as well as immediate life and safety risks."

The area where there are gaps in the wall has become among the most highly trafficked crossings by illegal immigrants at the southern border.

DHS is concerned that migrants attempting to cross the border at Morelos Dam are at risk of falling and drowning in the Colorado River. There is also a hazard for Border Patrol agents responding to incidents in the area.

Finishing the wall at the Yuma Morelos Dam Project will hopefully redirect migrants to a safer point of entry where they can be processed for asylum claims or deported after they enter into U.S. custody.