Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona will demolish a temporary barrier built of shipping containers at the border with Mexico, ending a legal dispute and political scuffle with the federal government over trespassing on federal territory.
According to court filings submitted on Wednesday in the United States, the Biden administration and the Republican governor agreed that Arizona would stop placing the containers in national forests. Phoenix district court.
The agreement also mandates that by January 4, without causing any harm to any natural resources, Arizona will remove the containers that have already been placed in the remote San Rafael Valley in southeast Cochise County.
State organizations must consult with the US. Representatives of the Forest Service.
The resolution is being passed two weeks before Democratic nominee Katie Hobbs, who opposes the project, assumes the governorship.
Last week, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Department of Agriculture, and the Forest Service joined the federal government in suing Ducey’s administration.
Ducey informed federal officials that Arizona was prepared to assist in the container removal before the lawsuit.
They were erected, he claimed, as a temporary barrier. However, as it promised to do a year ago, he urged the federal government to specify when it would close any gaps in the ongoing border wall.
In response to information about the impending federal lawsuit, Ducey stated last week that the federal government “owes it to Arizonans and all Americans to give a timeline.”
A third of the $95 million project to place up to 3,000 containers had already been completed, but recent days have seen delays due to environmental protests.
Before conservative-leaning states asked the Supreme Court for assistance to keep them in place on Wednesday, restrictions on asylum applicants wanting to enter the United States were scheduled to expire.
The Trump-era restrictions have been requested to be lifted by the Biden administration, but not before Christmas.
When the court might make a decision is unclear.
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