Feds call Arizona's shipping container barrier 'trespassing' as thousands illegally cross border

U.S. officials said that Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey’s placement of shipping containers along the U.S.-Mexico border to close wall gaps amounts to a "trespassing" violation despite hundreds of thousands of migrants continuing to illegally cross the border. 

The Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees the area where the containers were placed, said in a letter on Friday that the unauthorized placement of the containers is a violation of federal law and can be considered trespassing. 

“The unauthorized placement of those containers constitutes a violation of federal law and is a trespass against the United States,” says the letter sent by Jacklynn Gould, director of the Bureau of Reclamation's Lower Colorado Basin. “That trespass is harming federal lands and resources and impeding Reclamation’s ability to perform its mission.”

The department is asking Ducey to remove all the containers he has placed and stop placing new ones. 

The federal government's targeting of Ducey's makeshift border comes amid a crisis in which an estimated two million people have crossed the Southwest border during the 2022 fiscal year.

Numbers have reached roughly 200,000 per month with barrier breaches mainly in Arizona and Texas, according to data collected by U.S. Custom and Border Protection. 

In August, Ducey issued an executive order to fill in the border wall gaps near Yuma with shipping containers topped with razor wire without obtaining authorization to carry out the project on federal land. 

The order followed HB 2317, legislation Ducey signed in June that "dedicate[d ]a record $564 million to help to secure our border with a physical barrier, address critical public safety staffing shortages, and modernize the technology and public safety equipment to target criminal activity and keep our citizens safe."

Ducey said at that time a signing letter that “inaction by President Joe Biden has led to the worst border crisis in over 20 years... We’ve taken numerous steps to help resolve the chaos, including deploying the Arizona National Guard, signing legislation to address human smuggling and transporting migrants on a voluntary basis to Washington, D.C. Ultimately, however, securing our border is the responsibility of the federal government."

The double-stacked shipping containers reach up to about 22 feet in height and weigh 8,800 pounds, creating a “new border wall.” Around 122 of these containers were placed on the bureau’s land near Morelos Dam and the boundaries of the Cocopah Indian Tribe’s West Reservation. 

The Yuma Sector of the border wall, where Ducey is placing the shipping containers, has been particularly affected by the large influx of migrants that are crossing the border. Yuma has a 242% increase in migrant encounters compared to last year, overwhelming officers stationed in the area. 

"Yuma has experienced the worst of the border crisis. We’re grateful to Governor Ducey for ingraining himself in this issue and finding solutions," said Yuma Mayor Doug Nicholls in August. 

The Biden administration recently awarded a federal contract to close two border wall gaps near Yuma and anticipated awarding additional contracts to close two more gaps in the area, according to the letter by the bureau. 

The Bureau says that Ducey’s actions might interfere with the recently awarded contracts. 

“We've been hearing for months now that [the Biden Administration] was planning to do something and they've done nothing,” said Ducey spokesperson C.J. Karamargin. “So while they're talking about it and writing letters, we're actually taking action.”

In Ducey's June signing letter he argued steps by the state were necessary because of federal inaction. 

"We are standing up for the rule of law, and we are cementing Arizona’s commitment to securing our state and our entire nation,” he wrote.