After a two-week standoff between protesters and construction crews who built a border wall made of shipping containers, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Arizona on Wednesday, charging it with trespassing on federal land.
The lawsuit seeks “immediate injunctive relief preventing” the state from continuing work on the wall, which federal officials say was built on federal land without the required permits or authority.
“Arizona has illegally and without authority failed to remove the shipping containers from land owned by the United States or on which the United States has easements, thereby harming the United States,” the complaint reads.
The lawsuit follows months of tension between the outgoing governor. Doug Ducey’s office and federal agencies, including the US Forest Service and the Department of the Interior, oversee the public lands on which the barrier is being built.
In August, Ducey issued an executive order directing the Arizona Department of Military and Emergency Affairs to plug gaps in the existing border wall in Yuma County using shipping containers.
The federal government declared the land public and called the project “illegal.”
In October, Ducey sued federal officials who head agencies that oversee public lands, including the Forest Service and Department of Agriculture. The federal government has requested that the lawsuit be dismissed. The project has since expanded to Cochise County, where local residents and environmentalists have braved the snow and freezing temperatures to stage protests.
On Tuesday, Ducey’s office told the Justice Department in a letter that Arizona “is ready to work with the federal government in building a border wall and always has been.” The letter indicates that the work has been suspended.
Ducey’s spokesman, C.J. Karamargin, said: “From our point of view, containers have always been understood as a temporary solution to an ongoing problem, and that is the problem of an insecure border.”
“This should be the beginning of the end for Doug Ducey’s illegal assault on protected national forest lands and endangered wildlife,” said Russ McSpadden, Southwest conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. in a statement sent by email. “Ducey is spending his final days in office wasting millions of taxpayer dollars dumping toxic railcars on some of Arizona’s most beautiful and biodiverse lands. Let’s hope a judge quickly stops this ruthless and reckless PR stunt.”
Also on Wednesday, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a notice of intent to sue Ducey’s Over The Wall office over ecological concerns.
The center says the wall violated the Clean Water Act in Coronado National Forest, near where its construction is taking place.
Dr. Robin Silver of the Center for Biological Diversity said the intention to sue is necessary because the federal complaint against Ducey’s office doesn’t go far enough to require an immediate halt to construction. Important waterways are being damaged or disturbed by land-based shipping containers serving as important habitats and crossings, even for endangered species, he said.
“We don’t trust the feds,” he said. “Under the Clean Water Act, they created a dam out of those containers, and now it looks like a landfill.”
Protesters have said they will not leave the protest site until the bins are removed, even if it means camping in tents in sub-zero temperatures for the upcoming holiday.
