Environmentalists are staging a round-the-clock vigil to stop further construction on a wall of stacked shipping containers along the U.S.-Mexico border in the Coronado National Forest in Arizona. The concertina-wire-topped wall is the multimillion-dollar brainchild of Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who has repeatedly promised to strengthen the border against drug traffickers and crossing migrants.
Perhaps Arizonans envisioned state-of-the-art fencing that keeps out migrants but conforms to the landscape and is mindful of the delicate ecosystem in the area. Instead, the ramshackle container wall looks like the work of a giant toddler, and is a blight on an area that environmentalists say is an international birding mecca. As for stopping unsanctioned border crossings, a video recently posted on Twitter shows a man scaling the wall in less than 30 seconds. And for those who don’t want to climb, there are wide triangular gaps on the ground where containers don’t easily align along the hilly terrain.
Clearly, the nonfunctional wall is a waste of money, a personal trophy for a politician intent on showing the world what he can get away with in the last months of his tenure.
