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Has been updated: December 8, 2022 at 7:15 PM
In the first half of 2019, more than 3.27 million pedestrians crossed from Mexico to the United States via six cities on the Arizona border: Douglas, Lukeville, Naco, San Luis, Sasave and Nogales. (Photo by Miranda Sil / Cronkite News)
PHOENIX — Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway said Wednesday that he does not support the placement of double-stacked shipping containers along the southern Arizona border because he does not believe there is an invasion.
Hathaway, a Democrat and former head of the local Drug Enforcement Administration, said: KTAR News The Gaydos and Chad Show on 92.3 FM Containers are illegal, and he plans to prosecute contractors hired by Gov. Doug Ducey to try to place containers along the border.
His department oversees Nogales, which has four major ports of entry into the country, including commercial, pedestrian and tourist ports of entry, the sheriff said.
“The shipping container wall is moving toward my county. It is now six miles from my county. “There are all sorts of problems with it,” Hathaway said.
Importantly to him, several federal organizations, including the National Guard, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Bureau of Reclamation, have said double-stacked containers are illegal.
Hathaway said that if the container arrives in Santa Cruz County, the construction workers and security guards will be arrested and charged with “illegal dumping on public land.”
With Title 42 — the COVID-related border policy that restricted asylum seekers from entering the United States — set to end in three weeks, officials from both parties are rushing to put their plans into action.
“This is purely COVID policy, but Democrats and Republicans are saying, ‘Let’s keep COVID policy going so we can’t go through normal immigration,'” Hathaway explained.
Yuma Mayor Doug Nichols said on Tuesday that the double-stacked shipping containers prevented property damage, protected communities and helped funnel to where activity was primarily taking place, but Hathaway was furious. I objected.
Despite the recent record number of immigration passages reported in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, Hathaway said there was “no invasion,” according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
He added: “You can take them to the border without fences, but all you hear is the birds chirping and the wind blowing.”
According to a report released in October, more than 227,000 immigrants were stopped at the U.S. border with Mexico in September, making it Joe Biden’s third-highest month as president.
But Nogales-born Southern Arizona county officials said they would prefer a four-strand livestock fence along the border.
Another area he would like to see changed is immigration processing times.
