On Sept. 8, as Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey toured a wall of shipping containers stacked two-high along the state’s southern border in Yuma, he declared the barrier would stem the flow of illegal migration and drug smuggling from Mexico into the United States.
A month earlier, Ducey, a Republican, signed an executive order authorizing the Arizona Department of Military Affairs to erect the barrier fringed with barbed wire to seal the gaps in the southern border wall.
The $6 million project was part of a half-billion dollar fiscal 2023 state budget package for border security signed by the governor earlier this year.
“Last time I stood along the border here in Yuma, multiple migrants crossed the border into Arizona illegally—right in front of us,” Ducey said during a press conference near the Morales Dam at the temporary border barrier….