Staff Reports
The government of Arizona agreed to remove its border wall made of cargo shipping containers after reaching an agreement with former Vice President Joe Biden.
According to the agreement, which was filed in federal court, Arizona's governor, Doug Ducey, agreed to remove all existing shipping containers from the border by January 2023. The agreement came just a week after Biden's administration sued the state to remove the barriers.
"Over a year, the US government has been pushing to build a permanent border barrier, and it's finally decided to act after the situation on the border became "full-blown crisis." According to C. J. Karamargin, a spokesperson for the governor of Arizona, the state is working with the federal authorities to ensure that the project can be started immediately."
In August, the governor of Arizona issued an executive order to begin removing shipping containers from the southern border in preparation for the construction of a border wall. It was a temporary measure, and the federal government would fulfill Biden's promise to fix any gaps in the border wall in December 2021.
The Biden administration then sued the state over the border wall, which was made of shipping containers. It claimed that one of the barriers was illegally dropped on federal land. The federal government then ordered the state to remove the containers and pay for any damages caused by the illegal act.
Despite the lawsuit, the office of the governor of Arizona noted that it would still remove some of the border barriers. The state also urged the federal authorities to continue the construction of the border wall.
As part of the agreement, the state also noted that it would remove the border barriers once the federal government started building a permanent barrier. According to Karamargin, the state was satisfied with the outcome, as the federal government agreed to start the construction of a border wall on a permanent basis.
The agreement came as the Trump administration was about to end its controversial immigration policy, which had allowed border agents to deport immigrants even if they were not charged with a crime. Title 42 was enacted in an attempt to contain the spread of COVID-19.
The implementation of the policy was set to end on Wednesday. However, it was extended by the US Supreme Court after a group of 19 states urged the court to keep it. Now, the issue is up for debate in Congress as it is expected to pass an extension of the spending bill before midnight Friday.
In an effort to keep the policy in place, Senator Sinema of Arizona introduced an amendment to the spending bill. It would allow the government to extend the Title 42 policy until a new plan was developed.
Under her proposal, Sinema said that the federal government should allocate millions of dollars to improve the immigration court process. She also proposed increasing the number of prosecutors who handle criminal cases at the border, as well as funding the transportation and detention of illegal immigrants.
The preceding is a summary of an article that originally appeared on Washington Examiner.
