In Arizona, Trump lets the wall move on



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A new border wall with Mexico was the great promise of the US president’s election campaign in 2016. In Arizona, the government is sparing no effort.

Hardly any promise from Donald Trump in 2016 was as ambitious as the announcement that a new border fortification would be built on the southern border of the United States. His critics smiled at the project for a long time, but four years later they must realize that Trump is actually pushing his plan.

According to experts, a new fortification should actually be built in 725 kilometers, that is, almost a quarter of the 3,200 kilometers of border between the United States and Mexico. Although the government is mainly extending the existing wall in long stretches, these “improvements” should not be underestimated: previous simple knee-high vehicle barriers are being replaced by thirty-foot-high steel struts; In some cases, the new wall is also complemented by barbed wire and a sophisticated lighting and video surveillance system.

Trump's new border fortification is being built in southern Arizona.

Trump’s new border fortification is being built in southern Arizona.

Martin Santos

The government has suspended more than 40 conservation laws to encourage construction in the border states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. It is based on a law passed after the 2001 terrorist attacks (Real ID Act); In addition, he declared a state of emergency on the southern border, which assured him more powers.

In Arizona, in particular, the construction of the Wall is making great strides because, unlike other border states, the Phoenix state government is not suing the plans. There are also fewer privately owned border areas in Arizona than in Texas, for example. The construction work in the remote desert regions in southeastern Arizona is particularly noteworthy: There have been no physical fortifications between the United States and Mexico for long stretches because the mountain landscapes form a natural border. In the middle of this impassable region, construction companies are now destroying entire cliffs with dynamite to create winding roads on which trucks can transport the steel girders of the border wall. Claims by some Democrats that Trump will only slightly repair the existing wall are being debunked here.

At the same time, it is questionable how useful it is to fortify the border in this place: there are no streets or villages where smugglers can hide and for more than half the year the temperature exceeds 40 degrees. The blasting work also affects the Guadalupe Canyon, a nature reserve and home to endangered species such as the jaguar. Animal rights activist Myles Traphagen of the Wildlands Network organization warns in an interview that the new border fortification will not hinder people but animals during migration. “It’s not just the wall, it’s the lighting at night that causes enormous damage.”

But it’s not just animal rights activists who are alarmed. “The destruction there is beyond anyone’s imagination,” says photographer John Kurc, who has been documenting construction work with drones every day for weeks.

The abstruse thing, Kurc says, is that the new border wall goes partially through the slopes of the mountains that are higher than the wall on the Mexican side. Smugglers could simply jump over the border fortifications. “It’s about the vanity of our president.” Kurc ​​publishes his recordings in the social networks; “My goal is to show people what has led to who we have elected president.”

In southeastern Arizona, in the middle of the Sonoran desert, construction workers are clearing impassable terrain for the new border wall. There, on the one hand, they destroy natural reserves where the famous saguaro cactus grows, and on the other, areas sacred to the indigenous people. At a congressional hearing in February, the leader of the indigenous Tohono O’Odham tribe testified that the blasting work cut through their ancestral resting places. With tears in his eyes, he pleaded with the deputies to stop the project. “It’s like building a wall through your Arlington Cemetery.” For weeks there have been repeated violent clashes between protesting indigenous people and border guards.

It is questionable whether the new border fortifications actually prevent illegal immigration and drug trafficking. A July report by the Inspector General of the Ministry of National Security said that when the Wall was built, “no sensible methodology was used to determine which regions would benefit the most from the new physical barriers and how much the fiscal figures would cost.” The construction of the wall has so far cost $ 15 billion. Two-thirds of that came from the Pentagon budget; The money should have been used to renovate schools and nurseries on military bases, among other things.

However, as is well known, most drugs and the paperless reach the United States through legal border crossings, for example, at Nogales in Arizona, where the largest drug discovery in history The state was only seized in early October: 800 pounds of methamphetamine, hidden in a truck.

In the border city of Nogales, Trump did not replace the wall that had been in existence since 1995, but rather reinforced it with barbed wire. During a visit in early October, residents expressed conflicting views on the project; 95 percent of Nogales’s population is of Hispanic descent. A young family man in front of his home says he has lived here for twenty years and that life in Nogales has hardly changed under Trump’s presidency.

An older lady in front of her house with a direct view of the border wall sees it differently. She introduces herself as Ortensia and says she thinks it’s good that Trump is expanding the border wall. Since he became president, fewer undocumented immigrants have come to Nogales; Sans-Papiers used to run around their front yard. Now she feels safer: in November she will vote for Trump again.



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