Arizona's new border barrier may deter but not stop people from entering

Arizona spent $6 million erecting a border barrier on federal land without permission that is unlikely to stop undocumented migrants from entering the country because it’s north of the actual international border.

Gov. Doug Ducey issued an executive order on Aug. 12 that directed the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs to fill some gaps in the U.S. border wall in the Border Patrol’s Yuma Sector.

The sector is a part of the border where large groups of migrants have come through in recent months and largely turned themselves over to the Border Patrol with the intent of seeking asylum in the United States.

The gaps, which Arizona began filling with shipping crates and was still working on into the week, are on land managed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and Arizona placed them there without authorization from the federal government.

The Bureau of Reclamation has reached out to Arizona’s Department of Emergency and Military Affairs to discuss this issue, said regional spokesperson for the agency Michelle Helms.

The Governor’s Office had not heard from a federal agency about the crates as of Thursday, according to Ducey’s spokesman C.J. Karamargin.

“Arizona has had enough,” the Republican governor said in a statement. “We can’t wait any longer. ... For the last two years, Arizona has made every attempt to work with Washington to address the crisis on our border. Time and time again we’ve stepped in to clean up their mess.”

The money spent on the shipping-crate barrier is just part of the $335 million Arizona allocated in its budget passed in June for a border barrier.

The problem with the state building a physical barrier on the border is that the southern border in Arizona is all federal land. After passing the budget, a state official said the barrier would be more of a “virtual barrier,” which could include motion sensors, infrared cameras, mobile towers and aerial drones, as well as barriers around critical infrastructure, which could include things like canals, wastewater treatment plants and defense installations.

U.S.-Mexico Border, Yuma — Sandals, clothing and other items are left on the ground by migrants near the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Yuma.
Mamta Popat, Arizona Daily Star

The federal government recently said it would close the gaps before Arizona placed the shipping crates. Customs and Border Protection said it was not prepared to comment on this matter.

U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, met with Yuma Sector Border Patrol Chief Chris Clem two days before Arizona brought in the shipping crates to discuss the federal government’s effort to close the gaps, which has no timeline that’s been made public yet.

“Sen. Mark Kelly and Gov. Ducey share the same urgency and concern for border security,” said Kelly’s spokeswoman Marisol Samayoa. “These shipping containers are a temporary solution, which is why Sen. Kelly worked closely with Yuma officials and Border Patrol to secure a long-term solution to close the Morelos Dam gaps in a manner that is safe and effective for law enforcement and the community.”

Yuma wall not on the border

The reason filling those gaps won’t stop people from entering the country is because they are not on the actual border. The border wall in Yuma veers off the border in some places because of waterways like the Colorado River, which runs upstream from the Morelos Dam, a popular border crossing point. Once people are on U.S. soil, Border Patrol has to process them, regardless of what side of the barrier they are on.

Anywhere that the U.S. border follows a river, which is true in this section of the Arizona-Mexico border as well as swaths of border that follow the Rio Grande in Texas, the border wall is necessarily built back onto U.S. soil, says Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at American Immigration Council, a nonprofit immigrant advocacy group.

“So in those locations migrants can cross the border, walk up to a gate and simply ask to be let in,” he said. “And that is because once they are on U.S. soil, if they don’t voluntarily choose to walk back to Mexico, the U.S. Border Patrol has to do something about that.”

In other words, even if they are impeded by a barrier from heading farther north, they will be on U.S. soil, which means Border Patrol has to process them.

Just like those migrants who are not impeded by a barrier, some get sent back to Mexico under public health policy Title 42, but most are processed and sent to local nonprofit organizations, which help them get to their sponsors all over the country.

Despite the fact that filling the gaps won’t stop the flow of people coming to the country, it could slow or deter people, says Clem, the Yuma Sector chief.

Chris Clem, Border Patrol — Chris Clem, chief patrol agent for the U.S. Border Patrol, Yuma Sector.
Mamta Popat photos, Arizona Daily Star

People may be deterred simply because there is a barrier stopping them from going further into the United States, and it could deter people who are drug smuggling or doing other illegal activity, Clem said.

Not many drugs come through the Yuma Sector compared to other parts of the border. The amount of drugs seized in the Yuma Sector has been 244 pounds so far this fiscal year, an eighth of what it was this time last year.

Even with the gaps closed, people will just find other areas to come through, but having those high-traffic gaps closed will better allow Border Patrol to prioritize, Clem said. One part of the border in Yuma that doesn’t have a barrier is on the Cocopah Reservation, where the tribe has said they don’t want a border wall.

If migrants seeking asylum come up to the south side of a barrier that is on U.S. soil on both sides, they would be a lower priority to someone who is absconding from Border Patrol, he said.

“If you have people that have come across and we can see them whether through cameras or an agent observation, and they’re OK, nobody seems to be in distress, versus four guys running from me across the border, heading into the town — we’re gonna go after those people because they are likely the threat versus the low-threat, non-threat situation of folks maybe giving themselves up,” Clem said.

Addressing the root of the problem

The Yuma Sector has about 900 agents and recently hired immigration processing specialists, which allows more agents to be out in the field, to help them manage the influx of migrants crossing the border there over the last two years.

The number of encounters Border Patrol agents have had with people crossing the border in the Yuma Sector has increased from 7,385 by the end of July in fiscal year 2020 to 259,895 by the end of July this fiscal year.

Clem says the staff additions and new technology and equipment have helped them process all the people and do rescues, which have increased 100% compared to last year, at 253 rescues this fiscal year, including responding to 911 calls, water rescues, heat distress, people caught on top of the wall, snake bites, other environment-related illnesses or injuries and pre-existing conditions that become life threatening.

But there needs to be a higher level conversation to address the root of the problem, Clem says.

“At the end of the day, it’s important to recognize we’re still operating under a 1986 and 1990 immigration framework. This is 2022. We need comprehensive immigration reform,” he said.

“We do need those types of legislative fixes to address some of the issues in regards to this regional, and I would say worldwide, irregular migration flow,” he said. “So we need to make some updates.”

Reichlin-Melnick with the American Immigration Council agrees that ultimately immigration reform is the answer. He said it should include a modern humanitarian protection system that puts people in touch with services and allows them to ask for asylum at ports of entry so that they don’t have to cross between ports of entry. It should also provide federal resources to state and local communities at the border, which some organizations at the border are already receiving, so that they are not required to spend their own resources, Reichlin-Melnick said.

“What we really need is a long-term overhaul of the system as well as an acknowledgement that there is no silver bullet that is simply going to stop people from coming,” he said.