Arizona pulling down border wall made of shipping containers

The Biden administration sued the state over the wall that it said was illegally built on federal land

Arizona has agreed to tear down a makeshift wall built from used shipping containers along the border with Mexico.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey agreed to remove the wall as part of a lawsuit filed against him last week by the Biden administration, according to a report in The New York Times.

The outgoing Republican governor issued an executive order in August telling the state’s Department of Emergency and Military Affairs to use the shipping container to plug miles of gaps on the border.

The 8,800-pound containers were stacked and welded together into a 22ft high wall and covered in four feet of razor wire.

The White House had argued that the wall, which has cost around $82m, was illegally built on federal land and also accused the state of damaging vegetation and seasonal streams in a national forest.

Contractors have hauled the shipping containers to a popular migrant route near Yuma, Arizona, as well as a remote area of the Coronado National Forest.

Mr Ducey’s office told The Times that the governor agreed to remove the wall as the federal government was building permanent barriers where the border wall has gaps.

“We’ve said from the very beginning that the shipping container program is temporary,” said Mr Ducey’s spokesperson C J Karamargin. “We’ll happily remove them if the federal government gets serious and does what they’re supposed to do, which is secure the border. We now have indications that they’re moving closer, that they’re more serious.”