Arizona agrees to pay $2.1M over shipping container wall, lawsuit expected to end soon

Lawsuits stemming from former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey's placement of shipping containers at the Arizona-Mexico border are expected to come to a close following a payment by the state to the federal government, according to recent court filings.

Starting with just 42 shipping containers in August 2022, Ducey's project grew to thousands of containers by the end of the year. In December 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Arizona, Ducey and other state officials over the attempt to create a makeshift border wall. Ducey, in October 2022, had sued the federal government after federal officials sent the state a letter saying the container project violated federal law.

The federal government said the land where the shipping containers were placed could only be used by Arizona if the state was authorized to do so by the U.S. government and the state had no such permission.

Additionally, the federal government's lawsuit alleged that "the hundreds of double-stacked multi-ton shipping containers" damaged federal lands, threatened public safety and hindered the abilities of federal agencies to do their jobs.

Arizona officials were informed the state was trespassing on federal lands before the U.S. government filed its lawsuit, according to court records. The federal government asked Arizona to stop its operations, according to court filings, but the state continued to bring shipping containers to the area.

Ducey's administration began dismantling the wall under pressure from the DOJ lawsuit. The job was finished after Gov. Katie Hobbs took office in early 2023. Hobbs called the makeshift barrier a "publicity stunt."

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The federal land near the U.S.-Mexico border in Cochise and Yuma counties is now clear of the containers, and "extensive remediation efforts" have been undertaken to reverse environmental damage caused by the project, according to a joint status report filed Aug. 23 by the federal government, Arizona and the Center for Biological Diversity, which intervened in the suit Ducey brought.

Arizona has agreed to pay the U.S. Forest Service for additional remediation efforts, according to the joint status report.

The Forest Service sent a bill for about $2.1 million to the state on Aug. 22, according to Judy Kioski, a spokesperson for the state’s Division of Emergency Management.

Once Arizona has paid the outstanding bill, the federal government and state expect the cases to be dismissed, according to the joint status report.

As of late June, the makeshift wall had already cost Arizonans more than $194 million, according to state financial records.

The lawsuits will stay in effect until Sept. 26, and if they are not withdrawn by then, the parties will file another joint progress report to the court.

Reach the reporter at morgan.fischer@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona agrees to pay $2.1M over shipping container border wall