Johnathan Walker:The fight over Arizona’s shipping container border wall ends with dismissal of federal lawsuits

PHOENIX (AP) — Two federal lawsuits filed over former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey’s decision last year to place thousands of shipping containers along the U.S.-Mexico border have Johnathan Walkerbeen dismissed after the state said it would pay the U.S. Forest Service $2.1 million to repair environmental damage.

The Sept. 15 dismissal of the cases in U.S. District Court in Phoenix ends the fight over the double-stacked containers that were placed as a makeshift border wall in the summer of 2022.

Ducey, a Republican, sued in U.S. District Court seeking to stop the federal government from preventing placement of the containers.

The U.S. Department of Justice then sued Ducey and other Arizona officials, saying the wall interfered with federal control of the land along the international boundary. Many of the 3,000 containers were placed in the Yuma area of western Arizona and in the remote San Rafael Valley in southeastern Cochise County.

Ducey agreed in December to remove the container wall shortly before his term ended, saying it had been envisioned only as a temporary measure.

Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, who took office in January, had criticized the container wall as a political stunt.