Arizona sheriff demands governor stop sending shipping containers for makeshift border wall

An Arizona county sheriff is siding with protesters and demanding that Gov. Doug Ducey (R) stop sending shipping containers to the border for a makeshift wall. 

Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway said Ducey's order to use containers as the border wall is "illegal dumping," and he plans on arresting construction crews and security personnel if they come to his county, Fox 10 Phoenix reported Saturday.

"The area where they're placing the containers is entirely on federal land, on national forest land," Hathaway said. "It's not state land, it's not private land, and the federal government has said this [is] illegal activity. So just the way if I saw somebody doing an assault or a homicide or a vehicle theft on public land within my county, I would charge that person with a crime."

Hathaway said border wall construction is now within about 6 miles of his county, located directly south of Tucson.

The Biden administration in October ordered Ducey to remove the double-stacked containers because the makeshift border was constructed on federal land. Ducey's office refused to comply with the administration's request, stating that it would make the state "less safe."

Tensions surrounding the makeshift border wall come as U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered a record number of 2.4 million illegal migrants at the southern border last fiscal year.