VIEW LARGER Border barriers in the Sierra Vista District of the Coronado National Forest on Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023. Emily Burns, program director for the Sky Island Alliance says the state government opted not to place shipping containers in this specific area.
The Trump administration is planning to build 25 miles of new border wall in the critical wildlife corridor of the San Rafael Valley.
Erick Meza, with the Sierra Club, says that the valley is Arizona’s last unwalled major biodiversity hotspot in the border region.
“We’re pretty shocked about this decision, especially at this time that there is a record number of low crossings,” he said. “For the environment, of course, because we know that the last jaguar that was spotted in Arizona came through that area.”
The number of Border Patrol apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border last month is the lowest it’s been since the 1960s.
Meza says the Department of Justice told them the new barrier project would start at the southern point of the Arizona Trail, at the base of the Huachuca Mountains, and run west through the Patagonia mountains.
It would be in the same mountainous terrain where former governor Doug Ducey constructed a temporary wall out of shipping crates in the summer of 2022.