NOGALES, Ariz. (NewsNation) — Law enforcement officials say their fight to keep the cartels out is colliding with the cartels’ fight to get people and drugs into the U.S.
Authorities on the frontlines in the sector leading the nation in fentanyl seizures say they feel they are in a battle with U.S President Joe Biden’s administration for a barrier.
Through holes in the wall, migrants are walking the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales, Arizona — almost as if it’s an open door.
About an hour away in the same sector, shipping containers that once lined the southern border are gone after a legal battle with the federal government, leaving a massive stretch of land with nothing but some barbed wire and a line in the sand.
It appears the Biden administration has no plans for filling any of the gaps in the Tucson Sector, as wall-making materials are moving out of Cochise County.
Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels says while he knows the wall won’t stop everything, he believes the wall serves as a symbol of trespass, and when someone crosses it, they know they’ve broken the law.
“They’re gonna keep coming,” said Dannels. “The cartel doesn’t care what President Biden does — or what he does here.”
Undocumented individuals are walking down from the mountains into the Tucson sector, through the rough terrain and extreme elements. They’re picked up by load drivers with the help of a pin drop. The majority of the drivers are U.S. citizens.
The Biden administration laid out plans to fill holes in the wall late last year — holes left when the project was put on ice when Biden took office when he maintained that not another foot of wall would be built.
Now, however, it appears the administration is doing something of an about-face. The White House said construction would resume on some portions of the wall in the Yuma and El Paso sectors, but they have not mentioned the issues at the Tucson sector.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has repeatedly taken matters into his own hands when it comes to border issues. He has sent busloads of migrants across the country to Democrat-controlled cities. He’s also put up shipping containers under Operation Lone Star.
Abbott’s latest move of running concertina wire along 60 miles of the Texas border is angering many in El Paso. According to The El Paso Times, Abbott skirted the permit process to deploy the wire along that stretch.
While Abbott has the legal authority to deploy the National Guard, the riverbank and levies are controlled by the International Boundary and Water Commission — where permits are required to build on federal land.
So far, Abbott’s move has not drawn the ire of the Biden administration.