All five border gaps filled with containers

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - The state funded shipping container wall project is now complete.

The director of the Arizona Department of Homeland Security visited Yuma today to oversee the finished product.

A construction company hired by the state of Arizona stacked these containers along Yuma’s border wall gaps.

The state says it took eleven days to fill the gaps, saying the federal government was planning on doing it but was too slow to act. 

The gap near the Morelos Dam was where most migrants came to cross into Yuma, but now things look different.

“It’s great to pull up to this spot and location that I have been many times seeing massive amounts of people come across the border freely and today we just witnessed two people walk up to the gap and were denied access thanks to these containers,” said Tim Roemer, director of the Arizona department of Homeland Security.

Mayor Nicholls says now with the five gaps closed, agents on the Yuma Sector can focus on migrants crossing by the reservation, as the state cannot build on that land. 

“These containers are exactly what was needed at this point in time. We needed a quick solution. We needed something that could be effective and that’s pretty effective,” said Yuma Mayor, Doug Nicholls.

However, one local tells me he does not think the containers will help. 

“I really don’t feel it’s gonna do any difference, I mean they’re gonna find a way around it, above it, it doesn’t matter. I don’t feel any different eight months ago, or a year ago, to now,” said Santiago.

One place where it is still possible for migrants to cross is the gap by the Cocopah reservation. 

These shipping containers are just a temporary solution for the high number of migrant crossings and drug smugglings along the Yuma sector.

Local authorities are patiently waiting for the federal government to step up and solve this problem permanently.