Yuma local hopes border solutions come soon

All shipping containers have now been removed from the border gaps

YUMA, Ariz. (KECY, KYMA) - After four months of containers and over $100 million of Arizona taxpayer money spent, Yuma is right back where it started with open gaps in the border wall.

The gaps have drawn strong reactions from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

“When those agents have to sit there and police a 60-foot gap, that doesn’t help anyone," Senator Mark Kelly said to KYMA in July.

“I am once again calling on the Biden Administration to act,” then-Governor Doug Ducey said in a border visit to Yuma in December 2021.

Customs and Border Protection announced today that barrier construction will begin next week.

But also according to the feds, some of the gaps will be completed with a "temporary mesh barrier".

It's concerning to Yuma local Bill Bentley, who says the solution is the federal border wall already on the ground here.

“They could’ve done that instead of spending all the money on the containers. It’s sitting just a quarter mile away," Bentley said.

Bentley says he hopes the rest of the country, and the federal government start paying more attention to the border issues happening in Yuma.

“They should see what’s going on here. It’s costing the hospital $20 million, our city all kinds of money. It doesn’t affect them yet but I think it will soon,” Bentley said.

Containers are still being removed in Cochise County.

Originally the state and the Ducey administration said all the containers would be removed by January 4th.