Steel shipping containers are being stockpiled in Nogales

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) - The state has stockpiled about 140 steel shipping containers in Nogales to be used for plugging gaps in the border with Mexico.

The containers, as first reported by the Nogales International newspaper, are being stacked at an Arizona National Guard facility but there are no specific plans on where they will be used.

“We said we are going to look at other areas, we are looking at other areas, other than that there’s nothing else to say,” a spokesman for the governor’s office said Tuesday. Ducey signed an executive order last authorizing the state to fill gaps near Yuma. Under his order, the state closed off 3,820 feet of the border wall with the containers.

The governor and his supporters, including the mayor of Yuma, have called the project a success in slowing down the number of people crossing the border. However, there have been reports that migrants are able to bypass the containers by walking around them. Some critics have called it a political stunt in an election year where Ducey and other Republicans have tried to make the surging number of immigrants at the border a top issue with voters.

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