Photo of the shipping container border wall taken on Dec. 25, 2022. Credit: Russ McSpadden, Center for Biological Diversity
By John Washington
It was past 11 p.m., below freezing, and the government-contracted excavators coughed into life. The protesters had been sitting down, standing in the way, blocking border wall construction in Coronado National Forest for weeks starting in November. But that was during the day, when the Southern Arizona sun kept them warm, when they could see what machines they were facing down.
After repeatedly being stymied by protesters during daylight hours, the crew contracted by former Republican Gov. Doug Ducey’s administration tried a new tactic: stacking shipping containers and building the border wall in the dead of night. That’s why the protesters, even as snow fell on their heads, tents and vehicles, decided to set up camp.
“People from a bunch of different groups, with different viewpoints, realize they have the power to stop the wall,” says Parker Deighan, a Tucsonan who volunteers with No More Deaths, explaining why she decided to head down to the border to protest the wall early last December.
