HOMELAND SECURITY: Arizona’s Shipping Container Border Wall; Officials Concerned By Attacks of Power Stations in Four States

BORDER BARRIER BATTLE.

Shipping containers are put in place along the U.S.-Mexico border in Cochise County.

Arizona’s Republican governor, whose term ends in a few weeks, has continued to order cargo shipping containers, stacked along a remote part of the state’s border with Mexico as a deterrent to undocumented migrants.

Governor Doug Ducey ordered the double-stacked shipping containers topped by razor wire unloaded in late summer near Yuma in western Arizona — a popular crossing point for migrants and asylum seekers entering the country illegally. He has continued the project over the objections of the U.S. government, environmentalists and the incoming incoming governor who has called it a poor use of resources,  the Associated Press reported December 11. The latest container pile up is in Arizona’s remote San Rafael Valley, in Cochise County, which is not typically used by migrants, according to the AP.

Democratic Governor-elect Katie Hobbs said she was “looking at all the options” and hasn’t decided what to do about the containers after her inauguration on January 5, 2023. “I don’t know how much it will cost to remove the containers and what the cost will be,” Hobbs told Phoenix PBS TV station KAET in an interview December 7.

Ducey’s action comes as record number of migrants have been crossing the border. U.S. border officials have stopped migrants 2.38 million times in the fiscal year that ended September 30,. That’s up 37 percent from the year before. The annual total surpassed two million for the first time in August and is more than twice the highest level during the Trump administration.

Federal agencies have told Arizona officials the construction on U.S. land is unlawful and ordered it to halt. In response, Ducey sued federal officials October 21, sending the dispute to court. While the Justice Department of Justice has filed a motion to dismiss Ducey’s lawsuit, the Biden administration has taken no steps on the ground to stop the governor’s project, according to The Intercept website.

Meanwhile, the sheriff in another Arizona county, bordering Cochise County on the West, says Federal agents should begin seizing vehicles associated with the project.  With federal authorities doing nothing yet, Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway has vowed to arrest the governor’s contractors if they cross the county line into his turf.

But the contract for the latest container wall has it stopping just shy of Hathaway’s jurisdiction. However, convoys of contractors have been racing through communities in Santa Cruz County for weeks now, hauling 40-foot shipping containers behind multi-ton pickup trucks at dangerous speeds, according to The Intercept. Hathaway said residents in the town of Elgin have complained about Ducey’s drivers “barreling through town,” ignoring stop signs, and “flying past children.”

The U.S. Forest Service says the shipping containers are a safety hazard and the federal government issued a statement warning people to stay away from the Copper Canyon area in the Sierra Vista District of the Coronado National Forest for safety reasons, according to Arizona Public Media.

*** *** ***

VANDALISM OR TERRORISM? UPDATED with new information, photo

All electric power has been restored in central North Carolina, where gunfire December 3 led to massive power outages lasting for four days.

Authorities are now concerned about the vulnerability of the nation’s electric grid with news of other attacks on six substations in Oregon and Washington earlier in the Fall. Another sub station in South Carolina was attacked just days after the North Carolina incident.

Grid security experts said it’s too early to tell whether the incidents were related or unusual in number, but said they showcase a need for the energy industry to be vigilant and prepared.

“It remains troubling and highlights how vulnerable is our critical infrastructure,” Richard Mroz, a senior adviser at the grid security advocacy group Protect Our Power, told the E&E News Energy Wire said in an email about the string of incidents.

Duke Energy Corporation electric substation at Carthage, North Carolina was one of two in the state damaged by gunfire. (Photo via FBI website)

No arrests have been announced and no suspect or suspects have been identified in the shooting at two Duke Energy substations around five miles apart on December 3.  North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper called the shootings about 50 miles southwest of Raleigh, a “criminal attack.” Cooper announced the state, Moore County and Duke Energy were offering a combined $75,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the attack, The Associated Press reported.

When power started going out in Moore County shortly after 7 p.m. Saturday, December 3, investigators found the equipment had been struck by gunfire. The person or people responsible drove to the substations, breached a gate in one case, and opened fire, NBC News reported. The FBI is among the law enforcement agencies assisting in the investigation.

Not the First Attack, nor the Last

In late November, two electric substations near the Portland, Oregon suburb of Clackamas were targeted in what utility officials described as deliberate attacks. The substations are operated separately by the Bonneville Power Administration and Portland General Electric, and it’s unclear if they were attacked on the same day or if the events were connected. At least four substations in Washington state have also been vandalized or targeted, EnergyWire reported.

Several days after the North Carolina shootings, Duke Energy Corporation reported gunfire near its Wateree Hydro station in Ridgeway, South Carolina. The December 7 incident at the South Carolina hydroelectric plant did not cause any reported outages or known property damage, the company said.

Investigators are zeroing in on two threads of possible motives centered on extremist behavior for the North Carolina attacks, CNN reported, citing law-enforcement sources briefed on the investigation. One thread involves the writings by extremists on online forums encouraging attacks on critical infrastructure. The second thread looks at a series of recent disruptions of LGBTQ+ events across the nation by domestic extremists, CNN said.

Investigators have no evidence connecting the North Carolina attacks to a drag event at a theater in the same county, but the timing of two events are being considered in context with the growing tensions and armed confrontations around similar LBGTQ+ events across the country, the sources told CNN.

Attacks on the United States’ power grid have been the subject of extremist chatter for some time, notably ticking up in 2020, the same year a 14-page how-to on low tech attacks, including assaulting power grids with guns, circulated among extremist communication channels, according to CNN and other news outlets.

A Department of Homeland Security bulletin — reported by CNN just days before the North Carolina attack — indicated there was a heightened threat posed by domestic violent extremists in the United States against critical infrastructure and other targets. In the past two years, anti-government groups began using online forums to urge followers to attack critical infrastructure, including the power grid. They have posted documents and even instructions outlining vulnerabilities and suggesting the use of high-powered rifles, CNN reported. Nearly two dozen shell casings from a high-powered rifle were reported found at the scene in North Carolina.