Amid an intense immigration dispute between federal Democrats and Republican state officials, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has erected illegal makeshift border walls out of shipping crates alongside the southern border of the state.

Construction on the double-decker wall, which stretches three miles through the Coronado National Forest, began earlier this year. The old crates are lined with razor wire and jammed with bits of metal in between them.

"Arizonans cannot — and will not — wait for federal bureaucrats to do their job and secure the border. We're taking action now," Ducey, a Republican, posted on Twitter on Oct. 19.

The wall runs on federal Forest Service land and Cocopah tribal land.

The Bureau of Reclamation and the Cocopah tribe requested the removal of several dozen crates in an October letter, which the state has refused to do. Environmental groups have also protested, citing concerns over local wildlife and the water supply.

In response, Ducey filed a lawsuit against federal agencies, alleging that the federal government has not done enough to assist in securing the Southern border.

"Our border communities are overwhelmed by illegal activity as a result of the Biden administration's failure to secure the southern border," said Ducey.

Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway called the activity illegal and said that he will take action against the construction crews if they cross into his jurisdiction.

The move by Ducey comes after several Republican states have bussed or flown thousands of migrants to Democratic-led "sanctuary" cities in an effort to draw attention to what they call a "migrant crisis" on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Ducey has less than a month left in office before Democrat Katie Hobbs takes the reigns as Arizona's new governor on Jan. 5. Hobbs has said she is "looking at all the options" and that she does not "know how much it will cost to remove the containers and what the cost will be."

"I think what we need to do is look at how we can cooperate with the federal government on border security issues," Hobbs said in an interview. "I've said from day one I think it's a political stunt that's not really solving a problem."

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