‘Disgusting’ razor wire must go, say border town residents
hen Sherrie Nixon saw the six strands of razor wire strung along the US-Mexico border fence in her Arizona city, she said she wanted to cry.
“They’re turning our town into a military base. It’s like the front lines of some kind of war zone,” Nixon, 68, told the Nogales City Council on Wednesday night. “Please take a stand and at least have them get rid of the razor wire. It’s a public nuisance.”
Minutes later, the council unanimously passed a resolution condemning the use of the concertina wire as an indiscriminate use of lethal force normally reserved for battlefields and highsecurity prisons.
The council called on the federal government to remove the wire and not use military force or military-type tactics in their city. Nogales, a city of more than 20,000 residents, borders on the Mexican city of the same name.
“We’re not going to allow ■ this in Nogales,” Mayor Arturo Garino said at the meeting. He said his city was very safe, and he did not want the eyesore and safety hazard of the wire to ruin the community’s healthy economy. He planned to file a lawsuit over it.
The razor wire was installed by some of the more than 6,500 active-duty and National Guard troops deployed to the southern border.
Nogales residents like Victor Fontes are unlikely to give up their struggle to have it removed. His two aunts, in their 90s, live near the wall and told him to tell the council what they thought of the wire. “It’s just beyond disgusting,” he said.