Work on border wall speeds up

Virus exposure a concern for some Arizona residents

AJO, Ariz. — Around the country, some states have cut back on construction activity to curb the spread of the coronavirus, and hotels and restaurants in many cities have closed. But in Arizona, the federal government is embarking on a new phase of construction of the border wall.

President Donald Trump’s administration contends that the wall will help prevent the spread of the virus into the United States from Mexico, though epidemiologists and the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say such a barrier would not mitigate the outbreaks already occurring in every state.

The intensification of construction during the pandemic is raising fears among residents of Ajo, Ariz., and other nearby border communities that the growing influx of workers increases their risk of exposure. Some disease specialists in Arizona are warning that workers clustered in tight quarters along the border could spread the virus around the country when they return to their families.

“This administration’s priority is to get the wall done. The rest of us might as well be damned,” said Maria Singleton, 57, an Ajo resident who has documented in Facebook posts how wall construction is affecting the town — with traffic, noise, dust and, now, new worries about getting sick.

The busy scenes around Ajo are among the many signs of relatively brisk business in Arizona, which until Monday had been one of a shrinking number of states where governors had opted against issuing stay-at-home orders. Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, had prohibited county and city officials in Arizona from declaring their own shelter-in-place orders.

But the governor changed course Monday after the mayors of several large cities, including Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff, wrote a letter urging him to “learn from the unfolding events in our sister states” and issue a statewide stay-athome order.

Ducey issued a directive preventing people from leaving their homes except for food, medicine, exercise and other “essential activities.”

He said the order, which allows police officers to warn violators before citing them, was aimed at ensuring there would be sufficient capacity in Arizona’s health care system for infected patients. Ducey is still allowing businesses to remain open if they are considered essential, which in Arizona includes golf courses, nail salons and pawnshops.

The state is facing a surge in coronavirus cases. Pima County, which includes small outposts like Ajo as well as the city of Tucson, had 187 confirmed cases of the coronavirus as of Monday afternoon, with six fatalities. Across the state, at least 20 people are known to have died from covid-19 and more than 1,100 have tested positive for the virus as of Tuesday.

The new wall construction in southern Arizona is part of a wider plan to expand fencing along the 1,100-mile border.