Border wall construction brings crowds, and COVID-19 anxiety, into Arizona towns

Unlike the rest of the U.S., the sleepy border community of Ajo, Arizona, is busier than ever these days, as hundreds of border wall construction workers pass through each day.

“The rest of us are staying at home just the way the governor has ordered,” said Susan Guinn-Lahm, an Ajo resident in her 60s. “We’re taking this seriously. They are not.”

Local officials are alarmed by the impact on the workers and the rural border towns they are interacting with and, at times, living in.

Numerous residents in Ajo complained of construction workers having parties and coming into stores in groups as large as 20.

“As the rest of the country shuts down to stop the spread of COVID-19, construction crews continue building Trump’s vanity wall with billions of dollars in stolen funds,” said the Arizona congressman Raúl Grijalva. “The presence of large construction crews in small border towns threatens the health of those communities where they are already underprepared to deal with the coming public health emergency.”

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