US border crisis: Arizona city denounces Trump administration’s razor wire as ‘inhuman’

A report says new razor wire was installed over the weekend, days before Mr Trump announced he will send more troops to US-Mexico border

(AP)

A small border city in Arizona is pushing back against Donald Trump’s decision to install razor wire along its border, with a proclamation that would officially call the measures “irresponsible” and “inhuman”.

The city officials in Nogales considered the proclamation on Wednesday, just days after a report indicated the US military installed more concertina wire along the border fence that separates the city from Mexico.

The installation of the concertina wire has become one of thee most visible signs of Mr Trump’s troop deployment in the US southwest, conjuring images of war zones as the US responds to what the president has called a “crisis” and “tremendous onslaught”.

Mayor Arturo Garino told local news outlet Nogales International that he asked Senator Martha McSally last month to help the city to get the wiring removed.

“That wire is lethal, and I really don’t know what they’re thinking by putting it all the way down to the ground,” Mr Garino said.

Nogales sits right along the US-Mexico border, and relies heavily on cross-border commerce with the Mexican city that lies just beyond the fence.

Mr Trump announced this week during his second State of the Union that he has instructed the US military to send 3,750 troops to the border in order to provide in a support capacity to local law enforcement and Border Patrol as migrants make they way to the border to request asylum.

The US announced in November that some 58km of wiring had been sent to be set up in California, Arizona, and Texas. During that same month, US troops were seen installing the wiring in McAllen, Texas underneath a border bridge on the American side of the border.

The city proclamation would note that concertina is typically seen in battlefields, not in areas of peace, and that the deployment of the wiring is “not only irresponsible but inhuman”.

The Associated Press contributed to this report