Arizona city officials want the Army to remove the "inhuman" razor wire it installed on the border wall

Officials in Nogales, Arizona, are fighting to remove “inhuman” layers of barbed wire that Army troops installed along the city’s border wall.

The Nogales City Council passed a resolution Wednesday condemning the concertina wire installed within the small border town’s city limits, according to the Associated Press. The city’s mayor, Arturo Garino, is also threatening to sue if the federal government doesn’t act. City officials told the AP that soldiers installed more layers of razor wire along the border wall last weekend.

The council’s resolution calls the barbed wire something “only found in a war, prison, or battle setting” and “not only irresponsible but inhuman.” Officials worry someone could be harmed if they attempt to get over the two-story wall. The mayor has also asked Sen. Martha McSally, a Republican, to assist the city in its request, according to the AP.

“Aesthetically pleasing — it’s not. It’s very bad. It’s not good for business. It’s not good for what we’re trying to create: a business-friendly community here in Nogales,” Garino told the AP.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said barbed wire was only added in Nogales after a request “for additional support in high-risk urban areas commonly exploited by criminal smuggling organizations,” according to a statement sent to the Associated Press. It’s not clear who requested the razor wire.

As President Donald Trump has ramped up his rhetoric on the need for a southern border wall, other state and city officials have also begun to protest some immigration policies. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, pulled the majority of her state’s National Guard troops from the U.S.-Mexico border Tuesday and said their deployment was a “charade of border fear-mongering.”

After Trump said during his State of the Union speech that El Paso, Texas, was a dangerous place before the border wall there was erected, the city’s mayor and sheriff spoke out against the president’s claims. "It is sad to hear President Trump state falsehoods about El Paso, Texas, in an attempt to justify the building of a 2,000-mile wall,” Sheriff Richard Wiles said after the State of the Union. “El Paso was a safe city long before a wall was built. President Trump continues to give a false narrative."

Cover image: In this April 9, 2018, file photo, the international border between Mexico and the United States is seen from Nogales, Arizona. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)