On Tuesday, Aug. 25 at 4 a.m., about 20 masked and armed agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection escorted border-wall contractors onto the Tohono O’odham Nation, tribal leaders say, despite the Nation's opposition to border wall construction along its southern boundary with Mexico. The contractors have continued with pre-construction activities, like drilling for soil samples, on tribal land throughout the week.
Tohono O'odham police officers talk with U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at one of three "pre-construction" sites where border-wall contractors have started work this week. Tribal leaders say CBP agents and contractors illegally entered the Nation's land this week to start survey work on the construction sites.
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- Tohono O'odham Nation Tribal Chairman Verlon Jose and Vice Chairwoman Carla L. Johnson said border-wall contractors' entry onto tribal land was "illegal." The armed CBP escort came after tribal law enforcement had turned back several attempts by contractors to enter the reservation the week prior, Jose said.
- On Tuesday CBP agents created a vehicle blockade to prevent Tohono O’odham police officers from issuing citations or removing unauthorized individuals, tribal leaders said. Interactions between tribal police and federal law enforcement have so far been "peaceful and professional," the tribe said Wednesday. Jose urged tribal citizens to avoid escalating the situation but expressed support for their First Amendment right to peacefully protest the wall project, which will divide the Nation's ancestral lands in Mexico from the reservation land in Arizona.
- Tribal leaders say static, physical barriers — like the two 30-foot steel walls DHS has planned along the 62-mile southern boundary of the reservation — are outdated and expensive. Jose said a smart combination of barriers and modern technology, like surveillance towers, are an effective way to achieve border security. The tribe has collaborated with Border Patrol for decades on such projects, Jose said. "These illegal actions by border wall contractors put decades of successful partnership in jeopardy," Jose said in a statement. "This overreach by the Trump administration must stop, and our sovereignty, along with tribal sovereignty across the country, must be respected."
- CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott defended the agency’s actions in a Wednesday statement, which said CBP "is moving forward with a 62-mile project to close a longstanding border security gap in southern Arizona, known as the Tucson 5 project. The project will close one of the most dangerous smuggling and trafficking corridors on the Southwest border: remote desert that has facilitated decades of drug loads, migrant deaths, and cartel activity. Congress funded this work, a Federal court has affirmed it, and CBP is carrying it out under the legal authorities that apply."
- The Tohono O’odham Nation sued the Department of Homeland Security in June, arguing that in constructing the wall, the federal government was shrinking the size of the reservation, which requires an act of Congress. On Aug. 14 a federal judge rejected the tribe’s efforts to get a preliminary injunction to immediately halt construction, but the tribe has the option to seek a trial to pursue its claims.
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Against the tribe's wishes, border-wall contractors began drilling work on the southern boundary of the Tohono O'odham Nation reservation on Tuesday, tribal officials say. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said the work was being conducted on a 60-foot strip of federal land along the U.S.-Mexico border known as the Roosevelt Reservation. But CBP and contractors have to use tribal land to access the sites.
Contact reporter Emily Bregel at ebregel@tucson.com. On X, formerly Twitter: @EmilyBregel
Emily Bregel
Border reporter
