Blasting at the slopes of the Coronado National Memorial and Coronado National Forest in the Huachuca Mountains above the San Rafael Valley

A Center for Biological Diversity advocate shot video Dec. 3, 2025 of construction crews blasting through the slopes of the Coronado National Memorial and Coronado National Forest in the Huachuca Mountains, above the San Rafael Valley.

The area is within a federally designated critical habitat for endangered jaguars and threatened Mexican spotted owls, said Russ McSpadden, a Southwest conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, who filmed the video.

"This wall is being ripped through a living landscape that’s vital to endangered animals and plants," McSpadden said in a news release. "It’ll fracture jaguar migration routes, choke genetic diversity and wipe out the natural connections that have shaped the Sky Islands for millennia."

The Tucson sector "is an area of high illegal-entry attempts and experiences large numbers of individuals and narcotics being smuggled into the country illegally," CBP spokesman John Mennell said in a June statement. CBP is complying with President Donald Trump’s executive orders "to ensure complete operational control of the southern border," the statement said.

But environmentalists point out the number of migrant crossings in this area is very low: Over the last five years, Sky Island Alliance's 60 cameras have captured an average of five pedestrians per month — half of whom appear to be hikers, hunters and border agents, Eamon Harrity, wildlife program manager for the group, told the Arizona Daily Star in September.

That’s a rate of one human sighting every 10 months, per camera.

"Of all the places where a wall is unwarranted, this is one of the most unwarranted places," Harrity said.