The Tohono O’odham Nation has filed a lawsuit against the US government to halt the construction of a border wall through its reservation. The Indigenous tribe, located between the United States and Mexico, alleges that US federal agents and construction workers illegally trespassed on its land to initiate work on the border wall in Arizona.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Tohono O’odham Nation reported that 'approximately 20 masked, armed Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents' accompanied construction workers to three locations before dawn. The statement indicated that CBP prevented tribal police from issuing trespassing citations to the contractors.
According to Tohono O’odham authorities, CBP cordoned off the area with a 'vehicle blockade' and deployed a special weapons and tactics (SWAT) team to protect the contractors. The statement also mentioned the presence of Mexican police to monitor the situation and a 'tethered balloon' for surveillance.
The early-morning activity is part of an ongoing conflict between the Tohono O’odham Nation and the administration of former President Donald Trump, which aimed to construct a border wall through tribal land. This conflict dates back to Trump’s first term from 2017 to 2021, when he proposed a barrier to deter irregular migration into the US. Many Indigenous groups, including the Tohono O’odham, opposed the construction due to concerns about damage to sensitive habitats, sacred sites, and tribal land.
The Tohono O’odham Nation, which has around 37,000 members, occupies approximately 100 kilometers (62 miles) of the US-Mexico border, with territory in both Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. Members of the tribe often cross the border without passports, using tribal identification cards.
Federally recognized tribes are considered 'domestic dependent nations' under US law, allowing them sovereignty over their land, though their relationship with the US government has been contentious. The border wall has been central to legal disputes, with the Tohono O’odham legislature voting unanimously in June to sue the Trump administration over land appropriation for the wall.
The tribe claims it has worked closely with federal authorities to address irregular border crossings and drug smuggling, spending millions of dollars on these efforts, and asserts that cross-border detentions have decreased by over 95 percent as a result. The Tohono O’odham Nation argues that attempts to build a border wall on its land violate Indigenous rights, stating that it was not consulted prior to construction.
The tribe has expressed that the US Department of Homeland Security has disregarded its sovereignty, ignored effective border security strategies, and dismissed the potential environmental and cultural damage from the wall. 'We have been left with no other choice,' the tribal government stated, emphasizing the need to protect their people and culture.
On August 14, US District Judge Richard Leon declined to issue a preliminary injunction to stop the construction on Tohono O’odham land, which appears to have led to the recent construction activity. The Trump administration contends that the land along the border is not tribal land, citing a 1907 proclamation that designated the area within approximately 18 meters (60 feet) of the border as federal land for security purposes. A 2023 report from the Government Accountability Office found that the border wall construction had harmed Indigenous land, including damage to a tribal burial site and changes to water flows. In response, the Tohono O’odham tribe has erected large signs warning against trespassing on its reservation.