DHS is set to start clearing for a 62-mile wall on the Tohono O'odham Nation's Mexico border on Monday, Oct. 12, over the tribe's objection
A judge refused for a second time on Thursday, Oct. 8, to halt the work, after Border Patrol gave the tribal chairman one minute's notice of the first contractor work in August.
Crews are set to start clearing on Monday, Oct. 12, removing saguaro cacti the tribe holds sacred, for a 30-foot wall replacing a 4- to 6-foot vehicle barrier, per the Tucson Sentinel and Arizona Daily Star. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon refused for a second time on Thursday, Oct. 8, to halt the work. He found it likely falls in a 60-foot federal border strip reserved in 1907, before the reservation existed; the tribe says the strip never reached its land.
Where it stands:
- The tribe's appeal isn't fully briefed until Oct. 22.
- CBP calls the area "one of the most dangerous smuggling and trafficking corridors"; the tribe cites CBP's own count of apprehensions 94% below Biden-era levels.
- Trump's first term built 226 miles of wall in Arizona but none on the reservation, the state's longest unwalled stretch.