Construction has begun on the Trump administration’s second border wall project inside Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. The border-hugging monument is home to an ancient spring system — and already has one steel wall.
The National Park Service closed the road to Quitobaquito Springs at the end of July. The millennia-old freshwater system drains into a pond about 200 feet from the border and hosts endangered species, like the Quitobaquito pupfish and the Sonoyta mud turtle.
Russ McSpadden, southwest conversation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, says he reached the site by foot this week.
“About two and a half miles east of Quitobaquito, I ran into a big swath of land that has been cleared by border wall contractors and it was about 100 feet of land cleared north of the border,” he said.
McSpadden’s photos show heavy machinery and two sites east of Quitobaquito that have been cleared of all vegetation. One site, which McSpadden says is about 3.4 miles east of the spring and pond, appears to be a large staging area for construction.
In photos from the second site, about 2.5 miles east of Quitobaquito, a more narrow, straight line of desert has been bulldozed bare, which McSpadden believes is where the second border wall will be built.
Customs and Border Protection says it will work with federal agencies to protect the Quitobaquito, and the second wall at the spring itself will be within a 60-foot stretch of land right along the border.
“I am not convinced that they fully know how they’re going to build a second wall,” McSpadden said. “There are so many logistical issues and so many impacts that a second wall for Quitobaquito and just the national park lands at Organ Pipe in general.”
The agency did not answer questions about how the new structure would fit inside the space with the existing steel wall, or whether additional roads, surveillance and other infrastructure would be built as well.
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The investment goes toward modernizing the around 55 mile long stretch between the Lukeville-Sonoyta border crossing into Arizona and Puerto Peñasco, also known as Rocky Point. -
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An ongoing dispute between Border Patrol and the Tohono O’odham Nation in southern Arizona continues to escalate. -
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