Activists protesting border wall construction in Lochiel, Arizona, east of Nogales, spread their encampment to both sides of the U.S.-Mexico line this week.
For more than 20 days, protesters have staged a sit-in in a more than 100-year-old cottonwood tree to prevent government contractors from cutting it down to expand the border wall.
“So far, the demonstration has been very effective,” said Erick Meza, Sierra Club border program coordinator. “The strategy has inspired us also in Mexico to do the same and try to save one of the cottonwoods that could be damaged by the border wall.”
The tree-sit on the Mexico side of the border is a few feet south of the Lochiel encampment in Arizona. Activists hope having protesters on both sides will better position them to stop the construction in progress in the remote San Rafael Valley area.
The Trump administration late last year awarded more than $1.4 billion to the construction company Fisher Sand & Gravel Co. to build approximately 19 miles of primary and secondary border wall, as well as 136 miles of detection technology in places where there is already an existing wall along the Arizona-Sonora border.
“This is a migratory corridor for many birds and animals that’s about to be destroyed by the double border wall that’s planned for this area,” Meza said of the segment of the border near Lochiel.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said preconstruction surveys found no active migratory bird nests in the three cottonwood trees that contractors felled in late July.
Meza said he has video evidence of nesting activity in the trees from the day before they were taken down.
Russ McSpadden with the Center for Biological Diversity said protesters on the Mexico side of the border are positioned to block primary border wall construction, while protesters on the Arizona side are in the way of secondary wall construction.
A sign strung up high along the U.S.-Mexico divide reads: “From MN to MX, resistance is fertile.”
“The community’s really rallied around this,” McSpadden said. “It’s a really special scene down there.”
KJZZ's Alisa Reznick contributed to this report.
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