Judge denies Tohono O’odham Nation injunction to stop border wall construction

A federal district judge is denying calls for a preliminary injunction by the Tohono O’odham Nation to halt border wall construction along a 60-foot stretch of land bordering the tribal reservation and its 62-mile boundary with Mexico.

Appointed by George W. Bush, Judge Richard Leon in D.C. ruled last week that granting an injunction is “unwarranted” — writing he expects the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will “follow through on its guarantees of consultation.”

Historically, that hasn’t been the case, according to Tohono O’odham Chairman Verlon Jose. He points to the destruction of a 1,000-year-old ancient, fish-shaped geoglyph — called Las Playas Intaglio — as the latest example.

“We were assured that the border wall construction would not impact it,” Jose told KJZZ. “But despite that warning and assurances, federal contractors just bladed right through it, causing permanent damage to this O’odham and American treasure. You can’t rebuild it.”

Like other endangered sacred sites, Monument Hill and Quitobaquito Springs.

Still, the judge noted that the feds’ interests in ensuring public safety by securing the Southern border and enforcing immigration laws “outweigh any surviving irreparable harms.” In response to the Friday filing, the Tohono O’odham Nation is considering “all possible options for moving forward.”

Hear Gabriel Pietrorazio with host Lauren Gilger on The Show

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Full conversation from The Show

LAUREN GILGER: But first, a federal judge says the Tohono O’odham Nation has no authority to stop the Trump administration’s efforts to build a border wall that cuts through its sovereign land. This because of a 1907 proclamation from Teddy Roosevelt. That’s right, this one goes way back in history.

And here to explain it all is KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio, who covers indigenous affairs for us. Good morning, Gabe.

GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: Good morning.

LAUREN GILGER: OK. So, the Tohono O’odham Nation’s reservation is one of the few that exists on both sides of the southern border. It’s about 62 miles of it. And and the tribe doesn’t want the Trump administration’s border wall built through their reservation, so they sued not too long ago.

We had you on The Show to talk about that. They asked the judge for an injunction to to stop construction crews that, you know, are kind of barreling toward them. What was their argument?

GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: So, essentially, the nation was saying that, "Hey, you know, our reservation would be shrank as a result of the construction of the border wall," which, to your point earlier, was would be built along this 60-foot-wide stretch of land. It’s a strip that runs from like California all the way to New Mexico, known as the Roosevelt Reservation, which was established to essentially for the sole purpose of dealing with smuggling, particularly at that time opium smuggling, and now we’re seeing fentanyl, you know, coming in from Mexico to the US.

And so, this comes as at a time when the nation’s saying this would diminish our land base, the 2.8 million-acre reservation, because it’s right along that, but also impact cultural, sacred sites. And those are the main points of contention there that the judge didn’t see eye-to-eye with the nation on.

LAUREN GILGER: Right. So, let’s let’s give us a little history lesson here, Gabe. You mentioned this Roosevelt Reservation, 1907 proclamation from Theodore Roosevelt, the president at the time. And this is basically a 60-mile kind of like buffer zone around the actual border. What’s the purpose of that? It it is not supposed to be sovereign land?

GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: So, it’s technically handled or managed by the U.S. federal government. So, it’s a very it’s 60-foot-wide line that essentially runs along the the border of the U.S., the U.S. border and Mexico. So, Mexico southern, then the Roosevelt Reservation’s this very thin strip that kind of runs just north of the international boundary.

And then, in the case of Arizona, you have the Tohono O’odham Nation, right, the the sovereign reservation that sits right just above the Roosevelt Reservation. And so, this is that battleground, so to speak, of where this border wall could be constructed.

According to the the latest filing in the opinion, the contractor SLSCO, which is a Galveston-based, Texas-based company, was awarded the contract. This money comes from the One Big Beautiful Bill from last summer, and the plan is that construction isn’t supposed to start until October of this year. And so, that’s kind of the timeline that we’re seeing following the denial of the preliminary injunction to halt future construction work there.

LAUREN GILGER: Right. But at this point, they can go forward. October is, you know, clock ticking. The tribe is not giving ground on this, though. They say they’re going to keep fighting this in court. Tell us about what they have to say about this judge’s decision. I mean, they even a couple weeks ago were putting up no trespassing signs, right, apparently for crews warning them off, essentially?

GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: That’s correct, yeah. There was, there’s efforts now underway to also have monitoring, local community-run monitoring groups that are kind of surveillance, so to speak, the border wall and that area where where the border wall could be made.

As it sits currently, there’s a 4-foot vehicle barrier that kind of runs along this stretch of land. It’s not like completely open, and so, you know, as you drive along it, you’ll see like these kind of tracks and things of that sort that are set up to, you know, essentially dissuade people from crossing the border on vehicles or motorcycles and things of that nature.

And there’s also periodic crossing points where they’re like cattle guards, and you’ll open it up, and you’ll contact someone from CBP, who will come down, and they’ll check the ID of the the Tohono O’odham Nation member, and then they can cross in across the border to Mexico. They use that for like pilgrimages and things to like the Sea of Cortez and places like that.

And so, the nation has been very proactive with enforcing immigration policy in alignment with the U.S. As you know, there’s the Shadow Wolves, which is the only Native American tactical unit that deals with human traffic smuggling operations across the reservation, and that’s under, you know, DHS specifically.

And there’s also a lot of work where they’ve established, you know, forward command operating bases that have been erected on the reservation in partnership with the federal government. They’ve kind of come to an agreement to say, "Hey, we would allow you to do this for the greater goal of maintaining control of of that border."

LAUREN GILGER: Right. So, I mean, one of the things that I think is really interesting about this conflict between the Tohono O’odham Nation and the federal government here is that for a long time, they have worked with the federal government, this tribe, in stopping human smuggling, human trafficking, drug smuggling, etc., across that border. You mentioned the Shadow Wolves. What do the efforts look like on that front with the kind of long history of cooperation here?

GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: Yeah, there’s there’s traffic points, checkpoints right throughout the nation. There’s cooperative agreements that have been established with the Tohono O’odham tribal police department to work in tandem with, you know, the Customs Border Protection agents and DHS more broadly.

As I mentioned, the the construction of these forward command operating bases and like detention, pseudo-detention centers that are there to for those who cross the border, you know, and are apprehended. And also, there’s, you know, basically towers, about at least 10 of them, I believe, that are used for surveillance. That includes things like cameras and monitoring along that 62-mile stretch of the reservation that touches Mexico.

LAUREN GILGER: But this, basically, they’re saying this is one step too far for the tribe.

GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: That’s correct. Yeah, as we’ve had discussions with, you know, Chairman Verlon Jose and others, that essentially the construction of an actual border wall is diminutive in the sense that they’ve already been doing a lot of management in stopping crossings.

The chairman had cited in previous years as, I believe, as much as 95% reduction in overall crossings through that area because of the cameras, because of the increased presence of CBP, and those cooperative agreements that are already in place, and they feel that the actual physical structural apparatus of a border wall is too much to bear.

LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. So, I mean, you mentioned sacred sites, some of which have already been kind of bulldozed in the process of building this border wall. What’s the tribe’s concern there?

GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: You know, in the past, the nation was promised things from the federal government that, for example, places like Monument Hill weren’t going to be impacted, but were blasted essentially. That was in 2020 or so, around the time when the initial border wall was being built. And other places that are off the reservation on ancestral territory lands within Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, like Quitobaquito Springs, which is the desert oasis that we’ve talked about in the past. S

o, there’s a lot of places that are known, and there are many that are unknown to the public because of the sacred nature, the the Tohono O’odham Nation would not obviously disclose where these sacred mountains or other sites are to the government, because it’s their property and and their responsibility to protect those things, and to keep them out of out of harm’s way.

And so, that’s part of this challenge is that there are places, as the chairman has told me, that they can’t disclose to the government because of that very reason. And so, that is a vote of contention here with the environment, and the judge ruled that essentially the immigration enforcement issues supersede any quote "irreparable harms" that may come from essentially the construction of the border wall there.

LAUREN GILGER: OK. Lots to watch for here as the clock ticks down to October. Gabriel Pietrorazio joining us, covers Indigenous Affairs here for KJZZ. Thank you so much.

GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: Thanks for having me.