Bulldozers are clearing the way for border wall construction in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument near Quitobaquito Springs — a desert oasis deeply sacred to the Hia C-ed O’odham and Tohono O’odham tribes.
It comes as the Trump administration prepares for a second border wall that would cut through the area, despite repeated objections from tribal members.
“I would not put a wall in the middle of your home. I would not blow up your family cemetery. I would not put a wall in the middle of your church or wherever your place of worship is,” Tohono O’odham Chairman Verlon Jose said last week during a town hall on the issue.
Aside from providing a source of water in the vast surrounding desert, Quitobaquito serves as a site for O’odham ceremonies. The oasis also holds medicinal plants, a cherished O’odham cemetery, and endangered species ranging from a springsnail to the Sonoyta mud turtle.
Early Wednesday morning, Russ McSpadden with the Center for Biological Diversity captured footage of a bulldozer clearing vegetation 0.7 miles east of Quitbobaquito Springs.
“The administration needs to halt construction immediately and work with Tribes and conservation experts to avoid irreversible harm to this teeming desert oasis,” he said in a statement.
The same day, AZPM also witnessed bulldozers on the west side of Quitobaquito during a flyover of the area. The spring itself appeared untouched for the time being, though the construction timeline for the new wall remains unclear.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson did not immediately answer questions Thursday about the project timeline. The agency has largely ignored specific questions from AZPM about recent construction projects along Arizona’s southern border.
Already, a 30-foot-tall bollard fence stands just south of Quitobaquito Springs. That wall, built during the first Trump administration, also faced vehement opposition from tribal members, scientists and conservation groups. As contractors embarked on construction of the first wall in 2020, water levels dropped in the oasis, prompting dozens of scientists to demand a stop to construction in a letter to the federal government.
Jose acknowledged the damage during a town hall in Ajo last week.
“I heard an Elder say, ‘I don't want to go out there. It's too sad. It's too sad to go out there,’” Jose recalled. “But my brothers and sisters, we must stand together. Not for me, not for you, but for everyone because the Creator has given us this thing. And we need to protect that.”
Construction looms on tribal land, Nation appeals judge’s ruling##
East of Organ Pipe Cactus Monument, meanwhile, contractors are poised to begin border wall construction on the Tohono O’odham Nation — a project that prompted the tribe to sue the federal government in June.
As the lawsuit progressed through the courts last month, tribal leadership posted “no trespassing” signs around the Nation and escorted around a half-dozen federal contractors off tribal land.
Then, last Monday, about 20 armed federal agents entered the Nation, along with a Border Patrol Tactical Unit — a type of SWAT team typically deployed for emergency operations. Over the weekend, contractors continued to conduct pre-construction activities, including "boring into the earth for soil samples,” according to a statement from Tohono O’odham leadership.
A CBP spokesperson did not answer AZPM’s questions about the project, but sent a general statement from U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott, who doubled down on the wall project.
“Congress funded this work, a federal court has affirmed it, and CBP is carrying it out under the legal authorities that apply,” Scott said. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we are securing the border and giving our agents the tools and support they need to protect the American people.”
In August, a federal judge denied the Tohono O’odham Nation’s request for a preliminary injunction that would have halted construction. The Nation appealed that ruling last week in a second attempt to have a preliminary injunction granted.
