Tribe accuses US federal agents of ‘trespassing’ on indigenous border land

What the report says

The Tohono O’odham Nation, an Indigenous tribe whose reservation straddles the US-Mexico border in Arizona and Sonora, has accused US federal agents and construction workers of trespassing on tribal land as work resumed on a border wall. In a statement cited by Al Jazeera, the tribe said about 20 masked and armed Customs and Border Protection officers accompanied contractors to three sites before dawn, while tribal police were reportedly blocked from issuing trespassing citations. The nation also said the area was cordoned off and monitored with additional security, including a SWAT team and surveillance equipment.

The dispute is part of a long-running conflict between the tribe and the Trump administration over wall construction through Indigenous land. The Tohono O’odham say the project threatens sacred sites, burial grounds, natural resources and other culturally significant areas. They have also argued that federal authorities are disregarding tribal sovereignty and that the tribe was not asked for consent before the latest construction activity.

According to the article, the tribe’s legislature voted in June to sue the Trump administration over efforts to take tribal land for the barrier. On August 14, a federal judge declined to grant an injunction that would have paused construction, which appears to have cleared the way for the work described on Tuesday. The US government, meanwhile, has argued that the area is federal land based on a 1907 proclamation.

The article notes that earlier government findings had already identified damage tied to wall construction, including harm to a tribal burial site and changes to water flow. More broadly, the case highlights continuing legal and political fights over border security, Indigenous land rights and federal authority along the southern border.