In a bold stand for sovereignty, the Tohono O’odham Nation of Southern and Central Arizona is taking the Trump administration to court, challenging the construction of the border wall on their sacred land.
The landmark lawsuit asserts that the Department of Homeland Security violated their rights by beginning construction without consent, raising profound concerns over the illegal appropriation of their territory and the potential damage to their cultural and environmental heritage.
Significance. The lawsuit claims that the Department of Homeland Security began construction on the border wall on Tohono O’odham land without their consent. They worry that if construction of the border wall continues, it “would illegally take the Nation’s land and decrease the Nation’s reservation… and its contractors would be trespassing on the Nation’s land and violating the Nation’s exclusive use of its reservation and resources,” said Chairman Verlon Jose and Vice Chairwoman Carla Johnson of Tohono O’odham Nation in a statement.
Overlooked angle. The Tohono O’odham Nation shares 62 miles of international border with Mexico and has a long history of working with the U.S. government to protect the nation’s borders.
In 1974, the Tohono O’odham Nation offered a long-term lease to allow an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office on their land. To this day, the office remains to help protect national security.
Federal law enforcement and contractors enter the Tohono O’odham Nation. Credit: Credit: Tohono O’odham Nation.
Members of the Tohono O’odham Nation also make up the Shadow Wolves, the only Native American tactical unit specialized in tracking and catching people smuggling drugs and trafficking people through the Southern border. Between 2010 and 2020, they have been responsible for “437 drug and immigration arrests along with the seizure of over 117,264 pounds of drugs, 45 weapons, 251 vehicles and $847,928 in U.S. currency,” according to ICE. Since then, they have continued to support the U.S. government with national security initiatives to protect the border.
Power structure. Throughout history, the U.S. government has coerced and forced Native American tribes to give up land rights t through colonization, genocide and continuous legal battles..
The courts have often sided with the U.S. government in these matters, attorneys for that side argue.
“Plaintiff’s theory would, to say the least, break new legal ground,” said defendants Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Rodney Scott, and Chief of U.S. Border Patrol Rosario Vasquez in court filings.
“This novel theory is the basis for Plaintiff’s extraordinary request for emergency relief: an injunction blocking the United States from constructing a barrier on this stretch of the U.S. border. We are unaware of any case— and Plaintiff cites none—where a court blocked the United States from securing its border for lack of tribal consent. It is thus unsurprising that Plaintiff cites no case that has accepted either of its legal claims.”
The defendants also cited 73 previous cases where the U.S. government won legal battles with Native American tribes.
What experts say. “DHS has chosen to disregard our sovereignty, ignoring proven border security strategies and dismissing the irreversible environmental and cultural destruction that will follow,” Jose and Johnson said in a statement.
“We have already witnessed the desecration that border wall construction has caused with the blading of the thousand-year-old Las Playas Intaglio, both an O’odham and American treasure, and previous efforts to dynamite areas around the sacred Quitobaquito Springs. As a result, we have been left with no other choice. We would prefer to use the resources that the litigation will require for services directly to Nation members. But our priority MUST always be to protect our people, our culture, and to stand up for what is right.”
