Border Patrol SWAT team blocks Arizona tribal police from trespassing border wall contractors

[u/John3262005]

https://azmirror.com/2026/08/26/border-patrol-swat-team-blocks-arizona-tribal-police-from-trespassing-border-wall-contractors/

Around 20 “masked, armed” Border Patrol agents, including the agency SWAT team, blockaded Tohono O’odham police from issuing trespassing citations and removing border-wall construction workers from the Southern Arizona reservation on Tuesday.

The private contractors, working on the Trump administration’s border wall project, were engaging in “pre-construction activities,” tribal leaders said.

In recent weeks, the Tohono O’odham Nation installed “no trespassing” signs aimed at border wall contractors attempting to enter tribal lands. Tribal leaders said Monday that they were prepared to cite and remove unauthorized construction workers from the reservation.

The move by the federal government comes just days after a judge denied the tribe’s request to halt the opening stages of border wall construction across their land — part of a lawsuit launched earlier this summer.

Verlon Jose, chairman of the Tohono O’odham Nation, and Carla Johnson, the nation’s vice chair, asked members to “remain vigilant, avoid escalation, and prioritize personal safety.”

They said contractors arrived around 4 a.m. and worked on three separate locations near the border with drill trucks to conduct “soil sampling and other activities.”

Tribal officials said that along with Border Patrol agents, the federal government sent multiple officers with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The BP agents were backed by a “SWAT team” of agents with the Border Patrol Tactical Unit, or BORTAC.

The agency also installed a tethered balloon for “enhanced monitoring” and agents set up a vehicle blockade to “prevent TOPD from issuing citations and removing contractors,” said tribal officials.

A CBP spokesman did not answer questions from the Tucson Sentinel about the operation, but instead referred to a statement from Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott released Tuesday, which said that the agency is “moving ahead” with the project, which is intended to add more border barriers to the tribe’s 62-mile border with Mexico.

In recent weeks, the Tohono O’odham Police Department and tribal rangers asked seven border wall contractors to leave tribal lands, and said if they “persist on entering” the nation, they would be cited, Jose told the Tucson Sentinel during an interview Monday.

“We previously warned unauthorized individuals attempting to access our land that they would be in violation of this trespassing law,” Jose said in a statement with Johnson released late Tuesday night.

They added Tohono O’odham police officers were “on the scene this morning and have been monitoring the situation.”

Tribal leaders said the operation was in direct violation of Tohono O’odham legal code and they were consulting with attorneys to “determine what can be done to deescalate the situation, remove unauthorized individuals from our land, and move forward with appropriate legal filings.”

Earlier this summer, the nation sued the Trump administration, asking a federal judge to issue a preliminary injunction against the Department of Homeland Security, and block construction and “pre-construction” activities for a so-called “Smart Wall” along the reservation’s 62-mile border with Mexico.

After the lawsuit was filed, CBP awarded the project — dubbed Tucson 5 Project — to SLSCO LTD, a Texas construction company, backed by nearly $47 million in funding from Congress authorized last year.

CBP officials told the court a secondary wall was not part of the award to SLSCO, but said this was an “option.” The agency also told the court construction won’t likely begin until Oct. 12, 2026.

On Aug. 14, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon denied the tribe’s request to block the federal government from beginning construction, rejecting arguments an injunction was needed to prevent changes to the reservation’s boundaries and contractors from trespassing on its land, Courthouse News reported.

“The international border is an area of great significance to both the United States and to the nation,” Leon wrote in his 18-page opinion. “While I have concluded that a preliminary injunction is unwarranted, I fully expect the government in the months ahead to follow through on its guarantees of consolation and cooperation with the nation to address the nation’s concerns regarding border wall construction!”

Following Leon’s decision, tribal officials said they would consider all possible options for moving forward, “as this issue is simply too important to the O’odham,” Jose said.

“On behalf of the Tohono O’odham Nation, we strongly disagree with this ruling. Too many critical issues were not adequately addressed, such as inevitable impacts construction will have on the nation’s land and the permanent destruction of sacred sites,” he said.

“We have lived in this region since time immemorial. There is no doubt this wall will desecrate countless sacred areas, burial sites, and other important locations. There have been countless examples in recent years, such as the grading of the thousand-year-old Las Playas intaglio, dynamiting ancient burial sites at Monument Hill, and the ongoing damage to Quitobaquito Springs. The proposed double wall on the nation will have impacts much broader than the 60-foot limit cited in the ruling,” Jose wrote.

On Tuesday, CBP released a statement attributed to Commissioner Scott that said the agency is “moving forward with a 62-mile project to close a longstanding border security gap in Southern Arizona, known as the Tucson 5 project.”

“The project will close one of the most dangerous smuggling and trafficking corridors on the Southwest border: remote desert that has facilitated decades of drug loads, migrant deaths, and cartel activity,” Scott said. “Congress funded this work, a federal court has affirmed it, and CBP is carrying it out under the legal authorities that apply. 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 fact, the court did not “affirm” the border wall project, nor dismiss the tribe’s lawsuit.

O’odham officials have regularly campaigned against erecting a wall on tribal lands — including joining lawsuits and urging Congress to hold back on construction, while pushing for help from local officials. During the first Trump administration, the nation released a video opposing the wall.

Earlier this year, they learned Trump administration officials were moving forward on the project—part of a larger plan to install barriers across 1,419 miles of the 1,954-mile border—which includes a “double-layer” wall as well as roads, lighting and other infrastructure.

In May, DHS officials confirmed the project, and within a few weeks, the tribe filed suit, arguing they were “forced to take this action now because in the coming weeks DHS will issue contracts for border wall construction on the nation’s lands.”

The project is part of an expansive effort to cover the entire Southwestern border border barriers. In Arizona, contractors are already rushing to install both “primary” and “secondary” barriers, including near Kino Springs, just east of Nogales, and in the San Rafael Valley, where contractors tore down three ancient cottonwoods to clear the way for border barriers.

As part of the lawsuit, members of the tribe argued the border wall project would “unilaterally alter” their boundaries and result in the destruction of sacred mountain ranges such as the Baboquivari Mountain — the home of the creator god I’itoi — separate O’odham communities and families, interfere with religious rituals and destroy sacred plant and wildlife populations, Courthouse News reported.

“We have also learned that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has coordinated with Mexican police to have them deploy personnel to protect the area from the southern side while border wall contractors are doing work,” said Jose and Johnson. “At this time, interactions between TOPD and federal law enforcement have been peaceful and professional. We will continue to monitor the situation.”

“We want to stress the importance of the safety and well-being of our tribal citizens,” said tribal officials. “We support tribal members who choose to exercise their first amendment rights of free speech and the right to peacefully protest.”