Judge Lets Trump Build 62 Miles of Border Wall on Tohono O’odham Land
Updated
Updated · abcnews.com · Aug 14
Judge Lets Trump Build 62 Miles of Border Wall on Tohono O’odham Land
3 articles · Updated · abcnews.com · Aug 14
Summary
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon denied the Tohono O’odham Nation’s bid to halt construction along 62 miles of the Arizona-Mexico border on its 2.8-million-acre reservation.
Leon said the tribe had not shown the wall would alter reservation boundaries without congressional approval and rejected its claim that the project would illegally trespass on tribal land.
The judge wrote that federal interests in border security, immigration enforcement and public safety currently outweigh any irreparable harm alleged by the tribe.
Tribal lawyers had warned the wall would devastate sacred mountain peaks, disrupt religious practices and strain ties for a nation of more than 37,000 members, including thousands living in Mexico.
The case centers on the 1907 Roosevelt Reservation—a 60-foot federal buffer strip along the border—with the tribe arguing it is unrealistic to confine wall construction to that corridor.