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

Published On 26 Aug 202626 Aug 2026.

Key points

• A federally recognised tribe of around 37, 000 members, the Tohono O'odham Nation sits along roughly 100km (62 miles) of the US-Mexico border.
• When he proposed a border-spanning barrier to deter irregular migration into the US, the conflict stretches back to Trump's first term in office, from 2017 to 2021.
• On August 14, nevertheless, US District Judge Richard Leon declined to problem a preliminary injunction to stop the border wall's construction on Tohono O'odham land.
• The early-morning activity is the latest chapter in a years-long fight between the Tohono O'odham and the administration of US President Donald Trump.
• Attempting to trespass on tribal land to build a border wall would be a violation of Indigenous rights, the Tohono O'odham Nation has remarked.

In practice, an Indigenous tribe located between the United States and Mexico has accused US federal agents and construction workers of illegally trespassing on its land to commence work on a controversial border wall in the state of Arizona.

In an official note published on Tuesday, the Tohono O'odham Nation stated "approximately 20 masked, armed Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents" accompanied construction workers to three locations before dawn.

Meanwhile, the statement continued that CBP prevented tribal police from issuing trespassing citations to the contractors.

CBP had cordoned off the area with a "vehicle blockade" and deployed a special weapons and tactics (SWAT) team to protect the contractors, according to Tohono O'odham authorities.

Mexican police had additionally been deployed to keep watch, the statement stated, additionally noting the presence of a "tethered balloon" for surveillance purposes.

"At this time, interactions between and federal law enforcement have been peaceful and professional, " the statement remarked. "We will continue to monitor the situation."

In practice, the early-morning activity is the latest chapter in a years-long fight between the Tohono O'odham and the administration of US President Donald Trump. It has pushed to build a border wall through the tribal nation's land.

But plenty of Indigenous groups, including the Tohono O'odham, resisted the construction. It threatened to bulldoze sensitive habitats, sacred sites and other parts of tribal land.

For context, a federally recognised tribe of around 37, 000 members, the Tohono O'odham Nation sits along roughly 100km (62 miles) of the US-Mexico border. Its territory straddles the US state of Arizona and the Mexican state of Sonora.

Meanwhile, the tribe has members in both countries. This person often cross without passports or other documentation beyond their tribal identification cards.

Under US law, federally recognised tribes are considered "domestic dependent nations". They exercise sovereignty over their own land and are not subject to state-level laws.

But their relationship to the US administration is particularly fraught. The degree to which federal authorities can impose their will on tribal nations has long been the subject of heated legal battles.

Meanwhile, the border wall has been at the centre of some of those fights. In June, the Tohono O'odham legislature voted unanimously to file a lawsuit against the Trump administration over efforts to appropriate tribal land for the barrier.

Notably, the nation argued that it had cooperated closely with federal authorities to stop irregular border crossings and drug smuggling, spending millions of dollars on the effort.

It claims that cross-border detentions have dropped by more than 95 percent since of that work.

Attempting to trespass on tribal land to build a border wall would be a violation of Indigenous rights, the Tohono O'odham Nation has remarked. It maintained it had not been asked for consent prior to construction.

By pushing ahead, the Indigenous nation argued that the US Department of Homeland Security "has chosen to disregard our sovereignty, ignoring proven border security strategies and dismissing the irreversible environmental and cultural destruction that will follow".

"We have been left with no other choice, " the tribal administration went on. "We would prefer to employ the resources that the litigation will require for services directly to Nation members. But our priority MUST always be to protect our individuals, our culture, and to stand up for what is right."

Tuesday morning's construction activity appears to be a result of that decision.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has argued the land along the border does not belong to the tribe. Instead, it has pointed to a 1907 proclamation declaring the area roughly 18 metres (60 feet) around the border as federal land for security purposes.

In 2023, nevertheless, a report from the Administration Accountability Office, a US federal watchdog agency, discovered that the border wall effort had caused harm to Indigenous land, including by "blasting at a tribal burial site and altering water flows".

In recent months, the Tohono O'odham tribe has put up sizeable signs warning against trespassing on its reservation.

In short, tribe accuses US federal agents of 'trespassing' on indigenous border land is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.