DHS Intimidates a Border Tribe with Surveillance, Masked Agents and Drones

Federal agents and contractors moved onto the Tohono O’odham Nation to begin soil testing for a 62-mile border wall, deploying masked tactical teams, roadblocks, a surveillance blimp and drones while questioning tribal members and monitoring an ongoing prayer ceremony. Tribal leaders got as little as a one-minute notice before crews arrived; when the Nation’s police tried to reach work sites they were blocked. Work crews were accompanied by Border Patrol units drawn from a special operations cadre that had taken part in high-profile urban raids, and Mexican security forces were reported to be assisting. Tribal members describe the operation as aggressive intimidation that disrupted routine cross-border travel for ceremony and family visits and turned long-standing homeland-security collaborations into mechanisms used against them.

The tribe sued to stop construction, arguing the wall would violate sovereignty and cultural rights, but a judge denied an emergency injunction and federal officials proceeded, citing Congress’s funding and the border’s characterization as a major smuggling corridor. Investigative reporting compiled photos, videos, court filings, interviews and thousands of contemporaneous observations documenting 24-hour surveillance and repeated government intrusions; authorities largely declined to answer detailed questions. Federal officials signaled they would press forward, even after meetings with tribal leaders, and at least one agency lawyer publicly celebrated the court decision, underscoring a clash between asserted border-security imperatives and the Nation’s claims to protect its land and traditions.