Last month I wrote about the Tohono O’odham Nation’s lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over its plan to build a border wall straight through the reservation. That fight hasn’t slowed down. The Nation is now taking immediate, physical action to protect its borders — and it will stop anyone it chooses from setting foot on tribal land to do it.
For anyone just joining this story: the Tohono O’odham Nation is a federally recognized, sovereign tribe of roughly 37,000 enrolled members, with reservation lands spanning Southern and Central Arizona. The O’odham have called this region home since time immemorial. Their reservation runs some 62 miles along the international border with Mexico, and they’ve been on the front lines of border issues since 1854, when the Gadsden Purchase cut a line straight through their homeland. For decades, the Nation has cooperated with federal border security efforts — while consistently opposing a wall on its own land.
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On August 7, the Office of the Chairman and Vice Chairwoman announced that “No Trespassing” signs are going up in various locations across the Nation. The signs warn that nonmembers entering or remaining on the reservation without authorization — specifically anyone connected to border wall construction — could “face removal, exclusion, civil or criminal trespass proceedings, civil penalties, or seizure of property.”
This is a powerful display of sovereignty against the tyranny of an administration that claims it’s “securing” the U.S. border from “illegals.” In the Tohono O’odham case, it’s Trump’s own contractors who are the aliens in sovereign territory — and the Nation is telling them so, in writing, with signs.
To be clear: this isn’t a lockdown. Tohono O’odham members remain free to travel as usual. The restriction is aimed specifically at “non-tribal members who are associated with border wall construction that would take our land, destroy our sacred sites, and separate our people.” Tribal police have asked members not to intervene if they see suspicious activity, and to report it instead — a reminder that this is being handled as law enforcement, not vigilantism. Action this direct, with plans to enforce it — physically posting notice that federal contractors are barred as trespassers on sovereign land — is unprecedented in this fight.
This didn’t come out of nowhere. On August 3, the Nation announced it had submitted its supplemental briefs in the case, following a July 22 hearing where attorneys argued for a preliminary injunction to stop DHS from building on the reservation. Their central argument remains the same: only Congress can alter the reservation’s boundaries, and DHS never got that authority.
Chairman Verlon Jose said the Nation’s legal team “presented a strong case” and that leadership is “hopeful that the weight of evidence will lead the court to approve the preliminary injunction preventing construction of this wasteful and destructive wall.” He also thanked the growing list of allies standing with the Nation — “Pima County, the City of Tucson, the National Congress of American Indians, and leaders, tribes, and individuals across the country.”
That support isn’t abstract. On July 22, the Tucson Mayor and Council unanimously passed a resolution opposing the wall, joining Pima County, which had already done the same. Jose called it proof that border communities “recognize that a border wall will not make our reservation safer. It will just destroy our sacred sites, damage our environment, and further divide our people.” The case now sits with Judge Richard Leon, and the Nation is pushing for a ruling before DHS can award construction contracts.
This isn’t a hypothetical fight over future harm. Cultural sites have already been permanently damaged. Just weeks ago, contractors plowed a 50-foot bladed corridor straight through the Las Playas Intaglio — a sacred O’odham and American treasure and a 1,000-year-old ground geoglyph. The destruction happened despite the site having been explicitly flagged for total avoidance by tribal monitors. It’s permanent, and it’s exactly the kind of ongoing, reckless harm to sacred sites that threatens important ceremonies and religious practices — one of the core points raised in the Nation’s lawsuit against DHS.
The Nation has also been pushing back directly against some of the talking points used to defend the wall:
MYTH: “The border wall project does not impact local water sources or desert wildlife.”
FACT: Building the wall requires massive water resources, even in the arid Sonoran Desert. Contractors are currently drilling deep wells into fragile desert aquifers to mix concrete. That heavy pumping directly threatens sacred areas like A’al Waipia (Quitobaquito Springs), risking permanently drying up the sole habitat of the endangered Sonoyta mud turtle and other endangered species.
MYTH: “The border wall only impacts people traveling from foreign countries.”
FACT: The wall slices through a single community that has been unified since time immemorial. Over 3,000 enrolled Tohono O’odham Nation members live on the Mexican side and would be physically severed from their families, clinics, schools, and ancestral religious sites and ceremonies.
MYTH: “The border wall is the most cost-effective method of securing the border with Mexico.”
FACT: The border wall is an expensive, ineffective political gimmick that cannot replace proven, successful security strategies. It costs tens of millions of dollars to build a single mile of static wall, which then requires constant, costly maintenance to protect it from the rugged desert environment as well as from sabotage by migrants and smugglers. It all adds up to extraordinary expenses for American taxpayers to subsidize a border security measure that is less effective than the dynamic system already in place.
So here’s where things stand: the Nation’s legal case rests on a 1927 federal law that set the reservation’s boundaries and states those boundaries “shall not be made except by Act of Congress.” In other words, only Congress has the power to shrink or redraw the reservation — not DHS, and not an executive order. A federal judge is now weighing whether DHS’s plan to build within 60 feet of the international border would violate that law by taking a bite out of tribal land without Congress ever signing off. A major Arizona city and county have gone on record against the wall. And now the Tohono O’odham Nation isn’t waiting on the court alone — it’s putting up physical warnings on its own land that federal contractors are not welcome.
Sovereignty isn’t an abstraction for the Tohono O’odham. It’s the difference between a sacred spring and a construction site. Right now, it’s also the difference between a sign that says “No Trespassing” and a government that has, so far, acted like that word doesn’t apply to it.
More information on the lawsuit and the history of border protection on the Nation is available at [tonation-nsn.gov/nowall](https://www.tonation-nsn.gov/nowall).
Brandi Morin is a multi-award-winning Cree/Iroquois/French journalist from Treaty 6 territory in Alberta. She is the founder of Indigenous Insider on Substack and the author of the national bestselling memoir Our Voice of Fire.
Sources:
- Tohono O’odham Nation, Office of the Chairman and Vice Chairwoman — Public Service Announcement, “Border Wall Contractors Warned Not to Trespass on the Nation,” Aug. 7, 2026
- Tohono O’odham Nation, Office of the Chairman and Vice Chairwoman — Public Service Announcement, “Nation Presents Strong Court Case Against Border Wall,” Aug. 3, 2026
- Tohono O’odham Nation, Office of the Chairman and Vice Chairwoman — Public Service Announcement, “Tucson Mayor and Council Pass Resolution Opposing Border Wall on the Nation,” July 22, 2026
- Tohono O’odham Nation, Office of the Chairman and Vice Chairwoman — Public Service Announcement, “Tohono O’odham Nation Sues Department of Homeland Security Over Plans to Take Part of Its Reservation for Border Wall,” June 17, 2026
- Tohono O’odham Nation, official case updates and background: [tonation-nsn.gov/nowall](https://www.tonation-nsn.gov/nowall)
- California Globe, “AZ Tribal Nation Deploys Police to Stop Unauthorized Border Wall Work on Reservation”: [californiaglobe.com](https://californiaglobe.com/fr/az-tribal-nation-deploys-police-to-stop-unauthorized-border-wall-work-on-reservation/)
- Indigenous Insider, “Trump’s ICE Is Coming for Tohono O’odham Land — The Nation Is Suing to Stop It,” June 30, 2026: [indigenousinsider.substack.com](https://indigenousinsider.substack.com/p/trumps-ice-is-coming-for-tohono-oodham)
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