Court declines to halt border wall construction on tribal land

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has declined to stop the Trump administration from moving forward with plans to build 62 miles of border wall along the U.S.-Mexico boundary that cuts through the Tohono O'odham Nation's reservation in Arizona.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon denied the tribe's request for a preliminary injunction on Friday, ruling that the O'odham had not demonstrated that the wall would alter reservation boundaries without congressional approval. He also rejected arguments that construction would constitute an illegal trespass on tribal land.

In his written decision, Leon said the government's objectives in securing the border, enforcing immigration law, and protecting public safety outweigh any irreparable harm the tribe might suffer at this stage of the case.

The Tohono O'odham reservation spans roughly 2.8 million acres in the Sonoran Desert and shares 62 miles of direct border with Mexico. The tribe has more than 37,000 enrolled members, including thousands residing south of the border.

Attorneys for the tribe argued that wall construction would cause significant damage to sacred mountain peaks, disrupt religious ceremonies, and sever longstanding ties between O'odham families and communities on both sides of the boundary. They also contended that the project would destroy plants and animals considered sacred to the tribe.

The legal dispute centers partly on the so-called Roosevelt Reservation, a 60-foot-wide buffer strip along the border created by presidential proclamation in 1907 — a decade before the tribe's reservation was formally established. Tribal lawyers called it "fanciful at best" to suggest the wall could be confined to that narrow corridor.

During a hearing in late July, Leon expressed skepticism about the tribe's legal position, describing the injunction request as "extraordinary" and noting he could not find a comparable precedent. "This is a novel case with novel issues," he said.

A spokesperson for the tribe did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.