Quitobaquito Spring in danger: Border wall construction depleting sacred Tohono O'odham spring, home to endangered species

"It is with a heavy heart that I share this photo taken today of Quitobaquito. The spring is drying up. It has never been this low. Wall workers are currently trenching nearby for the lights that will go on the 30' border wall. This sacred place, this life-giving spring of the O'odham is being desecrated." -- Ajo resident. (Photos copyright by the photographer. Used with permission by Censored News.)

Laiken Jordahl of the Center for Biological Diversity said, "Quitobaquito Springs, a stunning oasis sacred to the O'odham and home to two endangered species, is drying up. The Department of Homeland Security is siphoning millions of gallons of groundwater and digging trenches for wall construction while refusing to complete any environmental analysis."

Quitobaquito Spring in danger: Border wall construction depleting sacred Tohono O'odham spring, home to endangered species

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

The construction of the U.S. Border Wall is depleting the water from the Quitobaquito Spring, sacred since time immemorial to Tohono O'odham. The spring nourishes two endangered species found nowhere else in the world, the Sonoyta mud turtle and Quitobaquito pupfish.

The Trump administration is proceeding with the construction of the border wall in violation of all federal laws protecting Native American sacred sites, endangered species and those that protect the land, water and air, and depleting the scarce water sources in the Sonoran Desert.

"The spring is drying up. It has never been this low. Wall workers are currently trenching nearby for the lights that will go on the 30-foot border wall. This sacred place, this life-giving spring of the O'odham is being desecrated," an Ajo resident said.

Border wall construction has been depleting groundwater for spraying to tamp dust, and for mixing concrete for footings.

Private security at Organ Pipe Cactus Monument 

Watch video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1sAk2BOM1s&fbclid=IwAR2eCRjK5Ai9QVg676tjW8VRYSPmxytmrIlzQLr4fzH3ffuzTgGl-e_5tQ4

Monsters Arrive to Destroy Sonoran Desert for Border Wall -- Trucks Arrive for Organ Pipe Destruction in Arizona

Trump quickly gave the border wall contract at Organ Pipe to
Southwest Valley Contractors of New Mexico, who arrived this week
to begin the destruction of the fragile Sonoran Desert.

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Construction vehicles and staged panels for the border wall along a two-mile stretch of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, near Lukeville, Arizona about 110 miles southwest of Tucson, Aug. 20.
Photos above and below provided to Tucson Sentinel.

Trump's Grotesque Behavior Now Has Border Wildlife and Endangered Species in Imminent Danger

Article by Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Updated Wednesday

LUKEVILLE, Arizona -- The trucks arrived to destroy the pristine Sonoran Desert at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument to build Trump's border wall.
Trump quickly gave the $646 million contract to Southwest Valley Constructors, a company in New Mexico.
All laws protecting the wild things and endangered species have been smashed. The area is adjacent to the western side of the Tohono O'odham Nation and near Ajo, Arizona.
The Tucson Sentinel reported today of the work that has started and the concern for Organ Pipe Cactus National  Monument, located west of Lukeville, Arizona.
Laiken Jordahl, a spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity, said that there was also heavy construction machinery near Quitobaquito Spring, a natural spring in Organ Pipe that is home to a few unique species, and that this was "extremely concerning."

Sonoyta mud turtle

The endangered pupfish has no one to protect it.

Organ Pipe area has a cultural history of at least 11,000 years.

Among the rare creatures found here is the endangered pupfish.

"The largest body of water at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is Quitobaquito springs and pond, home to the Quitobaquito pupfish," writes Wild Sonora.

"The cultural significance of the Quitobaquito area dates to approximately 11,000 B.P. (before present)."The pond is the home of the Quitobaquito spring snail, the Sonoyta mud turtle and the desert caper plant.This is the only spot in the United States where these species can be found naturally occurring," the National Park Service said.

"The desert caper supports the caper butterfly (ascia Howarthi) that is only found coexisting with the plant. The Quitobaquito spring snails are so small that they are hard to find."

"You can sometimes spot the snail, about the size of a grain of black pepper, in the spring-fed streams serving the pond. Quitobaquito is also the only place where the Sonoyta mud turtle is found in the United States and has been deemed a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act."

Phoenix New Times reports, "When the Department of Homeland Security announced in May that it planned to build the wall, it offered few details other than that it would be a wall of concrete-filled steel bollard, 18 to 30 feet high and four inches apart. The bollards would sit atop a cement foundation about 10 feet deep and eight inches to a foot wide.
"It gave other agencies and individuals until July 5 to submit public comments on its vague plans, but nevertheless awarded a $646 million contract to Southwest Valley Constructors, a New Mexican company, in mid-May to build the wall. Jordahl took this timing as a sign that the department had no plans to consider the comments anyway."
Tucson Sentinel reports that on May 15, the Defense Department officials also announced that BFBC LLC, out of Bozeman, Montana would receive more than $141 million to design and build similar projects in the El Centro Sector near El Centro, California, and in the Yuma Sector, which straddles the Colorado River and includes parts of California and Yuma County.
The project is expected to be completed by Jan. 31, 2020. 
Border wall construction is also underway farther to the west on the Arizona border, near the California border in Yuma, Arizona. This construction targets the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge.
At Cabeza Prieta, the endangered Sonoran Pronghorn migrate from Arizona to Sonora, Mexico. The proposed border wall will halt its migrations. Already, the Pronghorn are bombed at the Goldwater Bombing Range and few have survived.
In southern Arizona, three jaguars have been spotted and identified, and the border wall construction will destroy their remote and wild habitat.
The border wall construction proposed is only pieces of a border wall between California and Texas, and will cause irreparable harm to endangered species in the fragile Sonoran Desert.
The Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson has filed an injunction to halt the work and destruction.

Injunction Sought to Halt Trump’s Wall in Arizona

Bulldozers Aimed at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, San Pedro River

By Center for Biological Diversity

WASHINGTON— Conservation groups today asked a federal court to block construction of President Donald Trump’s border wall through protected wilderness in Arizona until a judge rules on a pending lawsuit.
Today’s motion for a preliminary injunction, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., involves the groups’ July lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s waiver of dozens of environmental and public health laws to speed border-wall construction in Arizona.
“It’s senseless to let bulldozers rip a permanent scar through our borderlands’ wildlife refuges and national monuments before the court decides whether the waiver is legal,” said Jean Su, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.
“Trump’s ignoring laws and diverting funds to build this destructive border wall. His grotesque barrier would destroy some of the border’s most spectacular and biologically diverse places. We’ll do everything in our power to stop that.”
If the preliminary injunction is granted, wall construction would be blocked until U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson rules on the merits of the underlying lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s waiver authority.
A recent Supreme Court ruling lifted an injunction in a separate case involving Trump’s use of military funds to build the border wall, allowing construction to proceed in Arizona, Texas, and California. Without action from Judge Jackson, wall construction in Arizona could begin later this month.
“Every American should be outraged that the border wall in Arizona will be built across some of our most iconic national wildlife refuges and national parklands,” said Bryan Bird, the southwest representative for Defenders of Wildlife. “If the wall is constructed through these spectacular landscapes it will disrupt migration for animals like the Mexican gray wolf, the jaguar, the Sonoran pronghorn, and the bighorn sheep. It will tear through lands so precious that Congress chose to protect them for all American’s posterity and enjoyment. Defenders will continue to fight to stop this abuse.”
The lawsuit says the Department of Homeland Security lacks authority to waive the Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act and other laws that protect clean air, clean water, public lands and wildlife in the borderlands.
The department wants to sweep aside these laws to speed construction of border walls through the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area, Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge, Coronado National Memorial and numerous designated wilderness areas. The bollard-style barriers will block wildlife migration, damage ecosystems and harm border communities.
“These most recent waivers of vital environmental and animal-protection laws demonstrate the administration’s continued disregard for wildlife, including the most fragile species that could be pushed to extinction by these projects,” said Animal Legal Defense Fund Executive Director Stephen Wells. “Building a wall that cuts through the heart of vital federally protected forests, wildlife refuges and conservation areas will have devastating effects on these critical areas and the wildlife that calls these areas their home, which is why we are asking the court to immediately enjoin these border wall-related projects.”
The Center and allies have sued to challenge Trump’s emergency declaration, which would fund this border-wall construction. The Center’s first border-related lawsuit ― filed in 2017 in U.S. District Court in Tucson with U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva ― seeks to require the Trump administration to do a detailed analysis of the environmental impacts of its border-enforcement program. All of these suits are pending.
A 2017 study by the Center identified more than 90 endangered or threatened species that would be threatened by wall construction along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border.
Beyond jeopardizing wildlife, endangered species and public lands, the U.S.-Mexico border wall is part of a larger strategy of ongoing border militarization that damages human rights, civil liberties, native lands, local businesses and international relations. The border wall impedes the natural migrations of people and wildlife that are essential to healthy diversity.

August 6, 2019

Contact:

Jean Su, Center for Biological Diversity, (415) 770-3187, jsu@biologicaldiversity.org Jake Bleich, Defenders of Wildlife, (202) 772-3208, jbleich@defenders.org Natalia Lima, Animal Legal Defense Fund, (201) 679-7088, nlima@aldf.org

Study: Trump's Border Wall Threatens 93 Endangered Species

Jaguars, Wolves, Owls Among Those in Harm's Way

By Center for Biological Diversity

TUCSON, Ariz.— President Trump's border wall threatens 93 endangered and threatened species, including jaguars, ocelots, Mexican gray wolves and cactus ferruginous pygmy owls, according to a new study by the Center for Biological Diversity.

The study also found that 25 threatened or endangered species have designated “critical habitat” on the border, including more than 2 million acres within 50 miles of the border.

“Trump's border wall is a disaster for people and wildlife alike,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center. “It could drive magnificent species like the jaguar and ocelot to extinction in the United States.”

The new study identified all threatened, endangered and “candidate” species (those being considered for protection) that have ranges near or crossing the border. These include 57 endangered species, 24 threatened species, 10 species under consideration for protection and two species of concern, golden and bald eagles. Construction of Trump's 1,200-mile wall — along with related infrastructure and enforcement — will have far-reaching consequences for wildlife, including cutting off migration corridors, reducing genetic diversity, destroying habitat, and adding vehicles, noise and lights to vast stretches of the wild borderlands.

“The border wall won't be effective at stopping people seeking a better life from getting to this country, but it will destroy habitat and divide wildlife populations,” Greenwald said. “Building a wall across the entirety of the border would cause massive damage to one of the most biologically diverse regions in North America and would be a boondoggle of the highest order.”

The sections of the border wall that have already been built have had a range of negative effects on wildlife, including direct destruction of thousands of acres of habitat, indirect impacts from noise and light pollution, and division of cross-border wildlife populations like bighorn sheep and jaguars. The border wall would cut through the Cabeza Prieta, Buenos Aires, and several other national wildlife refuges, along with Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Big Bend National Park and many other natural areas that, besides acting as corridors for wildlife, are national treasures.

Last month the Center and Congressman Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), the ranking member of the House Committee on Natural Resources, sued the Trump administration over the proposed border wall and other border security measures, calling on federal agencies to conduct an in-depth investigation of the proposal's environmental impacts.

The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, is the first targeting the Trump administration's plan to vastly expand and militarize the U.S.-Mexico border, including the construction of a “great wall.”

Three wild jaguars have been spotted in southern Arizona and this is one of them. The endangered jaguar, once protected by the U.S. Endangered Species Act, has no one to protect it, as Trump slashes all protections to build a border wall as a symbol of white nationalism and hate.

The Fastest Land Mammal in North America
The endangered Sonoran Pronghorn migrate across the so-called border between Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. Now, Trump's border wall could halt their migrations. The Pronghorn have already been bombed in the Goldwater Bombing Range. Few Pronghorn have survived.

The Sonoran Desert Bighorn Sheep is one of the most majestic creatures. Its habitat is now being destroyed by a madman intent on building pieces of a border wall as a symbol of xenophobia and white nationalism in the U.S.

Article copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News

On the Arizona Border, We Know Who the Monsters Are

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
French translation by Christine Prat at:
http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=4408

It is sad to hear that the volunteers who leave water for migrants are being arrested on the Arizona border.
A few years ago, my friend took me to these same places, showing me the trails. It was about 116 degrees, and her car had no air conditioning. We wrapped ourselves in wet towels to keep going.
We watched the Border Patrol agents sit in their air-conditioned vehicles and throw their Starbucks cups on the ground, and buy junk food at Three Points.
They lounged around and yakked on their cellphones, all in the same area where volunteers putting out life-saving water are now being arrested.
If the timing was different, I could have been one of those arrested.
The volunteers who do this year after year are the heroes.
Another day, with temperatures over 116, my friends asked me to help them search for the body of a migrant. The heat knocked me out immediately, in minutes. They hiked in that scorching sun and found someone's loved one.
Others for years have provided shelter, a drink of water, a sandwich, or a ride to the hospital and saved a life. Sometimes the life saved is an Indigenous person who walked across countries, from Guatemala or El Salvador, in hopes of finding a way to feed their families at home.
The tiny graves in the desert sometimes have a string of Mayan beads across them. These volunteers are heroes.
We know who the monsters are.

Brenda Norrell, journalist in Indian country for 36 years, is publisher of Censored News.

Images: A grave on the Arizona border.
Shoes left behind by migrants. Photo by Brenda Norrell.
Border Patrol agent destroying life saving water, captured on hidden video.

Notes: Nine volunteers with No More Deaths have been arrested and face federal charges charges for leaving water for migrants in the Sonoran Desert on the Arizona border.
This region has one of the highest death rates for migrants.
An ASU instructor and No More Deaths volunteer was arrested this week for rendering aid to migrants at Ajo, Arizona, after No More Deaths released a report exposing Border Patrol agents destroying life saving water in the desert.6
No More Deaths is one of several organizations rendering humanitarian aid. Many individuals, including Tohono O'odham, quietly ignore the tribal and federal laws prohibiting giving aid, and save the lives of migrants.

More at Censored News:
'No More Deaths' 2018 Report, and links to arrest articles:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2018/01/us-border-patrol-continues-destroying.html?m=1


Copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News

'A Nation of Bullies' US Israeli Spy Towers on Tohono O'odham Land -- 'No Significant Impact'

A Nation of Bullies

'No Significant Impact' ruling for US Israeli spy towers on Tohono O'odham land

Photos O'odham harvesting cactus fruit, endangered Sonoran jaguar, endangered Sonoran Pronghorn, and blooming prickly pear cactus which depends on bee pollinators

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News copyright

Dutch translation by Alice Holeman

https://www.denaisgazet.be/nieuws/2017/een-natie-van-bullebakken-vs-israeelische-spionnentorens-op-tohono-o-odham-land-geen-significant-effect

The United States has once again rubber-stamped an environmental impact assessment, finding that the U.S. Israeli spy towers will have "no significant impact" on the traditional way of life of Tohono O'odham, its culture or endangered wildlife in the fragile ecosystem of the Sonoran Desert.
The United States has rejected and refuses to honor the opposition stated by Tohono O’odham’s Gu Vo District. The opposition to the towers by Gu Vo District was also ignored by the elected tribal legislature of the Tohono O'odham Nation, which has long been compromised by the tribal government's parasitic relationship with the United States government.
The ruling ignores and condemns the endangered Sonoran Pronghorn and Sonoran Jaguar here, and all endangered species in the fragile ecosystem of the Sonoran Desert and O'odham homelands.
The Gu-Vo District opposed this proposal from the beginning, and the United States ruled it could care less.
Gu-Vo, in the westernmost district of the Tohono O'odham Nation, told the U.S., prior to the assessment, "The Gu-Vo District opposes these proposed tower sites to protect cultural sites on the holy mountain now called the Ajo Mountain Range. The mountain holds human remains of our people and also places of our cultural practices (medicine bundles) home and home of the ceremonial deer and bighorn sheep and mountain tortoises that are protected under the Endangered Species Act."
"The United States government military forces, the border patrol, have not been forthcoming with impact information, such as health effects and have deliberately misinformed the people regarding the immediate environmental impacts such as the roads they will build on the mountain and installation of electrical power lines to the sites as well as that these proposed tower sites will have a 25-year or longer impact on the mountain, the animal and plant life and the O'odham lives."
"The Gu-Vo District communities landscape have already been greatly impacted by numerous unauthorized roads and destruction of our mountains and hills of great significance to the O'odham way of life. Our future generations will face more restrictions to live on our original lands as our rights as original Indigenous peoples continue to deteriorate."
"These U.S. proposed towers also are not on the border but in our communities and on the border of the Tohono O'odham Nation reiterating discrimination and deliberate attack on the O'odham," said Gu-Vo District.

Ofelia Rivas, O'odham living on the border and founder of O'odham VOICE Against the Wall, describes the him'dag, way of life. "The O’odham way of life is based on the land that has held the remains of our ancestors since the creation of this world. The O’odham did not migrate from anywhere according to our oral history. Our creation tellings record our history and teach the O’odham principles of life. The survival of O’odham today is based in our him’dag."

Although opposition to the spy towers has poured in since the first billion dollar spy towers by Boeing, which didn't work, the opposition was ignored by Homeland Security during the Obama Administration. The contractor selected during the Obama Administration was Israel's Elbit Systems, responsible for Apartheid security in Palestine.
In the opposing comments in the assessment, Joshua Garcia, in Tohono O'odham's Chukut Kuk District, said the towers will violate his family's farmland and is near the family cemetery.
"Toro's Ranch is the location of a saguaro fruit harvesting camp," Garcia said, pointing out that the location of tower sites are on his family's farmland and near his family cemetery.

"The impact statement makes no reference to these concerns."

A Nation of Bullies
In opposing comments in the assessment, Dee Downing wrote of the need to respect O'odham in Gu-Vo District, and the need to protect sacred lands.
"What exactly are we protecting/defending is we become a nation of bullies when interests serve a powerful few."
"If that is our new way, then what is there of value to protect."
Dan Todd, opposing the towers, said that the burial places, ceremonial places and ancient village sites must be protected and preserved. Todd reminded the United States that both the authority and voice of Gu-Vo District must be honored and adhered to.
Timothy Wickland and Randy Williams said Gu-Vo District's opposition of these towers must be respected for O'odham to carry on for future generations.
The finding of no significant impact by U.S. Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, is in violation of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which the United States signed, and ensures "free, prior and informed consent" before entering Indigenous lands for construction and development. This fact was pointed out by opponents in their comments.

Jaguar, secretive, depends on its critical habitat
A public educator in Colorado, Kendra Layton, who has spent time in the borderlands, said these towers will disrupt the ecosystem and movement, territories and reproduction of desert wildlife.

Elbit spy tower in Nogales, Ariz.

The United States, in its findings, refused to protect and defend these endangered species on Tohono O'odham land -- jaguar, Sonoran pronghorn, lesser long nosed bat, and yellow billed cuckoo.
Further, as opponents point out in the comments, the damage done by electromagnetic waves to humans and wildlife needs further research before endangering lives on Tohono O'odham land.
In opposing comments in the assessment, Peter Ragan points out that the microwave emissions could affect the bees and bats in the region, and pollinators of the cacti. More research is needed before these potentially harmful emissions are deployed in the fragile ecosystem of the Sonoran Desert.
The natural pollinators are vital for the Saguaro cactus to survive. Along with being part of the natural landscape of the Sonoran Desert, the Saguaro are part of the traditional and cultural lifeways of O'odham, including the harvesting of fruit.

Spy Towers road construction added destruction

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Photo: Elbit spy tower during construction near Nogales,
Arizona on US Mexico border.
The assessment ignores the fact that O'odham burial
places are at the targeted tower site in Gu Vo District.

The United States will not only construct spy towers on sovereign Tohono O'odham land, but the construction will damage the land with 14 new roads and road construction.

The U.S. said the project “includes new sensor towers, collocating equipment on two existing communication towers and within two command and control facilities in U.S. Border Patrol Tucson Sector.  The Proposed Action also includes the construction of 14 new access roads (up to 0.24 miles total) and improvement of approach roads (up to 70.90 miles total) on the Tohono O’odham Nation, as well as maintenance and repair of these roads.”
In the ultimate show of arrogance and disregard for O'odham and the fragile ecosystem, the United States says in the environmental impact statement:“
Based on the Final EA, a determination was made that the proposed action will not significantly affect the human environment and that further analysis is not required.  Therefore, a FONSI was issued, and an Environmental Impact Statement is not required.”

Copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News

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Protest of violence by Elbit Systems in Gaza

Final Tower Assessment by U.S. Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, 2017:

https://www.cbp.gov/document/environmental-assessments/final-ea-and-finding-no-significant-impact-integrated-fixed

U.S. wasted one billion dollars on spy tower boondoggle, Boeing spy towers didn't work:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/12/billion-dollar-laugh-arizona-spy-towers.html

U.S. spy tower built by Boeing, which did not work, on Tohono O'odham Nation,
Sells, Arizona, 2007 photo by Brenda Norrell, Censored News.

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Sonoran Jaguar

Eyes on Border Patrol's new abuser recruits

Eyes on Border Patrol's new abuser recruits

By Brenda Norrell©
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Photo: On the border by Brenda Norrell©
Border residents are on guard, ready to spot and video tape the invading Border Patrol and National Guardsmen arriving on the Arizona border to terrorize border residents.

The Border Patrol and new National Guardsmen will begin their stints of racial profiling and abusing people of color here on Monday.

There is nothing funny about it.

However, when they take a break from abusing people, it is always interesting to document their behavior.

During a day of Border Patrol watching in the middle of summer, in the region of Sasabe, I documented that every Border Patrol agent was either eating snacks at the Three Points store; eating snacks in the desert they had just purchased at the Three Points store inside their air-conditioned vehicles, or chatting on their cell phones in their air-conditioned vehicles.

There wasn't a migrant in sight.

So, now we're all waiting for the new abuser Border Patrol and National Guardsmen recruits to arrive in town in Tucson, watching out at Burger King, where the Border Patrol has a hamburger contract, and at all the convenience stores where they sell chips and junk foods.

Psst Border Patrol: We know who is leaving the Starbucks and designer coffee cups strewn across the desert and it is not the migrants. Stop throwing your trash out the car windows.

We're watching you.

And the next time you plan to attack a brown person and think no one is looking, better think again.
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Also see:
O'odham on the border to National Guard: 'We do not want you on our land'
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/08/oodham-to-national-guard-we-do-not-want.html

Watch video: Tucson police turn mom and dad over to Border Patrol 'dog catcher' truck, as kids cry in the night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec9hxZiaKFg

More about this video by the Three Sonorans at Phoenix New Times:
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2010/08/worse_than_joe_arpaio_tucson

National Guardsmen eager to smuggle cocaine on Arizona border arrested in sting operation:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2007/07/most-censored-national-guardsmen-cops.html