'NO BORDER WALL' Land Defenders Block Trucks at Tree Sit in Lochiel, Arizona

Blocking the border wall trucks at the Tree Sit in Lochiel, Arizona.

Watch the video to the sounds of 'Wage Against the Machine.'

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1775138276953756

Land defenders halt the construction of the border wall in a three-mile stretch on Wednesday, near the "Grandmother's Tree," as binational resistance grows to border wall construction, on both sides of the so-called border, the group said in Lochiel, east of Nogales, on August 26, 2026.

"We are putting our bodies on the line."

Watch videos in English and Espanol

https://www.facebook.com/kate.scott.973823

NOW! Border Wall Construction Crews on Tohono O'odham Nation

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Border Wall construction crews were escorted on to the Tohono O'odham Nation by masked and armed federal agents, and began drilling immediately today. Photo: Tohono O'odham Nation

drone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNmYfw-r6bo

NOW! Border Wall Construction Crews on Tohono O'odham Nation 

Update: Just before noon today, the contractor's drill was set up, surrounded by a swarm of US Border Patrol agents. The Tohono O'odham Nation said the 
Border Patrol has set up a vehicle barrier to prevent tribal police from entering the area on their tribal land and issuing citations. The heavy-handed U.S. security on tribal land at the site includes the U.S. Border Patrol special ops which is the BORTAC SWAT team based in El Paso; BIA officers, and Border Patrol from Tucson. Mexico's police have been deployed to protect border wall contractors from Mexico's south side.

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, August 26, 2026

SELLS, TOHONO O'odham Nation -- The Tohono O'odham Nation said that twenty masked and armed federal agents from Tucson entered their sovereign tribal land accompanying border wall construction crews at 4 am on Tuesday, in violation of tribal sovereignty.

Tohono O'odham Nation Denied Injunction to Halt Border Wall

Tohono O'odham Nation Denied Injunction to Halt Border Wall

Photo: Border Wall construction near Yuma, Arizona. Photo US Army Corps of Engineers.

A federal judge's rejection of the Tohono O'odham Nation's lawsuit to stop construction of the border wall means the blowing up of six mountain peaks and a heavy construction staging area on tribal land to be chosen by contractors. The Nation is now considering its options.

O'odham Ancestral Land Being Stripped Bare at Sacred Quitobaquito Springs for Second Border Wall

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Bulldozers scrape the sweet earth bare today near O'odham's Sacred Quitobaquito Springs. Video by Russ McSpadden.

O'odham Ancestral Land Being Stripped Bare at Sacred Quitobaquito Springs for Second Border Wall

Article by Brenda Norrell, Censored News, August 18, 2026

QUITOBAQUITO SPRINGS, Arizona -- The ancestral land of O'odham is being stripped bare near Sacred Quitobaquito Springs, home to pupfish, snails and turtles found nowhere else in the world, except here in the fragile Sonoran Desert. 

Quitobaquito Springs is a place of prayer and ceremony for O'odham. The federal government is destroying this land for a second border wall, that is being protested here on the Arizona border, and from California to Texas.

The roads are closed, but Russ McSpadden hiked into the area Monday and found the destruction underway at Organ Pipe National Monument.

Day 14: Tree Sitter Saving Old Growth Cottonwood: Arizona Border Wall Resistance

Day 14: Tree Sitter Saving Old Growth Cottonwood: Arizona Border Wall Resistance

The cicadas are singing, but for how long. Voice from the protectors of the grandmother cottonwood today at the tree sit on the Arizona border, east of Nogales, as the monster machines scrape into the earth for border wall dollars. Tuesday, Day 14. https://www.facebook.com/kate.scott.973823

The Threat on O'odham Lands by Ophelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham

Now being released, "Significant Impact: Contesting Surveillance Infrastructure on Tohono O'odham Je'ved" by Ophelia Rivas, Caitlin Blanchielf, and Nina Kolowratnik.

The Threat on O'odham Lands by Ophelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham

By Ophelia Rivas, Censored News, July 12, 2026

O’odham VOICE Against the WALL

4oodhamrights@gmail.com

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security threatens to construct the Metal Wall on 62 miles of Tohono O’odham Nations lands adjacent the United States and Mexico International border. 

The O’odham Way of Life is dismissed in waiving national protective laws, as was done with the 2006 Secure Fence Act Vehicle Barrier and the 2014 Arizona Border Surveillance Technology Plan.

Tohono Nation Files Lawsuit Over Plans to Take Tribal Land for Border Wall

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Border Wall contractors bulldozing saguaro cactus near Ajo, Arizona.

Tohono Nation Files Lawsuit Over Plans to Take Tribal Land for Border Wall

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, June 17, 2026

The Tohono O'odham Nation filed a federal lawsuit to halt the seizure of tribal land for the border wall, pointing out that the United States government is disregarding tribal sovereignty and construction will destroy sacred sites and impact ceremonies and religious practices.

"The Nation has not consented to the construction of a border wall or associated infrastructure across its Reservation," the Tohono O'odham Nation said in the lawsuit.

The Tohono O'odham Nation said the construction would destroy petroglyphs that are "perpetual prayers," block ancient trails and disrupt the lives of O'odham families who live on both sides of the border.

U.S. is Dynamiting Kumeyaay Sacred Mountain for Border Wall Expansion

U.S. is Dynamiting Kumeyaay Sacred Mountain  for Border Wall Expansion

Under the pretext of national security, Trump's wall expansion is destroying Cuchumá, a sacred mountain of the Kumiai people. ByIsabel Ortega in Avispa Midia. https://avispa.org/bajo-pretexto-de-seguridad-nacional-ampliacion-del-muro-de-trump-esta-destruyendo-cuchuma-montana-sagrada-del-pueblo-kumiai/ 

Kumeyaay leader Norma Alicia Mesa said, "That mountain has a life of its own, a breath of its own, a spirituality of its own, and its own energy." 

Video at Al Jazeera https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WURO9ysWza0

Video https://www.bastillepost.com/global/article/5833741-u-s-border-wall-expansion-destroys-sacred-indigenous-site

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, May 15, 2026

The United States government is dynamiting the sacred place of Kumeyaay, who live on both sides of the border, and blasted two sacred monoliths that were 60 to 120 million years old southeast of San Diego, California. The U.S. began blasting Cerro Cuchumá in early April, a historic and sacred site where Kumeyaay medicine people carry out ceremonies. The blasting was done without consultation as required by U.S. federal law.

Border Wall Construction Destroys 1,000 Year Old Sacred Place of Hia-Ced O'odham

Tohono O'odham Nation: 'Devastating and Entirely Avoidable Loss'

Border Wall Construction Destroys 1,000 Year Old Sacred Place of Hia-Ced O'odham

Democracy Now!

https://democracynow.org/donate/sm-de...

Construction crews in Arizona who are building President Trump’s expanded border wall have razed a portion of a Native American archeological site in the Sonoran Desert estimated to be at least 1,000 years old. Aerial photos reveal that bulldozers caused extensive damage to a 280-by-50-foot etching in the desert sand known as an intaglio, which holds special significance for the Hia-Ced O’odham people.

Lorraine Marquez Eiler, co-founder of the International Sonoran Desert Alliance and an elder of the Hia-Ced O’odham, says locals informed both the work crews and Border Patrol officials about the significance of the intaglio. “On Thursday, late afternoon, they were still talking about how to protect the area and went home feeling that they were still working together. On Friday, for whatever reason, the contractors bulldozed the area,” says Marquez Eiler. 

Biden Waiving 26 Laws to Rush Border Wall through Texas Wildlife Refuge

Ocelot. Photo by Robin Silver

Biden Administration Waives Laws to Rush Border Wall Construction Through Texas Wildlife Refuge

October 4, 2023
Contact:
Laiken Jordahl, ljordahl@biologicaldiversity.org

Center for Biological Diversity

STARR COUNTY, Texas — The Biden administration announced today that for the first time it will waive environmental, public health and cultural resource protection laws to fast-track construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall in Texas. The administration says it will take “immediate action to construct barriers and roads” along the border, including through the fragile Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge and neighboring lands.

“It’s disheartening to see President Biden stoop to this level, casting aside our nation’s bedrock environmental laws to build ineffective wildlife-killing border walls,” said Laiken Jordahl, Southwest conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity.“Starr County is home to some of the most spectacular and biologically important habitat left in Texas and now bulldozers are preparing to rip right through it. This is a horrific step backward for the borderlands.”

Sending Going Home Song for Evo Morales, by Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham

Ofelia Rivas, co-chair of Indigenous rights working group, Cochabamba, Bolivia

Photo by Ben Powless, Mohawk

Crow Voices Radio -- Govinda talked with Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, live from Montana.

Photo by Jason Jaacks

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

On Crow Voices Radio, Govinda interviewed Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, live from Montana today. Ofelia described the opposition to the Israeli spy towers of Elbit Systems, now being constructed on her Tohono O'odham Nation homeland.

Along with the spy towers, integrated fixed towers, the vehicle barrier now prevents animals from migrating. The towers allow the U.S. government to watch and listen to traditional O'odham in their home communities.

Rivas said the Tohono O'odham Nation government's opposition to the border wall is just rhetoric because the elected tribal government does not want to jeopardize its federal funding.

Traditional O'odham continue their prayers for the protection of the water and Quitobaquito Springs.

"We do need each others help to protect our lives and appreciation of Mother Earth," Rivas said.

"We are all going through a lot of changes."

Rivas said she is in a grieving mode, because there is a lot of destruction, and not just because of the pandemic. "The destruction of the sacred mountain affects our way of life."

O'odham remember their ancestors and hold them dear.

"If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be sitting here today."

As the number of O'odham communities on the south side of the border decreases, she said the Mexican government has not supported the O'odham on the south side. Rivas has been delivering water and food to O'odham.

"We meet at that fence," she said, of deliveries to O'odham on the south side.

"Stay strong, and be healthy, and be happy," she said.

Oct. 28 live on Crow Voices.

https://www.crowvoices.com/

Ofelia Rivas' website: O'odham Solidarity Movement, O'odham Voice Against the Wall

Welcome home message to Evo Morales, from Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham

By Ofelia Rivas

Censored News

Sending him my going home song and all the flowers for his walk to his community, to his family. Our prayer offerings are wonderfully fulfilled that no harm will come to the only Indigenous president of this world. I was a guest in his homelands and the people were so beautiful and they love President Juan Evo Morales Ayma. -- Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham

Bolivian President Evo Morales invited members of the international press to join him at his mountain homeland in Bolivia, during the gathering in 2010. Here, he shared a traditional meal with us, fresh fish, purple potatoes and boiled corn on clay dishes, after Morales played a game of soccer. 
-- Brenda Norrell, Censored News

Democracy Now! reports: "In Bolivia, a court in La Paz has dismissed terrorism charges and annulled an arrest warrant against Evo Morales, arguing the former president’s rights and due process had been violated. The charges were issued following a right-wing coup last year that overthrew Morales. This comes as Morales has vowed to return to Bolivia after Luis Arce of Morales’s MAS party won last week’s presidential election by a landslide. Morales has been in exile for nearly one year."

World's Peoples Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth

Cochabamba, Bolivia, April 2010

Indigenous Peoples Declaration, Cochabamba, Bolivia, 2010

The Peoples Agreement

 

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

Tohono O'odham Chairman testifies on dynamiting of O'odham burial place for the border wall

Blasting on Monument Hill at Organ Pipe National Monument on Wednesday. Photo Josh Galemore.

Tohono O'odham Nation Chairman Ned Norris, Jr.

Destruction of a sacred cultural site
 in international conflict is a war crime

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News
French translation by Christine Prat

WASHINGTON -- Tohono O'odham Nation Chairman Ned Norris, Jr., testified before a Congressional committee and described the agony of knowing that as he testified, the Trump administration was blowing up a burial place of his ancestors for the border wall.

"It's hard to see the blasting you showed on the video today because I know in my heart and what our elders have told us and what we have learned that that area was home to our ancestors," said Norris, choking up. "Blasting and doing what we saw today has totally disturbed, totally forever damaged our people."

ARIZONA BORDER WALL: Blasting of Mountain Sacred to O'odham Now Being Protested

Wednesday, Feb. 26 photo by Laiken Jordahl

Wednesday Border Wall Action Planned at Arizona’s Organ Pipe National Monument

By the Center for Biological Diversity

Censored News

Contact: Laiken Jordahl, ljordahl@biologicaldiversity.org

LUKEVILLE, Ariz.— Activists will gather Wednesday morning near Monument Hill to protest the Trump administration’s blasting of a sacred mountain to build the border wall through Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, a UNESCO biosphere reserve.

Customs and Border Protection scheduled a media event Wednesday, including detonations on the hill, at the same time that Tohono O’odham Chairman Ned Norris will testify at a congressional hearing about the administration’s destruction of sacred sites and cultural heritage.

“Blowing up sacred land is horrifying enough, but now the Trump administration will hold a dog-and-pony show to brag about it,” said Laiken Jordahl, borderlands campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s heartbreaking to watch them butcher this spectacular national monument and desecrate sacred indigenous lands. We’ll continue to fight Trump’s despicable border wall every step of the way .”

What: Protesters from environmental and indigenous groups will protest Trump’s border wall and destruction of Organ Pipe’s Monument Hill.

When: Wednesday, Feb. 26, at 10 a.m.

Where: Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, base of Monument Hill, South Puerto Blanco Road

Media availability: Activists with the Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club and members of the Tohono O’odham Nation will be available for interviews.

Background

The Trump administration is blowing up Monument Hill in Organ Pipe National Monument, home to endangered species and Native American burial sites, to build the border wall. Contractors are extracting millions of gallons of groundwater to mix concrete for the wall, imperiling Quitobaquito Springs. This rare desert oasis is home to two endangered species, the Sonoyta mud turtle and Quitobaquito pupfish.

More than 100 miles of new border-wall construction are planned or underway across Arizona, paid for with funds Trump diverted from Defense Department budgets. To rush wall construction, Trump waived dozens of laws that protect public lands, cultural resources, sacred sites and endangered wildlife. The Center and allies have sued to challenge Trump’s emergency declaration, which is funding this construction.
Blasted area at Monument Hill in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Photo credit: Laiken Jordahl/Center for Biological Diversity. Images are available for media use.


The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

Border Wall: United States government destroying O'odham burial place

Photos above of O'odham land in A'al Vi'pia site (Quitobaquito.)
Photo below on the Tohono O'odham Nation, Highway 86.

United States government and contractors destroying O'odham burial place and sacred lands


Update Feb. 10, 2020: Contractors now blasting area of burial place of O'odham ancestors. Read more here

Photos copyright Ofelia Rivas

Article by Brenda Norrell

French translation by Christine Prat

Censored News
January 26, 2020

A'AL VI'PIA, O'odham Land -- Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, describes the destruction to O'odham lands, as the United States government and its contractors destroy burial places, sacred land and migration routes of endangered species for a piecemeal border wall on O'odham lands.

Human remains, dating between 300 and 1500, Classic Hohokam who are O'odham ancestors, were found in this area in the spring and fall of 2019. The U.S. government and the contractors knew they were violating state and federal laws by digging up graves in an area known as a sacred and ceremonial place of O'odham, and kept this secret until January of 2020.

"These contractors are responsible for speeding trucks, bulldozing our relatives and plants, destroying animal habitat, and natural animal and plant migration," Rivas told Censored News on Sunday.

Rivas is founder of O'odham Voice against the Wall and has spent her life speaking out against the U.S. Border Patrol and militarization of O'odham lands.

The United States government has violated all state and federal laws protecting Native American burial places; endangered species; migration routes and the water, land and air, to construct this illegal border wall.

The destruction affects O'odham who live on their land in communities on both sides of the so-called border in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico.

Although human remains were found in the spring and fall of 2019, the information was not made public until January 2020 after much destruction was already carried out. More destruction is now underway.

Rivas said, "The wall is piecemeal -- a systematic government policy. I wonder if this is an opportunity to generate controversy to distract the focus on other things going on behind the public eye."

Rivas also points out that Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument officials have long violated O'odham rights.

"The Organ Pipe authorities have long restricted access to A'al Vi'ai O'odham to conduct time immemorial ceremonies at the burial places and sacred springs."

"Tribal authorities have not only neglected these original homelands in their conscious but have continued their repetitious rhetoric trying their best to continue to conform to foreign capitalistic ideologies -- very damaging to O'odham obligations as original people of these lands with original mandates to live in balance with all nature."

"Our children and future generations are being robbed of an equitable life," Rivas told Censored News.

Rivas said the fast-tracked environmental assessment for the border wall shows the irresponsibility of the State of Arizona and United States federal government.

"Tribal governments have long been subjected to cut-and-paste environmental statements. Tribal governments have done a shoddy exercise of sovereignty for the protection of Indigenous cultural rights and protection of the people," Rivas said.

This week, a second truck loaded with border wall materials crashed on Arizona State Highway 86 near the site where the previous truck crashed loaded with border wall construction materials in October. Both trucks crashed on the Tohono O'odham Nation.

"The border wall contractors Southwest Valley Constructors of Albuquerque, and all the other contractors, are speeding from the border to Ajo, Arizona. The trucks speeding on Highway 86 are endangering people on the road."

"The State government is being irresponsible endangering not just local O'odham, but also endangering local tourist citizens and winter visitors. The main traffic is on Highway 86."

"The State must reconsider this traffic route for the safety of all. A petro truck crashed on this highway last year."

Rivas said, "I am an original person of these lands. I have long strived to be a voice for the plants and animals, the water and mountains, and honored O'odham that have survived since the beginning of time to continue our honored sacred obligations to live here."

"I am a witness to the outright ethnocidal manipulation of our people in writing, in an adverse foreign language, to distort and change our people who are in so-called authority."

"I am a witness to physical and psychological war tactics, attacks on O'odham. I have witnessed the commodification and commercialization of our ancient knowledge from our land, knowledge of our ceremonial and our hunting and tracking knowledge, and to our food knowledge."

"It is this neglect that has affected our people by diminishing women's knowledge and men's responsibilities, and knowledge of the responsibilities of our future generations," Rivas said.


Copyright Ofelia Rivas, Censored News

may not be used without permission

O'odham Voice against the Wall, O'odham Solidarity Project
http://www.solidarity-project.org/


In the news:

(Arizona Central) "Regardless that it isn't within our reservation boundaries anymore, but it's clear, we have inhabited this area since time immemorial," Chairman Ned Norris Jr. said. "They're our ancestors. They're our remnants of who we are as a people, throughout this whole area. And it's our obligation, it's our duty to do what is necessary to protect that."

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/pinal/2020/01/21/tohono-oodham-historic-sites-risk-over-border-wall-construction/4527025002/


(National Park Service) Three bone fragments were found atop the ground during work last spring and fall close by Quitobaquito Springs near the southwestern corner of the monument, Marco De Leon, chief of public affairs for the Park Service's Intermountain Region in Colorado, said Tuesday in an email. The fragments are suspected to be of the Classic Hohokam Period," said De Leon. That period dates to between 300 and 1500 AD.

https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2020/01/bone-found-organ-pipe-cactus-national-monument-could-be-human

(Censored News) In October, when these photos were taken, Southwest Valley Constructors of Albuquerque was bulldozing protected Saguaro Cactus for the border wall in Arizona. They dug up human remains of O'odham ancestors from a grave near the sacred spring at Organ Pipe. It was kept secret until January. The U.S. government and the contractor knew it was violating all state and federal protection laws. Human remains were also dug up in the spring of 2019 here, according to the National Parks Service, in an e-mail made public in January. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/10/border-wall-trumps-bulldozers-killing.html

Arizona border wall contractor's parent company is among most polluting companies destroying the planet

Saguaro cactus bulldozed by Southwest Valley Constructors near Ajo, Arizona, for illegal U.S. border wall.

Arizona border wall contractor's parent company is among most polluting companies destroying the planet 

Border wall contractor linked to Keystone Pipeline and Alberta Tar Sands

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News
French translation by Christine Prat

AJO, Arizona -- The parent company of Southwest Valley Constructors -- now building the border wall, violating all federal protection laws, destroying endangered species and bulldozing the pristine Sonoran Desert --  is a global mining and construction corporation that is one of the most polluting companies in the world.

Southwest's parent company Kiewit, based in Omaha, Nebraska, is listed as one of the top 32 North American polluters killing the planet.

The border wall contractor, Southwest Valley Constructors  based in Albuquerque, is now violating all federal protection laws created to protect endangered species, water and sacred sites, as it builds an illegal border wall based on political ruin, xenophobia and the collapse of the US government.

The endangered pupfish is found nowhere else in the world but here near Ajo in a spring sacred to Tohono O'odham.

Nearby, the migration paths of endangered jaguar and pronghorn antelope are being destroyed.

Protected saguaros are being ripped from the earth with disregard for state or federal laws.

The federal government has waived 41 federal laws that protect life as it builds the border wall.

In its lawsuit, the Center for Biological Diversity points out the damage to human rights, as the pristine desert borderzone is turned into a militarized zone.

"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," the Center said.

Southwest Valley Constructors received $646 million in U.S. Army funds for border wall work in the contract from the U.S. Defense Department, with the Army Corps of Engineers in Albuquerque operating the contract. The use of U.S. military funds to build the border wall is the subject of numerous ongoing lawsuits.

Kiewit was also awarded a border wall contract in Texas, along the Rio Grande. "The $42.8 million contract was awarded to Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. The project, according to CBP, includes the construction of "18-30 foot tall steel bollards, in addition to road construction, detection technology and lighting installation," CNN reported.

Kiewit's projects around the world polluting the planet include construction for Suncor's tar sands in Alberta, Canada; mining nickel in Quebec; mining diamonds in Yellowknife, NWT; mining iron ore in Western Australia; mining coal in Wyoming; mining phosphates in Idaho; lignite mining in Texas; and nickel mining in Voisey's Bay, NF., according to its website.

Keystone Pipeline is among Kiewit's construction projects, which include oil, gas and oil sands construction projects elsewhere in Canada, North Dakota, Texas and Western Australia.

In North America, Houston and Calgary are the top cities where corporations are killing the planet, primarily with oil and gas and tar sands industries. In 2017, Kiewit received a contract from Houston-based Wood Group Mustang to build Israel's Leviathan offshore gas field platform.

The border wall construction in violation of federal protection laws is part of a greater scheme of the U.S. government that is now violating international laws which protect migrant children, including the genocidal act of separating children from their parents and disappearing the children.

Migrant children are being imprisoned in US death camps where they are being sexually abused and dying of neglect and preventable infections, according to documented cases of migrant child deaths.

The United States now leads the world in the widespread disregard for human life and the Earth.

Read more about top corporations killing the planet:

https://decolonialatlas.wordpress.com/2019/04/27/names-and-locations-of-the-top-100-people-killing-the-planet/

Copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News

Tohono O'odham Protest Against Border Wall and Israeli Spy Towers on Arizona Border

Tohono O'odham protested the border wall being constructed in the
fragile Sonoran Desert on Saturday, and the Israeli spy towers now
targeting the Tohono O'odham Naiton.
Photos copyright Ofelia Rivas.

(Photo above) U.S. military surveillance helicopter
over Gu-Vo community this morning on Tohono O'odham Nation. Below: in Gu-Vo community today.

Trump's Border Wall is Death to Endangered Species and Sacred Places

Photos by Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham
Article by Brenda Norrell
Censored News copyright
Sat., Aug. 31, 2019

AJO, Arizona -- As Trump's bulldozers destroy the pristine Sonoran Desert at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument nearby, Tohono O'odham and Arizona residents are protesting the inhumane destruction.

Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham who lives on the border, told Censored News, "Beautiful day in the O'odham homeland, united group of people came to be a voice for the lands and  nature against genocidal policies of an inhumane government system attacking all life."
"The Society of these stolen lands should legally charge these inhumane crimes against this disgraceful person."
"The group will continue to be a voice for the honor of the bees, the endangered sacred animals, plants and the entire land and people," Rivas said.

All endangered species laws and all laws protecting sacred Native American places have been smashed. The border wall construction is already using a vast amount of water in the desert here for concrete.
These defenders are also protesting the Israeli spy towers now targeting the Tohono O'odham Nation. The Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems plans to construct these spy towers and destroy sacred burial places and ceremonial places on the Tohono O'odham Nation. The tribal government approved these spy towers in March, but Gu-Vo District continues to oppose this oppression and destruction. Elbit already carries out Apartheid security in Palestine.

Ofelia Rivas is the founder of O'odham Voice against the Wall, and has spent her life battling the abuses of the U.S. Border Patrol. Ofelia lives on the border on the Tohono O'odham Nation and is a voice for human rights.
Donate to Ofelia on her website, for gas funds for her work, at:
http://tiamatpublications.com/

Photos copyright Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham.
Censored News
May not be used without permission.

More: Trump's bulldozers destroying the pristine Sonoran Desert and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument! Photos and video:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/08/trumps-monster-bulldozers-now-ripping.html

Quitobaquito Springs -- Border Wall Construction Destroying Sacred and Fragile Sonoran Desert Ecosystem

Photos above copyright by the photographer

 Quitobaquito Springs

              By Brenda Norrell
               Censored News

Quitobaquito is a rare oasis in the desert that supplies life-sustaining water to many animal species, as shown here. This Sonoyta mud turtle is found nowhere else in the world. Nearby, as shown below, border wall construction has already started near Lukeville, Arizona.
Trump is using diverted military funds to build this monster, the border wall, and has eliminated all laws protecting endangered and sacred places and species. In this fragile Sonoran Desert, it is a crime against nature, a crime against all life forms.
These expensive pieces of a border wall -- between the long border stretch from east Texas to the California coast -- are targeting the most fragile regions, and will only serve to push migrants into more deadly zones. Instead of halting immigration, these pieces of the border wall will be no more than a symbol of white nationalism and destruction.
Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham who lives on the border nearby on the Tohono O'odham Nation, asked, "Where are the Water Protectors?"
"Sources say each foot of border wall will require 2 cubic yards of concrete. A yard of the concrete takes 39 gallons of water. This means each mile of wall = 411,840 gallons of water," Rivas told Censored News.
As the monster construction is ongoing nearby, the photographer, a border resident, explained that the border vehicle barrier, shown in the top photo, is already in place and the enormous wall is not needed here, in this fragile zone.
"The vehicle barrier seen in the background allows wildlife to move freely across the southern border in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. It keeps vehicles from driving across the border that could be very damaging to the sensitive environment."
Arizona Republic Raphael Carranza photos below: Trump uses diverted military funds to build border wall near Lukeville, Arizona, this week.

SAVING THE SONOYTA MUD TURTLE
The Center for Biological Diversity said, "The Sonoyta mud turtle has evolved as an aquatic species in one of the driest parts of the Sonoran Desert. With webbed feet and an innate ability to swim, this turtle depends heavily on what little water remains in the Southwest. The easiest way to identify a Sonoyta mud turtle is by its location since it's the only turtle inhabiting its very small range. The U.S. population has been reduced to a single reservoir within the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, named Quitobaquito Springs. In Mexico, these turtles inhabit a couple of small, still-flowing sections of the Rio Sonoyta."
Among the rare creatures found at Quiobaquito Springs 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."

Call and/or write your Congressional Representatives and Senators and ask them
1. To stop the funding for this wall.
2. To repeal section 102 of the Real ID Act that dismisses decades of protective environmental, public health, and safety laws passed by congress.
FYI - Section 102 of the Real ID Act of 2005 waives 28 environmental and other laws (listed below) during a national emergency or under a threat of a terrorist attack. Since #45 declared an emergency at the border in order to get funding for the wall, the builders do not have to abide by laws that are required by all other types of construction.
Laws waived...

1)The National Environmental Policy Act

2)The Endangered Species Act

3)The Clean Water Act

4)The National Historic Preservation Act

5)The Migratory Bird Treaty Act

6)The Migratory Bird Conservation Act

7)The Clean Air Act

8)The Archeological Resources Protection Act

9)The Paleontological Resources Preservation Act

10)The Federal Cave Resources Protection Act

11)The Safe Drinking Water Act

12)The Noise Control Act

13)The Solid Waste Disposal Act

14)The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act

15)The Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act

16)The Antiquities Act

17)The Historic Sites, Buildings, and Antiquities Act

18)The Farmland Protection Policy Act

19)The Coastal Zone Management Act

20)The Federal Land Policy and Management Act

21)The National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act

22)The National Fish and Wildlife Act

23)The Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act

24)The Administrative Procedure Act

25)The River and Harbors Act

26)The Eagle Protection Act

27)The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act

28The American Indian Religious Freedom Act



Organ Pipe nature photos: copyright by photographer, published with permission at Censored News