Standoff with Border Patrol, National Park Service Ends in Scuffle with Indigenous-Led Demonstrators

A peaceful, Indigenous demonstration against the border wall in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument ended with demonstrators in a stand off and physical altercation with U.S. Border Patrol agents and National Park Service officers Monday afternoon.

Construction was brought to a halt for most of the day. As a light drizzle fell around 8:45 a.m., about two dozen O’odham demonstrators and non-Indigenous supporters marched down an access road along the border, pushing past construction security and stopping at a site where new panels are being erected for the Trump administration’s 30-foot, steel bollard wall.

The action was put by together the O’odham Anti Border Collective and Defend O’odham Jewed, a network of Akimel O’odham, Tohono O’odham and Hia-Ced O’odham organizers — not all of which are federally recognized tribes.

Read more at Arizona Public Media

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