December 12, 2019

Native Americans protest against Trump’s border wall

topic:	Human Rights
located:	USA
editor:	Yair Oded

As the Trump administration continues the construction of the wall along the US- Mexico border, a coalition of predominantly Native American activists from the area has been raising the alarm on what they rightfully claim is a desecration of land and a violation of human rights. 

A major protest against the wall took place last month, as the world commemorated the collapse of the Berlin wall, on November 9. A group of activists gathered at the visitor center of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument – a public land in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert - where the wall expansion project is underway. The protesters consisted mostly of the O’odham nation, but were joined by other activists, community organisers, and humanitarian aid workers from the Ajo - a federally-run unincorporated desert land. 

At the demonstration, as reported by The Intercept, activists protested against the government’s disregard for laws designed to protect Organ Pipe and preserve the area’s ecosystem. In order to support the construction of the wall, the government has been draining the area’s only source of freshwater - Quitobaquito Springs. By destroying the Quitobaquito, the protesters pointed out, the government is endangering all forms of life in the area that depend on the springs. 

Already, countless saguaro cacti, which are regarded as human beings by the area’s nation, have been torn out of the land in order to make way for the border wall. Many animal species, such as the prowling jaguar and the Sonoyta mud turtle, are at an increased risk of extinction due to the wall expansion project. 

Just as much attention, however, was directed by protesters to the egregious human rights violations brought about by the expansion of the wall and an intensifying crackdown by the authorities on migrants trying to cross the border into the US. 

For decades, members of the O’odham, as well as other nations in the area, provided humanitarian aid to migrants crossing the scorching Sonoran desert on foot, giving them water, food, and, in some cases, shelter. Such actions have become criminalised, however, by several administrations that gradually militarised the borderland. Under Trump, a growing number of investigations, arrests, and prosecutions against people aiding migrants has inflicted added strain on the local nation. 

The O’odham’s ongoing campaign against the border wall highlights the intersection of the US government’s anti-immigration policies and its disregard for the environment. Furthermore, it calls attention to the relentless and pervasive erasure and oppression of indigenous tribes. 

Across the world, indigenous nations are being persecuted by governments and corporations encroaching on their lands and violating their most basic rights. Whether it takes place in the US, Brazil, or Australia, we must tune in and throw our support behind indigenous tribes’ fight for their rights and the environment.  

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