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News > World

The Arizona Tribe Speaking Out Against the Border Wall

  • Jacob Serapo, Tohono Oodham rancher, who is featured in the video

    Jacob Serapo, Tohono Oodham rancher, who is featured in the video | Photo: YouTube / Tohono Oodham

Published 23 February 2017
Opinion

“We do not support any wall,” the nation said.

An Indigenous tribe whose territory straddles the U.S-imposed Mexico border is speaking out against President Donald Trump’s border wall expansion proposal.

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In a video released by the Tohono O’odham Nation, the group’s Vice Chairman Verlon Jose said, “A wall built on the border, we believe, is not the answer to securing America.”

With more than 34,000 members and 2,000 more who reside in Mexico, 62 miles of the proposed wall is on Tohono O’odham reservation land.

“We believe that what is effective is continued cooperation and working together,” Jose said, adding that the expanded wall would impact the way they live, as its members “cross the border daily for just basic necessities. We also cross for burials, to visit our relatives.”

This week, the Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly called on Customs and Border Protection to “immediately begin planning, design, construction and maintenance of a wall, including the attendant lighting, technology (including sensors), as well as patrol and access roads.”

 
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