Trump admin move to close Indian Health Service office would harm tribal members

Leaders of the Tohono O’odham Nation and Pascua Yaqui Tribe say they were not consulted about the plans by the Trump administration to shutter the Tucson Area Office of the federal Indian Health Service agency.

The chairs of both local Native American tribes say they were not consulted by IHS officials about the potential closure of the office here — a process that is legally required under federal law.

According to Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Verlon Jose, the administrative office inside the San Xavier Health Center at 7900 J Stock Road on the nation’s territory would be consolidated into an IHS office in Phoenix.

The clinic at San Xavier, plus three others that are operated independently by the Tohono O’odham Nation, would continue to provide services.

“However, IHS has provided very few details on the proposed closure and how it will impact care for tribal members in the Tucson area,” Jose told the Tucson Sentinel on Tuesday.

Jose and Pascua Yaqui Tribe
Chairman Julian Hernandez said Monday that the ramifications of such a move would be
harmful to members of any of the federally recognized tribal members
who are eligible for care at the clinics.

The agency’s website only briefly mentioned the potential closure. On Monday, it appeared the Tucson office would be the only one of 12 IHS offices across the country to be shut down.

Neither of the Tucson area tribes had been
directly notified of the proposal to eliminate the office, Jose and
Hernandez said at a Monday morning press conference at the Pima County
Historic Courthouse called by U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva.

The notice of the possible closure was only provided days beforehand,
Grijalva said, before in-person consultation sessions on the agency’s
overall plans for realignment were scheduled, between Dec. 15 and Jan.
15. She said that IHS violated notification requirements under the
Indian Health Care Improvement Act.

“Tribes have the right to maximum participation in the direction and management of federal services,” she said.

Both Hernandez and Jose said the move would make it more difficult for tribal members to get the healthcare they’re eligible for and limit both tribes’ representation in federal committees where decisions are made about tribal healthcare. Jose added that the Tohono O’odham could lose access to support services such as consultants through the Special Diabetes Program for Indians.

Jose said it was unclear to him how those services would be provided, if at all, in Phoenix.

“It is clear that the proposed closure of the Tucson Area Office will only have a negative impact for our tribal members and the other federally-recognized members that seek services from this location,” he said Tuesday.

Members of any federally recognized tribe are eligible for care at the Tucson office.

The IHS office here serves at least 28,000 people, Jose said, but he
estimated the numbers are a lot higher. Tohono O’odham Nation Vice-Chair
Carla Johnson said the closure would mean the loss of more than $5
million in services for O’odham and Yaqui tribal members.

Jose added that positions would disappear or be merged into the Phoenix office, making the people who fill them inaccessible to tribal members in Southern Arizona.

“IHS says that no Tucson employees will be fired, but does not explain if they will be relocated to Phoenix or how the merger will work,” he said. Even if those employees were retained, he added, they’d still have hours-long commutes to work each day.

Johnson said a consolidation could also endanger medical record security and limit their place on certain governmental advisory boards, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Tribal Advisory Committees and the Tribal Leaders Diabetes Committee under IHS.

“Important decisions are made on the services provided on the ground to the people,” she said. “This closure would reduce our ability to participate directly in this process.”

With the Phoenix Area Office taking on the Tucson operations, she added, tribal members in the Phoenix area Phoenix area could see their services become limited.

IHS requested feedback in June 2025 on the possibility of a “strategic realignment,” with 39 different tribal consultation sessions held throughout the U.S. One was slated in October for Tucson.

In December, IHS announced it entered the “next phase” of seeking tribal consultation on the proposed realignment, with nine more sessions scheduled, the closest being in Flagstaff in January.

Neither letter directly mentioned the possibility of a merger between the Tucson and Phoenix offices. The proposed consolidation is only briefly mentioned on the agency’s website.

“I’ve attended some of these regional tribal consultations,” Jose said Monday. “All the tribes there have asked the same thing: Please give us details. Even other tribes that don’t get their services at the Tucson Area Office are even concerned about the closure of the Tucson Area Office.”

Grijalva also announced at the press conference that she and U.S.
Senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego would send a letter to IHS Chief
of Staff Clayton Fulton to ask that the agency abandons plans to close
the Tucson office.

“It is unclear how the Tucson Area Office, the
only office that was consolidated through this initiative, was selected
for consolidation and whether the repercussions of this decision have
been fully considered,” the letter read.

Numerous attempts Monday and Tuesday to reach the IHS for more information about the administration’s plans were unsuccessful.