CBP razes Lochiel cottonwood tree, arrests 10 after three-month ‘tree sit’

Border Patrol agents on Monday morning detained a group of protesters and knocked down a lone, ancient cottonwood tree they have spent months trying to defend.

The group of protesters, which have held a “tree sit” since late July near the small Arizona hamlet of Lochiel to protect the cottonwood from demolition during border wall construction, said it fell around 8:30 a.m. By 10 a.m., they said, agents arrested 10 people.

The group said around 1 p.m. they expected agents would release those arrested at a McDonald’s in Nogales. Protesters said Monday evening only six were released from a jail in Nogales, while the other four were held in Tucson.

Protesters speaking amid the raid on Monday morning say they were heartbroken as they saw agents pull one person sitting in what they dubbed the ”
grandmother tree” into a cherry picker owned by United Rentals and arrest them before excavating the cottonwood, estimated to be around two centuries old.

“This is not going to stand,” said Kate Scott, the co-founder of the Madrean Archipelago Wildlife Center, speaking in a video call from the scene. “Know this, dis-United States, it’s tierra libre. One people, one land.”

The group spent more than 70 days at the site in an effort to block construction of a double-layer border wall stretching 27 miles through the San Rafael Valley and preserve the tree. Construction is part of a $334 million contract under Customs and Border Protection.

Cochise County sheriff’s deputies previously arrested three of the protesters and charged them with disorderly conduct in September after they arrived from the neighboring Santa Cruz County to protest the construction.

Environmental advocates for over a year feared that four Frémont cottonwoods that stood on the border would be razed. Three of them were cut down this summer, possibly in violation of a federal promise to delay the trees destruction to protect migrating birds.

Jessica Turner, a CBP spokesperson, said the agency found no migratory bird nests in the trees during its pre-construction phase.

Turner did not mention the arrests and raid in an email to the Tucson Sentinel, but said CBP “recognizes the importance of protecting the environment, wildlife, and cultural resources during border wall construction.”

She pointed instead to illegal immigration as a cause of environmental harm in the area.

“High volumes of unauthorized crossings often result in substantial amounts of trash, pollution, and damage to natural resources, including sensitive habitats and agriculture,” she wrote. “Prior to border wall construction activities, CBP conducts environmental and cultural reviews, seeks public input, and collaborates with state and federal agencies to minimize impacts and balance operational needs with responsible land stewardship.”

Turner’s assertion is disputed by the Tohono O’odham Nation, which in is currently in the midst of a lawsuit against the Trump administration to stop construction of the border wall.

CBP contractors in April bulldozed the Las Playas intaglio, a 200-foot stone formation that resembles a giant fish and is considered sacred by the O’odham, and is on track to damage another site, Quitobaquito Springs.

U.S. Rep Adelita Grijalva said Monday the Lochiel arrests were “what the militarization of our borderlands looks like.” She called efforts to build the wall a waste of taxpayer money and the wall itself “reckless and useless.”

“DHS and its private contractors have repeatedly shown they cannot be trusted to protect sensitive cultural and environmental sites. That is why public access and oversight are so critical,” Grijalva said on Monday afternoon. “Instead, DHS is following the same playbook: shut out the public, evade scrutiny, and recklessly bulldoze our lands. Administrations come and go, but unfortunately the damage the Trump administration is inflicting on our irreplaceable borderlands cannot simply be undone.”

Scott and a fellow protester who asked to be only called “Hoops” said protesters had permission to camp on the land, owned by Laurie Butler, but that didn’t stop the 10 arrests or the citations of 10 more people, who were released.

Scott and “Hoops” said about 200 agents arrived at the tree around 6:30 a.m. and “forcibly entered private property” where the tree stood without presenting a warrant. Scott said they came as the protesters were holding a morning prayer and meditation session.

The day before, she said, the group held a “Day of Action,” which drew about 150 people for a plant walk, parade and discussions on data centers and ICE activity nationwide. Scott said she thinks that was what provoked agents into conducting the Monday morning raid.

Scott said she now believes the 10 arrested were taken to the Customs and Border Protection station in Sonoita.

The pair, speaking in a video news conference through the Signal app, said Border Patrol agents kicked one person who was handcuffed, kneed another protester in the neck and pushed several others into barbed wire.

“Hoops,” reading a copy of her citation during a video news conference through the Signal app, mentioned two agents pushed her to the ground and climbed on top of her before she was cited for violating a road closure.

“There’s no safety,” said Scott. “Just violence and brutality against us.”

Scott said many of the up to 50 protesters at the scene had cell phones and medication inside their tents, but weren’t allowed to retrieve them.

Video livestreamed by @tierralibre_noborders showed dozens of masked agents standing amid campers’ tents by 10 a.m. Some protesters shouted insults at the agents, while others tried to reason with them.

Though they weren’t sure if any protesters were hospitalized due to their injuries, Scott and “Hoops” said, they expected the violence at the scene would escalate.

By noon, protester Uni Yuchi said, about the group garnered about $3,500 in donations to support arrestees from the raid.