Ron Pulliam took this photo Nov. 28, approximately one mile west of the Coronado National Monument in the San Rafael Valley. He wrote that “Janice and I took a drive to the San Raphael Valley yesterday to escape COVID confinement and look for signs of border wall construction. We drove on the border patrol access road, never more than 100′ from the border, from Lochiel to the Coronado Monument. All was well for almost 20 miles, only a barbed wire fence and a 2′-3′ vehicle barrier, no signs of new wall construction. Then, starting about one mile west of Coronado monument, it looked like they were getting ready to invade Normandy Beach… A huge construction site with massive earthmovers and oversized trucks of all sorts, lined up and facing West, ready for an immediate assault on the valley.
“What a travesty – one of the most beautiful and unscarred valleys in the west, stunning grasslands, oak lined canyons, ancient sycamores gracing the creeks and mountains in every direction; the filming site for many movies including Oklahoma (no wonder they filmed it here – nothing in the real Oklahoma could compare); a true biodiversity hotspot and one of the most important wildlife corridors connecting the sky islands of Mexico and the U.S.
“This stretch of the wall construction, Tucson Project 4 B, is part of a case challenging the legality of the use of DOD dollars to build the wall. The case won at district court and the 9th Circuit stayed the injunction. An oral argument is scheduled for February 22 before the US Supreme Court (Sierra Club v Trump).”