The Sierra Club’s Border Program Coordinator Erick Meza was greeted by a packed house at the Patagonia Library on Saturday, filled with folks interested in the “state of the wall” at Lochiel.
The presentation was sponsored by Voices from the Border. India Aubrey summarized the organization’s binational work in support of migrants, now largely operating on the Sonoran side of the border.
Beginning with the big picture, Meza showed the Customs and Border Protection’s map of the entire border and zeroed in to show the current 27-mile wall-building project stretching from the Huachuca Mountains to Kino Springs. He cited the project having begun with the largest waiver of existing laws in history — such as the Endangered Species Act, Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, and the Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act. Just east of Lochiel, he said, an archaeological site is also being ignored.
A full house gathered at Patagonia Library on Saturday to take in a presentation from the Sierra Club’s Erick Meza on the latest border-wall developments in Lochiel. (Photo by Maggie Urgo) 
Erick Meza shows an overview of the border wall construction operation in San Rafael Valley. (Photo by Robert Gay) 
A Friends Across Borders banner straddles the older border fence outside of Lochiel. (Photo by Robert Gay) 
An overhead view of the Fisher Sand and Gravel staging area at the Duquesne Wash. (Photo by Erick Meza)
The overall intention, Meza said, is a continuous “smart wall” that will include not only a second wall parallel to the first but also new access roads and in some places stadium-level lighting. Along with the walls will be even more accurate AI-facilitated vehicle and facial recognition technologies. The most violent land changes, in the Huachuca and Patagonia Mountains, are yet to come.
Meza listed the watershed among the wall’s collateral damage. He said the construction’s new wells (six so far) will suck water from the area’s aquifers at up to 100,000 gallons a day, most of it for concrete. Grading of the new road has blocked many washes with no culverts, so there will be flooding and erosion as well. As Fisher Sand and Gravel barrels through its $309-million no-bid contract, the peace of the San Rafael Valley and the world-class darkness of its night skies are being pierced.
As a conservationist, Meza has studied the larger mammals, such as jaguars, bears, deer, mountain lions and pronghorns, being blocked by the walls. A few tiny openings between the bollards are touted as wildlife accommodations but don’t help any of the larger species, Meza explained, showing a javelina poking its head through the slightly wider-spaced bars and backing out. “These walls are ecocide,” he summarized.
In addition to the wildlife communities being severed, the binational human community is impacted by the walls as well. Meza illustrated this with videos showing conservation, performances, dancing and music on both sides of the border from three Lochiel events over the past year.
Ongoing resistance has taken many forms, from legal to grassroots advocacy, to theatrical and artistic creations. Meza portrays the resistance as now focused on the Lochiel cottonwoods, a north-south band of natural towers that are up to 200 years old and are referred to as “grandmothers” in the indigenous view. In the 60-foot federal strip of land at the border, known as the Roosevelt Reservation, three out of four of the ”grandmother trees” were toppled and demolished by Fisher two weeks ago. Since then, an organized tree-sit has prevented removal of the last grandmother tree in this zone, with logistical support (like pizza and rope) from a growing network of activists and cooperation from local landowners.
Of all the reasons to protest, Meza concluded: “We do it for friends.” He was referring to human, animal and bird acquaintances in the indigenous sense, where all living things are related. The tree-sit entered its 14th day on Tuesday.