Armed, masked agents stand in front of a bulldozer near the U.S. border with Mexico on Oct. 5, 2026. A 200-year-old tree, which had for weeks been occupied by activists, was bulldozed to make way for Trump’s border wall.
Photo: Sierra Club Borderlands
For more than
70 days, dozens of activists and an ancient cottonwood tree on the Arizona–Mexico border have successfully disrupted the construction of President Donald Trump’s ruinous
$50 billion
border wall.
Since July, one protester at a time has occupied the cottonwood, or the grandmother tree, as it is locally known. After three other cottonwoods in the area were torn down by government contractors, the remaining grandmother on the U.S. side of the border became the site of a
growing protest camp
in the remote town of Lochiel, Arizona, and neighboring Sonora, Mexico, where organizers gathered for more than a year to oppose the border wall’s construction.
On Monday, heavily armed federal agents moved in with force. Activists on the ground estimate that 150 Border Patrol officers — many of whom masked their faces — raided the encampment during the protesters’ morning prayer ceremony. At least 10 demonstrators were
arrested
, and the 200-year-old cottonwood was bulldozed.
A New Tree-Sit Movement to Block Trump’s Border Wall
As Arizona-based journalist John Washington
reported
, “agents began cutting the tree while a person was still sitting in its branches. Agents removed that person with a cherry picker and then felled the tree. Screams could be heard as ‘grandmother’ fell around 8:30 a.m.”
In the 48 hours since the early morning raid, land defenders have refused to leave and remain in an ongoing standoff with federal agents. Numerous participants told The Intercept that around 50 people are holding the line against further construction, with dozens more en route following urgent calls to support the encampment and defend the
imperiled
borderland
ecology
.
On Tuesday,
… [more]
