Breaking: News from our Backyard Goes National
News from the Front Lines: Lochiel, ArizonaThe last week has brought intense action and national scrutiny to this part of the borderlands. Beginning on Monday, October 5th, the remaining ~200-year-old Grandmother cottonwood was toppled in Lochiel, AZ, following an early morning raid by Border Patrol and BORTAC. This cottonwood was the site of a 71-day tree-sit initiative and encampment on adjacent private property that began on July 29th, after Fisher Sand and Gravel felled the Grandmother's three "sisters" to clear the way for construction of the double border wall through that area. In response, protesters/land defenders rallied to "gum up" construction progress by laying over cement footing trenches, physically blocking construction vehicles and, in one instance, a person chained themself to a vehicle. Throughout the week, protesters were sprayed with mace and pepper balls by BP, and ultimately many were cited or arrested. Both federal officers and protesters called the local Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office for assistance throughout the week. Sheriff David Hathaway decided not to respond, prompting a rebuke from the Arizona Sheriff's Association. Read below for a summary of the tree sit and encampment backstory, what followed, the A.S.A.'s formal rebuke, and Sheriff David Hathaway's public response. We feel it's extremely important for readers outside the borderlands area to understand the complexities of this issue and the local response. Many in this country cited border security as the reason they voted for the current administration, and we feel responsible for contributing to an accounting of how this extremely politicized issue is playing out on the ground and where its impacts are felt most. We hope you'll share this eyewitness accounting with your networks. |
Article in The Guardian about Lochiel to understand the backstory:A 200-year-old cottonwood tree near the US-Mexico border, known as the “grandmother”, has been destroyed to make way for the construction of Donald Trump's border wall, despite a months-long effort by protesters trying to save it. In late July, land defenders began a tree-sit in the ghost town of Lochiel, Arizona, taking turns occupying a platform high in the tree’s canopy. The group remained there for more than 70 days. Then, on Monday at dawn, more than 80 federal agents swarmed the protesters’ camp, which is located on private land, making arrests and preventing people from reaching the cottonwood. Some agents in a steel basket on an extendable crane lift forcibly removed the person in the tree platform, according to videos and photos shared on social media and descriptions of people there at the time. Others were shoved and tackled as they tried to rush toward the tree to prevent its destruction, according to witnesses. Continue reading the article here:https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/10/cottonwood-tree-toppling-trump-mexico-border-wall-arizona Article in the Nogales International re: the Arizona Sheriffs' Association, their rebuke of Sheriff Hathaway and his response:A decision by the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office not to respond to some calls during border wall protests near Lochiel has landed Sheriff David Hathaway a rebuke from the Arizona Sheriffs’ Association.
But Hathaway said calls for assistance from federal officers and the wall contractor to remove protesters “have been very disingenuous and have involved no threat to federal employees or contractors.”Continue reading the article here:https://www.nogalesinternational.com/news/hathaway-fires-back-over-criticism-on-lochiel-protest-response/article_b4f3e0aa-a782-4667-be4d-6994962ae05f.html |
We received this statement from Sheriff Hathaway on October 12, 2026. We have copied it here in its entirety: This is a response requested of me by media outlets regarding accusations against me by the Arizona Sheriff’s Association concerning Lochiel, Arizona. Sheriff Hathaway's Statement on the Arizona Sheriffs' Association: The Arizona Sheriffs' Association (A.S.A.) is a private 501(c)(4) organization with no governmental authority. During my entire tenure as Sheriff, it has been presided over by activist Republicans that continually put out papers directly from the A.S.A. condemning Democratic politicians and policies, purporting to speak on behalf of all Sheriffs including Democratic Sheriffs. I stopped paying dues and let my membership lapse when my efforts to convince the A.S.A. for years to adopt a neutral political stance failed. I am not the only Sheriff to notice this. The current Democratic Sheriff of Pima County refuses to join the A.S.A. for the same reasons. The previous Democratic Sheriff of Maricopa County left the A.S.A. briefly for the same reasons. This is a troubling problem that must be addressed if the A.S.A. is to regain and hold onto its integrity. I would consider rejoining the organization if it committed itself to becoming an impartial resource with no political stance supporting all Sheriffs in Arizona regarding training, equipment, procurement, comradery, etc. The rules for a 501(c)(4) do allow an organization to be politically biased, but a Sheriffs' Association for all the Sheriffs of a state should be unbiased. Sheriff Hathaway's Statement on Lochiel, Arizona: Lochiel and the San Rafael Valley are the historic starting points for my family dating back six generations to the 1800s when my family moved from Dodge City, Kansas to Arizona. My family’s historic cemetery is in Lochiel. My great, great grandfather was a magistrate and school teacher in Lochiel during territorial days before statehood and my great grandfather patrolled on horseback from his home in Lochiel to Nogales under a law enforcement commission from the Territorial Governor. Unlike much of the border in the San Rafael Valley, Lochiel is not encompassed by federal land and is comprised of a very large amount of private land from a Spanish Land Grant. Recent Forest Service Access Road Closures due to wall construction do not apply to Lochiel since it is comprised of private land and some ranch land now administered as a conservation easement as the Arizona Grasslands State Park and the San Rafael State Natural Area. Protestors of Donald Trump’s border wall have been, up until recently with the completion of that portion of wall, camped with permission on private land near the border in Lochiel. CBP, which employs thousands of federal officers on this stretch of border, has called the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office multiple times asking us to remove peaceful protestors. The Sheriff’s Office has responded multiple times to investigate these calls from federal officers and the federal wall contractor. These calls have been very disingenuous and have involved no threat to federal employees or contractors. The very small Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office employs 45 sworn officers to cover 1,238 square miles. We are outnumbered 20 to 1 by the federal officers assigned to the county to work the border; not to mention the active duty military members assigned to the border. The U.S. Supreme Court clearly stated in the case which resulted from AZ Senate Bill 1070 (16 years ago) that immigration and border issues are in the purview of the federal government and not the state government and that state and local officers cannot be mandated to handle federal immigration and border issues. Once we realized that the large contingent of federal officers and contractors in Lochiel were not in danger and that the federal government wanted to avoid their responsibilities regarding this clearly federal issue, we adopted the posture that the thousands of federal officers armed with machine guns, helicopters, drones, and chemical weapons should not pawn off their own border security job on the very small Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office by pretending that they are afraid of gentle unarmed folk that are a throwback to the flower children of the Vietnam anti-war movement. The only violent physical encounters in the area involved large numbers of mask-clad federal officers gassing and dragging protestors away. Protestors also called my office asking for help to protect themselves from the large contingent of federal officers attacking them. I was not about to start a war with CBP by having my armed officers confront the armed federal officers in response to calls from protestors facing an onslaught from an overwhelming army of masked federal officers. This was clearly a federal issue requiring federal decisions regarding appropriate action. This section of wall is now built in this peaceful area and now my family’s historic homelands in Lochiel are separated by an ugly wall reminiscent of East Germany in the Soviet era from the small town of Santa Cruz in Mexico where I used to go to lunch with my family. The protestors are packing up and leaving. Other private land owners are still confounded at how they have been barred from accessing their own private land in Lochiel by CBP and the contractors. This whole valley that had a border consisting of a four-strand livestock fence similar to any ranch during my childhood up until I was in my 20s is now a stark reminder of how far our government has strayed from the concepts of freedom articulated by Ronald Reagan in 1989 when he told Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down that wall” as a visible gesture demonstrating an end to Soviet totalitarianism.  |
The new U.S.–Mexico border barriers are built or planned with standard heights ranging from 18 to 30 feet, depending on the specific line and project requirements:
Primary Wall: Typically ranges from 18 to 30 feet high, constructed using steel bollards (vertical steel pipes or bars) spaced apart to allow visibility.
Secondary Wall: Typically stands 30 feet high, running parallel behind the primary wall with an enforcement zone in between.
The Berlin Wall stood about 11.8 feet tall in its final, most common reinforced concrete form.
Wall System Dimensions
Outer Wall: 11.5 to 13 feet tall, facing West Berlin.
Inner Wall: 6.5 to 10 feet tall, facing East Germany.
In Closing....Dear Reader, Now that you've had a chance to review the matter, we hope you have a more nuanced understanding of what has transpired in this section of the borderlands. The last week has drawn major national media and social media coverage. It's a spotlight we wish we did not have. This is but one section of the ~2,000-mile international boundary. While the fight to fend off the destruction here did not end as many had hoped--to hold the line of the impending border wall construction until the midterms--the fight elsewhere continues. From Big Bend to San Diego, a victory anywhere is celebrated as a victory everywhere. The wanton destruction of the environment and the many foreseen and unforeseen harms resulting from this obscene double border barrier will be felt for generations to come. Lastly, let the record show that we stand with Sheriff David Hathaway and his decision in this extremely fraught and complex matter. In these times of extreme politicization of the office of sheriffs nationally, we remain tremendously grateful to have a person who has both integrity and the lived and generational experience of the borderlands holding this office, especially in a border county. ¡Viva la resistencia! And in memory of the stand of Grandmother Cottonwoods and all the human folly they have witnessed over generations. May we learn to be better stewards. |
Heartbreak among the Cottonwoods, words from a local, Cassina Farley, who grew up playing among the Grandmothers, recently published in our local nonprofit newspaper, The Patagonia Regional Times. |
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