WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� A federal judge to block the Trump administration from taking steps to build 62 miles of international border wall along part of a Native American tribe’s reservation without its consent.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., denied the Tohono O鈥檕dham Nation’s request for a court-ordered halt to border wall construction on its 2.8-million-acre reservation. Leon ruled the tribe hasn’t established that a border wall will change its reservation boundaries without congressional authority.
The judge also rejected the tribe’s claim that the planned border wall would illegally trespass on its reservation.
鈥淎nd in any event, I find that the Government鈥檚 interests in securing the border, enforcing immigration laws, and ensuring public safety outweigh any surviving irreparable harms at this juncture,鈥� Leon wrote.
A tribe spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the decision.
The O鈥檕dham reservation in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona abuts 62 miles of the Mexico border. The tribe has over 37,000 members, including thousands who live in Mexico.
Building the border wall would led to 鈥渟ignificant devastation鈥� on the reservation, including the destruction of mountain peaks that are sacred to the O鈥檕dham, tribe attorneys said.
鈥淚t would fray the ties between O鈥檕dham communities and families on opposite sides of the border, interfere significantly with O鈥檕dham religious rituals and practices, and destroy plant and animal resources sacred to the O鈥檕dham,鈥� the lawyers wrote.
In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt issued a proclamation reserving a 60-foot strip of public land along the U.S.-Mexico border for a buffer zone called the 鈥淩oosevelt Reservation,鈥� which was formed a decade before the reservation’s establishment.
Tribe attorneys say it is 鈥渇anciful at best鈥� to suggest that border wall construction can be confined to a 60-foot-wide corridor.
During a July 22 hearing, Leon appeared to be skeptical that U.S. laws tip in favor of the tribe鈥檚 bid for a preliminary injunction, calling it an 鈥渆xtraordinary鈥� request. Leon, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush, said he couldn鈥檛 find a previous court ruling under comparable circumstances.
鈥淭his is a novel case with novel issues,鈥� the judge said.
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