LOCHIEL — Protesters trying to halt border wall construction in southern Arizona’s San Rafael Valley are now occupying a cottonwood just across the line in Mexico, days after federal agents removed a protester from another tree and cut it down, KTAR News reported.
Border Patrol agents arrested at least 20 people Monday in Lochiel, a tiny border community, then used a cherry picker to pull a protester from a cottonwood more than 150 years old before it was removed.
Early Tuesday, protesters climbed a tree inside Mexico whose branches extend over the U.S. side. They said on social media that Mexican state police and Border Patrol agents tried to remove the protester and cut away her platform.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said pre-construction surveys found no active migratory bird nests and that environmental monitors were present. Russ McSpadden of the Center for Biological Diversity disputed that, saying his group saw no surveys.
Sources: KTAR News. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: The Old Pueblo / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
