NPR Removes Sponsor Message from Article

+ National Border wall expansion brings protests in national monument, other Arizona locations August 18, 20265:17 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered From By Border wall expansion brings protests in national monument, other Arizona locations Listen &middot; 3:54 3:54 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5931944/nx-s1-9892125" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript New efforts to establish a more elaborate "smart wall" along parts of the U.S.-Mexico border are spawning protests in Arizona. Sponsor Message Transcript MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST: Work on a border wall is underway inside a Native American reservation in Arizona. That is after a federal judge denied a request to stop it last Friday. This is part of a bigger effort to expand the border wall, an effort that includes land inside a nearby national monument and cherished wildlands near Tucson. Alisa Reznick of KJZZ reports.

+ ALISA REZNICK, BYLINE: We're on a bumpy dirt road winding through open desert inside Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, headed to Quitobaquito Springs. Seventy-six-year-old Marlene Vasquez used to make this trip as a little girl. MARLENE VASQUEZ: We would go the old way and come out right at by Quitobaquito. REZNICK: Vasquez is Hia C-ed O'odham. It's a tribe that used to live at Quitobaquito. The spring drains into a pond that now sits about 200 feet from the border. Vasquez would visit the graves of family members buried here with her grandmother. VASQUEZ: She would be doing everything to fight from them entering and disturbing that area because that was their home. REZNICK: A 30-foot steel wall was installed at Quitobaquito under the first Trump administration despite huge protests. And now, federal authorities are preparing to build a parallel steel wall, part of a megaproject made up of roads, lighting and surveillance technology. Aaron Cooper is with the nonprofit International Sonoran Desert Alliance. He and Vasquez are some of a few dozen community members coming to visit the site before construction. AARON COOPER: We know very little. Information is not free-flowing, and Department of Homeland Security is not forthcoming with what they're planning to do. REZNICK: A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson says the department will work with federal agencies to protect Quitobaquito and the second wall there will be built within a 60-foot stretch of land. The Tohono O'odham Nation is adjacent to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. It shares 62 miles of border with Mexico. There's currently no border wall on the reservation. VERLON JOSE: That's the last piece of area that we're trying to hold on to. REZNICK: Tohono O'odham Nation Chairman Verlon Jose says the border wall disregards tribal sovereignty. After a judge ruled against its lawsuit, the tribe says it's still assessing its legal options. But Jose says he believes the case will make it to the Supreme Court. JOSE: The damage is done, and the damage will be done again with the secondary wall. REZNICK: About 90 miles east, protesters are camping out in and near a centuries-old cottonwood tree where the parallel walls are currently under construction, part of contracts worth more than a billion dollars. Three cottonwood trees were torn down there in July that environmentalists estimate were up to 250 years old. KATE SCOTT: How you doing up there? REZNICK: Kate Scott is talking to another protester sitting in a big wooden platform high in the last tree's thick branches. UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: I'm good. SCOTT: Okay, baby. Just checking on you. REZNICK: They call the tree the grandmother, and they're occupying it to keep it from being cut down. Remnants of the other cottonwoods sit piled up in the dirt road where big construction trucks barrel past. SCOTT: I feel that our grandmother stands for our entire borderlands right now and the destruction that's happening. (SOUNDBITE OF RATTLE RATTLING) UNIDENTIFIED TRIBAL ELDERS: (Singing in non-English language). REZNICK: Back at Quitobaquito, a pair of tribal members sing at the edge of the pond. The steel wall is stark against the orange sunset behind them. Marlene Vasquez, the Hia C-ed O'odham elder, says she worries what will happen next. VASQUEZ: We need to go ask for help from our creator. Help us with our cause. REZNICK: The National Park Service has closed the road to Quitobaquito in anticipation of new wall construction. For NPR News, I'm Alisa Reznick in Tucson. Copyright &copy; 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. Facebook Flipboard Email Read & Listen Home News Culture Music Podcasts & Shows Connect Newsletters Facebook Instagram Press Public Editor Corrections Transcripts Contact & Help About NPR Overview Diversity NPR Network Accessibility Ethics Finances Get Involved Support Public Radio Sponsor NPR NPR Careers NPR Shop NPR Extra Terms of Use Privacy Your Privacy Choices Text Only Sponsor Message Sponsor Message Become an NPR sponsor (function () { var loadPageJs = function () { (window.webpackJsonp=window.webpackJsonp||[]).push([[22],{310:function(e,n,o){o.p=NPR.serverVars.webpackPublicPath,Promise.all([o.e(1),o.e(2),o.e(3),o.e(4),o.e(80)]).then((e=>{o(15),o(769),o(155),o(176),o(93),o(447),o(254),o(128),o(130),o(754),o(175),o(755),o(255),o(78),o(773)}).bind(null,o)).catch(o.oe)},782:function(e,n,o){e.exports=o(310)}},[[782,0]]]); }; if (document.readyState === 'complete') { loadPageJs(); } else { window.addEventListener('load', function load() { window.removeEventListener('load', load, false); loadPageJs(); }); } })();