By Friend
On July 27th, 2026 the U.S. government and Fisher industries cut down three ancient cottonwood trees in a small town called Lochiel, Arizona in order to build not just one but two border walls. This area is the habitat of the endangered Mexican Wolf as well as jaguars, bears, foxes and many other bizarre, beautiful bugs and animals. It is also the home of the Tohono O’odham people, important to many indigenous tribes on both sides of the border. When the three grandmother cottonwoods were cut, one brave comrade stood in front of construction equipment, preventing the destruction of the last ancient tree and the construction of the border wall. In that last tree, we began our tree sit. With the support of hundreds of activists, the land owners, nearby towns and tribes, and even the local sheriff department, we halted construction of the walls for 75 days.
For 75 days, activists sat in the remaining cottonwood as ground support grew into a sprawling camp. It was the first tree sit to stop border wall construction and was briefly the first binational tree sit in history, with a sit erecting on the Mexican side for three days in August. During these 75 days, O:shad camp, jaguar in O’odham, held morning ceremony in the easement, the road which enforced the border. Ceremony frequently extended to effectively halt all construction vehicles for the day, or days at a time. People fell in love, they danced in the mud, cooked communal meals, all while defending the land. Utopia felt nearby.
Then, on October 5th, hundreds of border patrol officers, accompanied by turning point usa, invaded O:shad camp. They cut down the grandmother cottonwood and forcibly removed the tree sitter without a proper extraction team, risking her life. Activists on the ground circled the trunk to protect the tree and continue their resistance against the wall. More than 10 activists were arrested and many more brutalized. Though on private property and with no warrant, they ransacked the camp and destroyed our belongings.
Indigenous and non-white activists were singled out and beaten much worse than white comrades. Border Patrol violently pushed, pulled and dragged, but also kneeled on throats, punched eyes, pushed skin into barbed wire. They specifically targeted our medic (who is Indigenous) to be violently dragged, beaten, and arrested. They prevented our media team from capturing what happened, while escorting Turning Point USA to film the day in order to spread their right wing propaganda.
The next day, as Border Patrol expanded their boundaries further into private property to make way for the wall, five more of us were taken, and lawyers were unable to find them in the system while border patrol ignored calls from their lawyers, friends and family.
A day later, my comrade locked herself to a cement truck and stayed in a stress position without food or water for 7 hours while Border Patrol covered her with an emergency blanket despite the hot climate. One officer told her and the other officers that they should drive her to the middle of nowhere where no one would be able to hear her scream. They began to move the vehicle with her still above the tire; we all thought she would be killed. Two comrades who ran towards her, worried for her life, were tackled, brutalized, and arrested – one was sexually assaulted during her arrest. Finally they brought in an expert extractor who took her out of lockdown and she was taken to detention and then federal prison. She is now facing federal assault charges.
The rest of us were shot with pepper balls, tear gassed, leaving us vomiting, injured, bruised and emotionally exhausted. After the tree sitter was removed from the grandmother tree in Lochiel, a comrade reinstated the sit on the mexico side. Cut off from ground support by border patrol, she went over two days without food or water. When mexican firefighters and Fisher construction workers went to pull her out, she free climbed further up the tree. They destroyed her platform and life sustaining materials, leaving her to perch in the cottonwood branches without a platform or supplies. She suffered dehydration and starvation in high heat but still managed to keep a backpack on her, which she filled with clippings of the Abuela tree so that no matter what happened, the trees offspring could be replanted.
The following day the wall continued.
In total 30+ of us have been arrested, and many more brutalized, injured, and traumatized. We are the first people to be charged for this specific resistance against the border wall and our court date is in January 2027. Some of us have misdemeanor charges, others have felonies.
Some of us in Lochiel are intertwined through solidarity work in Palestine. We have seen how the same tactics used overseas to commit genocide are the tactics used here in the united states. Much as in Palestine, on the border there is constant surveillance. We cannot let this continue here or anywhere —these are the struggles of all people and we are all interconnected.
Though camp is now over, our resistance has spread. What took them five days to finish had been stopped more than 70 because of everyday people who believed in something. An ancient cottonwood in Mexico was preserved, the town of Lochiel now has international attention and resistance to the double wall got support from Palestine, Norway, Italy, Berlin, and across the US. We have clippings from the grandmother and Abuela trees that are already being propagated.
Border patrol came from sites all over the region to deal with us, which prevented them harassing other more vulnerable populations during that time. Border checkpoints that hadn’t been closed in years shut down because border patrol officers from all over were relocated to deal with protesters. We were able to pull away hundred of goons throughout 70+ days from harassing “immigrants” and citizens alike.
Though we can’t see all the things our camp accomplished, it helped question what a border means.
The state has created borders everywhere which means they can be resisted ANYWHERE. You can’t do everything but you can do SOMETHING. The federal government is still initiating ice surges. Families, your neighbors, your favorite spaces will lose people to these abductions. It’s time to give up comfort and ignorance to do what’s right.
It’s not about winning anymore, it’s about doing everything you can do to resist fascism and create the world you want. Chattel slavery took 400 years to end. Along the way resisters were consistently told they couldn’t win, and it’s true that most did not see the end. It took dedication and movements of people throughout hundreds of years to kill it.
People love to yell fuck ice but this moment calls for more than just vocal support. There are always things to do. Accompany people to their immigration hearings, host foot patrols in areas dense with migrant communities, set up free coffee and know your rights cards outside of day laborer sites like home depot, throw up banners on freeway overpasses, make a zine, take a stop the bleed training and use it at protests, canvass your neighborhood, host a fundraiser and donate the proceeds, research who profits and find out how fast their windows can be smashed. Learn how good it feels to be free.
We have everything we need to resist. One day the land will be free. Fight tonight, dance tomorrow, and if you need help, just ask.