For much of 2019, the borderlands endured the fallout from decisions made years earlier, as the Trump administration pursued the Migrant Protection Protocols, attempted—and failed—to prosecute a humanitarian volunteer for harboring two men in the country illegally, and continued to pursue the president's quixotic promise to build a wall along the southwestern border.
Read more» 
Special thanks
to our supporters
- Paula Toffolo Paula Toffolo
- Kirsten Engel
- Linda Seberger
- Santa Cruz for Tucson
- Bill Roe
- Chuck Huckelberry
- Dylan Smith
- The Water Desk
- Regional Transportation Authority/Pima Association of Governments
- Ernie Pyle
- NewsMatch
- & many more!
We rely on readers like you. Join them & contribute to the Sentinel today!
Hosting provider
Proud member of
The Interior Department announced it will transfer 560 acres of public land to the U.S. Army, including nearly 230 acres along the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, for the construction of 70 miles of border wall.
Read more»
The construction of the border wall in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument will threaten 22 archaeological sites, according to an internal National Park Service report.
Read more» 2
The Trump administration will siphon $3.6 billion slated for military construction and spend it on 11 border wall projects — including about $1.3 billion for projects in Southern Arizona that will add miles of new barriers along the Goldwater bombing range and the Cabeza Prieta Wildlife Refuge. Read more»
Contractors put up the first 30-foot panels of a new border wall on a two-mile stretch of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument this week, the first of three projects that will add "bollard" walls along Southern Arizona's wildlife refuges. Read more»
Contractors began replacing border fencing along a two-mile stretch of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument this week, the first of three projects that will add 30-foot high "bollard" walls along three of Southern Arizona's wildlife refuges. Read more»
The Trump administration is forging ahead with new border barriers in wildlife refuges in Southern Arizona despite environmentalists' objections, telling a court that one project will begin Monday with the removal of older fencing. Read more» 1
Environmental groups asked for an injunction to block new 30-foot high border barriers in three federal protected wildlife refuges in Southern Arizona, including a project across the state's "last free-flowing river," and another that would sever a binational wildlife refuge.
Read more»
The Border Patrol is seeking to construct nearly 63 miles of new border walls, rising up to 30 feet tall, along three protected wilderness areas in Southern Arizona.
Read more»
Tucson's Center for Biological Diversity, along with representatives of the Tohono O'odham in Sonora and a coalition of Mexican enviro groups, are pushing for the UN to investigate the consequences of the Trump administration's plan to build a border wall along the northern edge of a nature preserve. Read more»
Environmental groups contend that Border Patrol off-road vehicles used to catch illegal immigrants and drug smugglers are damaging the landscapes of two ecologically sensitive areas of southern Arizona. They are calling on the agency to update its environmental training. Read more» 1
A new report lists the endangered Sonoran pronghorn as one of the species most threatened by water problems across the nation. The pronghorn was one of 17 species identified Wednesday by the Endangered Species Coalition as threatened by water-quality issues or a lack of water in 10 different watersheds. Read more»
