Ranchers vs. Border Wall

The other plaintiff, Guadalupe Ranch Corporation, is located nearby and contends its operations were also endangered by the project located in the Peloncillo Mountains in southeast Cochise County, about 30 miles from Douglas.

That project was rooted in an executive order issued by then-President Donald Trump in January 2017 for a “secure, contiguous, and impassable physical barrier” along the entirety of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The wall segment traversing Guadalupe Canyon was among several across the southwest abruptly shut down in January 2021 by one of President Joe Biden’s executive orders.

By then, the two ranching operations had sued Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in November 2020 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Several other officials of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Border Patrol are also named as defendants.

The lawsuit, however, is not moving forward to trial anytime soon.

The most recent filing in the case is an Oct. 10 joint status report in which attorneys for the plaintiffs, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Department of Justice advise U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper of ongoing efforts to settle the matter.

The report tells Cooper the prospects for a negotiated settlement between all parties “remain good but further time will be necessary to reach agreement.” It further notes several issues are under discussion, including a well-sharing agreement “that is tied to the overall prospects of settlement.”

Other primary issues being negotiated include mitigation of flooding in Guadalupe Canyon, ensuring border security, and remediation of property damage from the aborted construction effort.

But getting all the governmental entities on the same page is not going to be easy, according to the report.

“As before, no settlement can be finally agreed without obtaining approvals up the reporting chains of the Justice and Homeland Security departments,” Cooper is told. “While drafts have been discussed and circulated, that process has not concluded.”

In Arizona, the Trump Administration planned several small segments of border wall construction along the Roosevelt Reservation, a 60-foot wide strip of border land under federal control.

The segment of new wall crossing Guadalupe Creek started near Douglas and was to run mostly eastward toward the Arizona-New Mexico border. Funding to have Southwest Valley Constructors (SWVC) build the segment was estimated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at $41 million – per mile – to be paid for with funds previously earmarked for combatting smuggling activities.

But the topography and the distance from any roads meant SWVC workers had to literally bulldoze a way into the rugged desert site to provide access for construction materials and other heavy equipment.

The Guadalupe Canyon area has long been a crucial ecosystem and wildlife migration corridor. Several environmental groups noted at the time that bulldozing land for roads to the construction site would actually make the remote area more inviting to criminal elements while negatively impacting wildlife.

The Trump Administration found its authority for constructing a border wall in laws passed after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, which permitted waiver of any federal laws or environment studies which impeded the construction schedule, including the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Protection Act.

The lawsuit by Diamond A Ranch and Guadalupe Ranch Corporation, however, is focused not on environmental issues but on private property rights and constitutional protections.

According to the lawsuit, various parties involved in planning the wall construction entered private ranch property beginning in February 2020 without any right of entry authority. Construction then began in July 2020, with SWVC personnel and equipment entering and operating on ranch property outside the Roosevelt Reservation.

Construction workers even drilled wells in some spots to access valuable groundwater to mix the concrete needed for the project, the lawsuit alleges. But it was more than just heavy machinery that altered the ranch property, according to the plaintiffs.

On one day in October 2020, SWVC and its subcontractors reportedly buried 5,220 pounds of explosives in 87 holes mere feet from the ranch property. Upon detonation, “tons of rocks” were thrown downhill onto the private land, including debris described in the lawsuit as “car-sized boulders.”

Observers who inspected the Guadalupe Canyon site after SWVC pulled out found very little of the 4.7 miles was constructed. What they did find was miles of desert bladed and bulldozed, several mountains defaced, and wildlife migration paths blocked by tons of rock debris.

Flooding was a real worry as the debris threatened to block Guadalupe Creek, which runs through the ranch property until it crosses the Roosevelt Reservation on its way into Mexico. The creek also runs next to the private road that serves as the ranch’s main egress and ingress, providing access to food, supplies, and medical care.

According to the lawsuit, the end of construction in January 2021 did not make the problem go away. The contractor had intended to address the risk of flooding with large concrete box culverts but those items were to be installed toward the end of the construction phase.

The lawsuit also noted the construction was so hurried that many of the Roosevelt Reservation boundary markers were obliterated, necessitating a subsequent survey to reconfirm property lines. There were also huge piles of unused metal and other construction materials abandoned along the construction site.

There has been little litigation activity since mid-2021 as Cooper stayed the case and ordered the parties to begin filing joint status reports every few months. Like the October report, the majority of the reports the last two years reflected a hopeful but cautious tone.

For example, the April report noted the principals held an on-site meeting in an effort to seek agreement. The parties also exchanged “detailed written proposals” addressing various concerns reflecting “new and substantial progress” on the main issues.

The next joint status report will be due Dec. 11, Cooper ordered.