Arizona tribe refuses Trump's wall, but agrees to let Border Patrol build virtual barrier
TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION, Ariz. - Verlon Jose had long vowed President Donald Trump would build a wall along his tribe's 75-mile border with Mexico only "over my dead body."
But late last month, the Tohono O'odham Nation's vice chairman stood at the border and praised a planned wall meant to deter migrants, smugglers - and, according to the tribe, federal agents - from disturbing its lands.
The wall he described was not physical, but virtual: 10 towers up to 140 feet tall, with radar and night vision cameras capable of surveying over several miles and streaming footage around the clock to the Border Patrol.
"The idea is to reduce the footprint of these guys running around, tearing up our land," Jose said of agents patrolling the reservation.
The integrated fixed towers, or IFTs, as the Border Patrol calls them, were approved in March by a unanimous vote of the tribe's legislative council, many of them older tribal members.
