In August, Lorraine Eiler stood in the desert sun at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, southwest of Tucson, and warned reporters what would happen. The Trump administration was racing to build a second border wall across the monument. If the bulldozers came, the 89-year-old Hia-Ced O'odham elder said, they would disturb the resting places of her family and her tribe's ancestors.
Fifteen days later, they did.
On September 8, Native American remains were found in soil overturned by border wall contractors in Organ Pipe, ProPublica reported. The National Park Service confirmed the discovery, which had not been made public until now. A University of Arizona assessment found the remains were human and matched tribal cremation practices — consistent, the researcher who examined them said, with practices in the region going back 1,500 years.
They were warned
The administration can't say nobody told it.
Customs and Border Protection contractors have bulldozed a wide strip of desert along the border, knocking down and uprooting the monument's native plants to make room for heavy equipment. Eiler was told the remains were found near the base of a saguaro cactus.
Organ Pipe holds Quitobaquito Springs, a desert oasis less than 200 feet from the border. A Park Service survey found that people have lived there for thousands of years and that it is the "only known Hia C-ed O'odham village site in the United States." A 2024 Park Service report counted 34 graves in a cemetery there, including Eiler's family's.
As far back as 2019, the Park Service's own internal report, obtained by the Washington Post, flagged nearly two dozen archaeological sites in Organ Pipe as at risk of damage or destruction from wall construction.
And this isn't the first time. In April, border wall contractors bulldozed through the Las Playas Intaglio, a huge, well-marked design etched into the earth that's believed to be at least 6,500 years old. Customs and Border Protection called that an accident.
"Every time this happens it is a wound to the heart of all members of the Tohono O'odham Nation — these are our ancestors, our family members — whose remains are being desecrated," said Verlon M. Jose, chairman of the Tohono O'odham Nation.
The law that would have protected them was waived
Normally, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act says that when Native American remains are found on federal land, the work that uncovered them has to stop while the government consults with the tribes. The researcher who examined the remains said work in the immediate area must be paused for at least 30 days.
But in the border zone, the Department of Homeland Security can make laws disappear. A post-9/11 law lets the DHS secretary waive any law that might slow down border wall construction. DHS has used that power 66 times, and 60 of them came under President Trump's two administrations, ProPublica found.
When the department went after Organ Pipe in 2019, it waived more than 40 environmental and cultural protection laws at once — including the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and the graves protection law itself.
Customs and Border Protection told ProPublica it found out about the discovery six days after it happened, found no other remains, and that "no additional construction has occurred at this location to date."
Eiler's family has decided not to rebury the remains yet. They're waiting until construction in the area stops, because they fear more graves will be dug up. "They're going to find remains wherever they dig," she said.
Masked agents for the next wall
The administration isn't slowing down. After the Las Playas destruction, DHS awarded a $1.3 billion contract for a 62-mile wall across the entire Tohono O'odham Nation. The tribe is fighting it in federal court and has put up "no trespassing" signs.
DHS answered by sending masked federal agents to escort its work crews and by flying surveillance over tribal members, ProPublica reported.
This is how the wall gets built: in places Congress once protected, with the protections waived. In Texas, the budget bill Rep. Monica De La Cruz voted for moved wall money around a law protecting the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge, and with its original plan stalled in court, the government is now considering running the wall through the refuge itself.
What the reporting shows
Fifteen days after a Hia-Ced O'odham elder warned that the Trump administration's second border wall across Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument would disturb her ancestors' graves, Native American remains were found in soil its contractors had overturned. Trump's first administration had waived the federal law that protects Native American graves there in 2019, along with dozens of other environmental and cultural laws, and his administration is now pushing a 62-mile wall across the Tohono O'odham Nation with masked agents guarding the crews.
