Gov. Katie Hobbs is siding with the Tohono O’odham Nation in its bid to at least delay work on a border wall the federal government wants to build along its southern boundary with Mexico.
“Arizona’s own record demonstrates that vigorous border security does not require disregarding tribal sovereignty,” Justin Cox, a private attorney representing her, told the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. He said the state has achieved “major enforcement results” through cooperation with the tribe.
But Hobbs is not asking that the 62-mile double-layered 30 foot-high steel and concrete barrier be canceled entirely — at least not at this point. Nor is the governor taking a position on the underlying legal question of whether the land where the twin walls are being proposed belongs to the tribe or the federal government.
