More than 80 federal officers swarmed an Arizona camp built to protect a 200-year-old landmark in the path of President Donald Trump’s border wall, sparking a chaotic scene that infuriated activists, The Guardian reported Saturday.
“Seeing that — it crushes your heart,” said Eric Meza, a coordinator for a group that had organized to protect a 200-year-old cottonwood tree near the U.S.-Mexico border known as the “grandmother.” “That tree brought a lot of people together. There’s a community response of outrage. People are pissed off.”
Activists had launched a sit-in around the tree starting in July, taking turns occupying a platform that had been erected in the tree’s canopy. On Monday, however, federal officers raided the camp and made multiple arrests. According to photos shared by some of the activists, federal agents used cranes to forcibly remove activists from the tree’s canopy.
The tree was ultimately destroyed to make way for Trump’s border wall, The Guardian reported.
“Contractors with Fisher Sand & Gravel, a company building this section of wall, then used an excavator to push over the tree, which cracked and crashed to the earth. Land defenders shrieked, cried and yelled at the federal agents,” The Guardian’s report reads.
“The cottonwood’s toppling was filmed by a team from Turning Point USA, the far-right political group, who appeared to be embedded with border patrol and allowed free access to roam throughout the closed off public road.”
In August, Meza described the 200-year-old cottonwood as a “symbol” of “how much violence and destruction has happened on the border,” calling the tree a “Statue of Liberty.”
Trump’s border wall has resulted in the destruction of other historic landmarks or sites, including the bulldozing of a 1,000-year-old cultural site in Arizona which housed 200-foot-long images of fish etched by Native Americans.
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