Las Playas Intaglio Damaged by Border Wall Construction in Arizona - Archaeology Magazine

Las Playas Intaglio Damaged by Border Wall Construction in Arizona - Archaeology Magazine

Archival aerial photograph of Las Playas Intaglio, Arizona AJO, ARIZONA—According to a Washington Post report, an intaglio that looks like a fish has been damaged in southwestern Arizona by construction crews building a second wall on the border with Mexico parallel to the first. Waivers issued by the Department of Homeland Security exempted border wall construction crews from laws requiring the protection of Indigenous archaeological sites and …

Trump's Wall Bulldozed a 1,000-Year-Old Native American Site—DHS Waivers to Bypass Environmental Rules

Donald Trump's accelerated border wall project has done what Indigenous leaders and archaeologists feared it would do. In the Arizona desert, construction crews working under federal contract have bulldozed part of a sacred Native American ground etching believed to be more than 1,000 years old. Customs and Border Protection has confirmed that on 23 April 2026, a contractor 'inadvertently disturbed' the Las Playas Intaglio, a rare desert geoglyp…