Construction crews building a barrier between the United States and Mexico damaged a 200-foot-long etching of a fish embedded in the land that is thought to be 1,000 years old, according to a report in the Washington Post.
As part of President Donald Trump’s contentious $46.5 billion border-wall project, workers destroyed a 60-to-70-foot portion of the artwork known as an intaglio, according to Richard Martynec, a retired archaeologist who currently surveys the area as a volunteer. As the Post report notes, “The construction is not abiding by environmental laws and other protections, alarming advocates, national park staff and Native Americans.”
Satellite imagery from April showed a disturbance crossing the intaglio area, and subsequent imagery last week showed the destruction—“with bulldozer marks running through about a third of the fish formation.” Upon the publication of the Post’s report on Friday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed the damage.
“On April 23, 2026, a border wall contractor inadvertently disturbed a cultural site known as Las Playas Intaglio, located west of Ajo, Arizona along the border,” John Mennell, a CBP spokesperson, said in a statement. “The remaining portion of the site has been secured and will be protected in place.”
Lorraine Marquez Eiler, an elder of the Hia-ced O’odham Indigenous people, told the Post, “If someone came to Washington and started destroying all the different sites that people in the United States revere, it’s the same thing for us.”
She added, in reference to Trump: “Somebody is responsible for this, and we all know who that is, and he should be held accountable for it. He’s getting away with whatever he wants to do. He’s doing it. No one is stopping him.”
