On April 23, 2026, a Department of Homeland Security contractor building Trump's second border wall cut a roughly 50-foot-wide corridor through part of the Las Playas Intaglio, a 272-foot-long desert etching of a fish in Arizona's Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, west of Ajo. It was then thought to be about 1,000 years old. The Intercept reported the destruction on April 30. CBP spokesperson John Mennell said the contractor 'inadvertently disturbed' the site. Archaeologists called the damage irreparable.
The Tohono O'odham Nation, whose reservation borders the refuge, considers the intaglio and a nearby burial site part of ancestral lands. They had successfully protected the site during Trump's first term. In April 2026 the refuge's own management was actively negotiating alternative routes with DHS to avoid the intaglio, and engineers had placed boundary stakes in mid-April marking its location. The contractor cut through anyway.
Archaeologist Rick Martynec, who has studied the site for decades: 'I liken it to destroying the Nazca lines — something culturally we should have been relishing and promoting.' O'odham elder Lorraine Eiler: 'I alerted people, but all I got was, “We're going to have meetings, we're going to discuss it.”'
The destruction sits inside a larger pattern. The administration's waivers of environmental and historical-preservation law for border-wall construction, combined with a contracting structure that incentivizes rapid completion over compliance, have produced documented destruction of Native ancestral lands during both Trump terms. Las Playas was one of the surviving sites the first-term wall did not reach. With the staked boundary, an ongoing negotiation, and tribal alerts, this destruction was avoidable. It happened anyway.
Update (September 30, 2026): the site is far older than anyone knew. David S. Whitley and Ronald I. Dorn, writing in the September 2026 issue of The SAA Archaeological Record, dated cobbles an archaeologist removed from the figure in 1979 by the microscopic layering of their rock varnish and put its creation at least 6,500 years ago, which they say makes it the oldest known intaglio in the Americas. NBC News reports it is about 1,500 years older than the first construction at Stonehenge. The Center for Biological Diversity, which documented the damage, says contractors scraped a roughly 50-foot-wide corridor through part of the 272-foot figure.
CBP told NBC the contractor “inadvertently disturbed” the site and that Commissioner Rodney Scott has been “engaged directly with tribal leadership to determine appropriate next steps.” It added: “The remaining portion of the site has been secured and will be protected in place. CBP is conducting a thorough review of construction protocols and strengthening communication procedures to ensure this does not happen again.” To build the wall, DHS invoked authority in the Secure Fence Act of 2006 to waive laws protecting the environment and cultural, historical and religious sites. The Tohono O'odham Nation is appealing a federal judge's refusal to block wall construction through its reservation. CBP is taking public comments through October 12 on 225 miles of secondary barrier across Arizona.
Correction (September 30, 2026): this entry first described the intaglio as a 1,000-year-old, 280-by-50-foot etching with a 60-foot section cut, and attributed the environmental waivers to Trump executive orders. New dating puts it at 6,500 years or more; the Center for Biological Diversity describes a 272-foot figure and a roughly 50-foot-wide cut; and the waivers were issued by DHS under the Secure Fence Act of 2006. The title and figures have been corrected.