The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin that asks the court to declare that access to abortion is a right protected by the state constitution, according to a draft court order obtained by Wisconsin Watch.
The draft order also indicates that the court has decided to deny an effort from a coalition of anti-abortion groups — Wisconsin Right to Life, Wisconsin Family Action and Pro-Life Wisconsin — to intervene in the case, but will allow them to file a brief opposing the lawsuit.
“This is not a public order,” Chief Justice Annette Ziegler told Wisconsin Watch in a statement in response to questions about the draft order. “I am not in a position to release any further information.”
After the story published, Ziegler issued the following statement publicly:
“Today the entire court was shocked to learn that a confidential draft document was ostensibly leaked to the press. I have contacted law enforcement to request that a full investigation be conducted. We are all united behind this investigation to identify the source of the apparent leak. The seven of us condemn this breach.”
The court’s other six justices did not reply to questions from Wisconsin Watch about the draft order.
The case offers the court’s four-member liberal majority the chance to issue a potentially broad ruling that could include sweeping protections for access to abortion. The draft order obtained by Wisconsin Watch does not include any concurring or dissenting opinions, leaving it unclear which justices voted for or against accepting the case.
Oral arguments in the case likely won’t happen until after the court’s next term starts in the fall.
The lawsuit was filed directly with the state Supreme Court on Feb. 22 by Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, two abortion providers and a group of anonymous women who have received abortions. The group argues the Wisconsin Constitution protects both a pregnant woman’s right to have an abortion and a doctor’s right to perform the procedure. The draft order defers a decision whether and how to keep the identities of the women anonymous.
“It is ordered that the petition for leave to commence an original action is granted, this court assumes jurisdiction over this entire action, and the petitioners may not raise or argue issues not set forth in the petition for leave to commence an original action unless otherwise ordered by the court,” the draft order reads.
Original actions, which are lawsuits filed directly with the state Supreme Court, are uncommon and usually reserved for litigation that carries substantial weight and has a statewide effect.
This would be the fourth original action taken on by the court this term. During the 2020-21 term, under a conservative majority, the court accepted three original actions, according to a tally from Marquette University Professor Alan Ball, a diligent court tracker. During the 2019-20 term, the court took seven original actions. In 2018-19, it accepted one direct suit. In all of the 15 terms prior to that, it took a total of four.
Planned Parenthood’s argument is rooted in Article I, Section 1, of the Wisconsin Constitution, which states, in part: “All people are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights; among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
“All Wisconsin residents … have inherent rights to choose whether and when to have a child, and whether or when to seek medical care,” Planned Parenthood argues in its lawsuit.
The lawsuit asks the court to declare, among other things, “that the right to equal protection guaranteed by (the Wisconsin Constitution) encompasses the right to make one’s own decisions about reproductive health care, including whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term and a physician’s right to provide appropriate abortion care.”
The anti-abortion groups sought to intervene in the case because they “have an interest in protecting various abortion-related laws that they have advocated for and publicly defended,” according to a legal brief.
The draft order does not make clear what the court plans to do with a separate lawsuit involving abortion rights.
That case stems from a lawsuit filed by Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul in June 2022, seeking to block an 1849 Wisconsin law widely considered to ban abortion. The lawsuit was filed days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the court’s landmark precedent establishing a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy, triggering the 19th-century law.
Dane County Circuit Court Judge Diane Schlipper ruled last year that the 1849 law banned feticide and did not apply to consensual abortions. Sheboygan County District Attorney Joel Urmanski asked the state Supreme Court to take up an appeal of Schlipper’s ruling, but it has yet to rule on that request.
“As I have repeatedly stated, it is my view that, properly interpreted, the statute at issue prohibits performing abortions (including consensual abortions) unless the exception for abortions necessary to save the life of the mother applies,” Urmanski said in a statement at the time.
The Planned Parenthood case is the latest in a series of high-profile cases that the Wisconsin Supreme Court has agreed to hear since shifting to a liberal majority in August 2023.
In December, the court threw out Wisconsin’s gerrymandered legislative districts. More recently, it has heard oral arguments in cases that could further alter the balance of power in the Capitol and restore the use of unstaffed absentee ballot drop boxes ahead of November’s presidential election. Rulings in those cases are expected soon, with the court’s current term wrapping up next week.
The nonprofit Wisconsin Watch (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with WPR, PBS Wisconsin, other news media and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by Wisconsin Watch do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.
Two presidential task forces formed to recommend how Harvard can combat antisemitism and anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian activity on campus have spoken: Harvard needs to act now.
(Photo: David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)
By David Goldman, CNN
(CNN) — Two presidential task forces formed to recommend how Harvard can combat antisemitism and anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian activity on campus have spoken: Harvard needs to act now.
The two groups issued preliminary reports on Wednesday aimed at restoring the university’s trust with students, faculty and the broader community. The recommendations come after a string of disruptive and, at times, violent campus protests. And they follow a rise in hateful speech and activity against Jews, Palestinians, Muslims and Arabs after Hamas’ deadly October 7 attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands.
After 85 listening sessions that included close to 900 members of the Harvard community, the task forces said Harvard’s students and faculty feel the university has fallen short of its stated values, particularly respecting differences and diversity, in its response to the protests and upheaval on campus.
“The situation over the past year has been quite grave, and unless we take significant steps forward by the beginning of the coming academic year, we could be in a position similar to last year, which we want to prevent,” said Derek Penslar, a Jewish history professor and co-chair of Harvard’s task force on combating antisemitism.
Harvard needs to do more work to promote diversity education and promote multiple perspectives on campus, the task force chairs recommended.
“Intentional engagement with diversity is a very important skill that all our students should have, regardless of what school they attend,” said Ali Asani, a Middle Eastern studies professor and co-chair of the task force on combating anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian bias. “Not having those skills and the tools to engage has serious consequences for our world as it leads to polarization.”
The anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian bias task force broadly recommended promoting safety, representation, freedom of expression, transparency and relationships among affinity groups among other areas. The antisemitism task force sought to get Harvard to clarify its values, act against discrimination and hate, improve the university’s disciplinary process, promote dialogue and training on the topic and support Jewish life on campus.
Among the suggestions, the task forces said Harvard should publicly condemn all forms of discrimination and stay out of topics that don’t concern the university. Harvard last month said it will no longer weigh in on public matters that don’t impact the Ivy League school’s core function. The groups said Harvard should review its Middle East academic program, create a prayer space for Muslims, work to prevent doxxing and add combatting antisemitism to the purview of the university’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office.
Of particular concern for the task force on antisemitism was the sentiment that complaints about anti-Jewish hate and activity on campus were going unheard. The group said that the university failed to follow up on many complaints, and the consequences for some of those actions was insufficient.
Alan Garber, Harvard’s interim president, said he appreciated the recommendations and the task forces’ candor.
“The work ahead of us will require a concerted effort,” Garber said. “We will commence detailed review and implementation of the shorter-term recommendations over the summer. Those that are longer-term will be developed, refined, and implemented in due course.”
Harvard has been under particular scrutiny for its response to rising incidents of antisemitism and Islamophobia on campus. The Anti-Defamation League gave Harvard a failing grade on antisemitism in a recent report. And the House Education Committee lambasted the university for its response to a subpoena seeking information on how it handled campus protests.
Former Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned earlier this year following her testimony to the House committee, and an ensuing plagiarism scandal.
Rev. Dr. Marcus Allen, the longtime pastor at Mt. Zion Baptist Church on Madison’s South Side, has a teenage son who has played football for years. While running with him one day recently on the football field, inspiration hit him.
“I thought, ‘Hey, maybe there some other kids that want to do the same and get out here and exercise with us.’ Then the next day at [Mt. Zion] church, a kid came up to me and said, ‘Hey, how can I be better at football?’ And I said, ‘You got to make sure your conditioning is right, make sure you got stamina, make sure you can run.'”
With that, Rev. Allen thought it was time to invite all of the young people in the neighborhood and beyond out to run and do conditioning drills to help prepare them for their fall sports seasons in their middle schools and high schools.
Rev. Dr. Marcus Allen
“‘Then other adults asked me, ‘Hey, can I come, too?’ and i was like, ‘Yeah, anybody can come,'” Allen says.
The first conditioning session was held Saturday, June 22, at Penn Park and despite the rain, a bunch of young people came out to exercise. The plan is to continue to host the sessions every Saturday at 9 a.m. at Penn Park, and hopefully watch the attendance grow until the final meet-up on July 27. By August, when many of the sporting seasons get underway for students, these youths will be in great shape and will have picked up some good habits.
“So right now, the youth conditioning sessions are open to the kids ages 12-18, but any adults, especially males, are invited to come,” Allen says. “People are free to come just for the fellowship. Of course, we need cardio and exercise to keep our hearts going strong so that we can be able to continue to live on this earth.”
Allen makes it clear that he’s not a professional when it comes to fitness and training but he is “an involved dad.”
“It’s something that evolved out of me just helping my child and being an involved dad. I know that there are a lot of kids out here that don’t have father figures that they can look up to and I wanted to be able to provide that for them, especially the African American community where many of our African American children are growing up without parents in their homes,” Allen says. “So I want to be that positive male role model for them while also helping them try to achieve their goals in sports.
“So I’m passionate about kids, passionate about mentorship, and just having an impact in their lives,” Allen says. “I want my son to be great, and I’m pretty sure parents want their children to be the same, and I just want to provide that outlet for them over the summer, because I don’t know if anything else is open.”
According to experts, young people should be doing at least two types of physical activity each week including aerobic exercise and exercises to strengthen their muscles and bones. Young people should aim for at least 60 minutes of moderate or vigorous intensity physical activity a day across the week.
“Every conditioning session there is gonna be a warm-up, then some form of cardio exercise, either we are running laps around Penn Park or running on the football field. Then we’ll end with core exercises and a cool down,” Allen says. “There’s no sports-type drills, no football drills. None of that. It is all cardio conditioning, trying to get that heart rate up and those lungs ready to endure when they go on the practice field or football field.”
Rev. Dr. Marcus Allen (blue shorts) leads young people in a variety of core exercises at Penn Park on June 22. (Photos courtesy of Rev. Allen)
The conditioning sessions will be held every Saturday, rain or shine. Allen not only hopes to get the young people in superior shape for their sports seasons, but to also build some camaraderie and friendships.
“The physical fitness of these meet-ups, of course, is a very important part. That’s the part that’s bringing them together,” Allen says, “but we’re also trying to keep the young people off the street and trying to keep them engaged in something positive during the summer. I think it’s important to just be getting the young people out of the house and over to the park and getting their bodies moving.”
Allen says that they will have water at Penn Park to hydrate the young people along with some type of fruit like watermelon or oranges or bananas.
“We will have all the safety precautions in place, and just being mindful of everything, but we will make sure the kids stay hydrated and make sure they get the cardio that they need,” Allen says.
The next conditioning session will be held on Saturday, June 29, 9 a.m. at Penn Park, 2101 Fisher St. For more information or if you have questions, e-mail Rev. Dr. Marcus Allen at [email protected].
The Black Men Coalition (BMC) Foundation is engaging in a transformative collaboration with eCornell, the online learning platform of Cornell University, aimed at breaking barriers that contribute to a persistent cycle of poverty and limited opportunities.
This collaboration aims to uplift underserved and vulnerable individuals by offering them the tools they need to succeed. The organizations will host a press conference today at 2 p.m. at BMC’s second office space, 1 N. Pinckney St. on the Capitol Square, to talk more about the plans to provide hundreds of learners from low-income backgrounds with free access to online professional certificate programs annually.
“In Dane County, we encounter many individuals who are eager to advance but encounter obstacles in developing their skills, which can make it challenging to land good jobs or advance within their companies,” says BMC President Corey Marionneaux in a statement. “Providing free access to these courses helps eliminate financial and other barriers, creating a path to success full of hope, empowerment, value and ultimately a hand up for those looking to earn a better living wage.”
Designed by Cornell’s Ivy League faculty, participants will benefit from eCornell’s prestigious certificate programs by learning in-demand skills across a diverse array of fields, opening the door for social and economic growth. Typically priced at $3,900, these courses are being offered for free thanks to support from Ascendium Education Group and Diane Endres Ballweg, philanthropist and lifelong educator.
Patrick Braxton will officially become mayor of Newbern once the court approves the settlement – the first Black person to hold the position in the town’s 166-year history.
Newbern is about an hour drive from Selma in the western part of Alabama and has a population of 133, according to the 2020 Census.
After being sworn in as mayor, Braxton was later denied full access to the office by the man who was mayor before him, Haywood Stokes III, who is White, and the majority-White city council, according to a lawsuit.
Braxton along with four residents he wanted to appoint to a new city council and the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund filed an amended complaint to force the town to honor the election.
Although “a factual dispute exists regarding who has lawful authority to serve as mayor and town councilmembers,” according to the settlement, signed June 21, the parties now agree “Braxton is the lawful mayor of Newbern, and he shall hold all the powers, privileges, duties … entrusted to the mayor of Newbern under Alabama state law.”
The settlement does not require that the defendants admit to any wrongdoing and specifically notes that they “deny having engaged in any wrongful practice, or other unlawful conduct.”
Leah Wong, an attorney with the Legal Defense Fund who represented the plaintiffs, called the outcome of the settlement positive because “the town will be able to move forward.”
“Most of the Black residents still recognized (Braxton) as mayor …,” Wong said. “It is a shame that he had to fight for his right to actually execute his duties for the last four years.”
CNN has reached out to Braxton and the town of Newbern for comment.
Under the settlement, Braxton has 14 days after the effective date to submit names of residents to the Alabama governor he wants the state to appoint as town council members. If Alabama Governor Kay Ivey does not appoint people to fill the town council positions, Braxton must hold a special election on December 31, 2024.
Braxton, along with his new town council, will also be responsible for conducting the regularly scheduled elections set for 2025.
The settlement states the town agrees to pay the attorney fees of the plaintiffs which will come from town funds. And the town’s finances will be independently audited by an entity jointly agreed upon by Stokes and Braxton.
A lifelong Newbern resident and volunteer firefighter, Braxton previously told CNN he decided to challenge the status quo in his townand run for mayor. He asserted in the lawsuit the mayor and town council were not responding to the needs of Newbern’s majority Black community, CNN previously reported.
The town had not held a mayoral election since at least 1965, when the Voting Rights Act became law, according to the lawsuit. According to court records, the voting age population in Newbern is 64.3 percent Black and 34.8 White.
According to the lawsuit, “to prevent Braxton from appointing a majority black Town council, the Defendants … agreed to hold a secret meeting and adopt resolutions to conduct a special election,” CNN previously reported.
At the meeting, Braxton’s lawsuit claims Stokes set a special election date for the council, “because the council members had allegedly ‘forgotten’ to qualify as candidates for the 2020 municipal elections.”
Braxton and the people he appointed as councilors say in the lawsuit thatno notice of a special election was published and the only people to file to run were Stokes and former council members Gary Broussard, Jesse Donald Leverett, Voncille Brown Thomas and Willie Richard Tucker.
And as they were the only candidates for the October 6 special election, they won by default.
The lawsuit claimed the locks on the town hall were changed so Braxton could not get in, adding he was denied access to the post office box used for official mail, and a local bank would not let him see the town accounts.
“Patrick Braxton accomplished something no other Black resident of the City of Newbern had ever accomplished since the city’s founding in 1854: he was duly elected Mayor of the City,” the lawsuit claimed. “However, the minority White residents of the city, long accustomed to exercising total control over city government, refused to accept this outcome.”
In court filings, the defendants said there was no conspiracy and no racial discrimination, CNN reported.
CNN’s Meridith Edwards and Rachel Clarke contributed to this report.
Jim Latimer conducts the Capitol City Band. (Photo supplied)
Jim Latimer, a University of Wisconsin-Madison emeritus music professor, has been leading the Capitol City Band and conducting hundreds and hundreds of concerts for 43 years now – since 1981.
This Thursday, June 27, 7 p.m., at Rennebohm Park, Latimer will conduct a very special concert on his 90th birthday that will be the opening concert for the 56th season of the Capitol City Band.
When the Capitol City Band first started back in June of 1969, Elmer Ziegler, a mentor to Latimer, led the concerts which back then took place in Vilas Park. Most of the time in the last half-century, the band has been led by Latimer, who was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Wisconsin Percussive Arts Society in 2018 for a lifetime of education, performance, and promotion of percussion as a solo and ensemble art form, leading the way.
The band’s weekly Thursday concerts will take place at 7 p.m. at Rennebohm Park on Madison’s near West Side and run for nine weeks from tonight until Aug. 22.
Concerts are free … rain or shine. Bring a chair to sit in. Rennebohm Park is located at 115 N. Eau Claire Ave. in the Hilldale neighborhood.
For information about the event, call 608 835-9861. To donate to Jim Latimer’s 90th birthday fundraiser for the Capitol City Band, click here.
Young professionals dance at a previous networking event hosted by Martinez White and Intuition Productions.
(Photo supplied.)
Martinez White, a.k.a. DJ M. White, loves to host local live entertainment events to inspire new and organic connections amongst the emerging working young professional culture in Madison. On Saturday, July 6, 7-11 p.m., during the upcoming Fourth of July weekend, White is inviting people to come and celebrate on the rooftop of the Black Business Hub with an all-white R&B ladies’ night affair called “Pangea II”
“I’m looking to motivate a lot of millennials of color to come to this event, but also a lot of just open-minded and progressive thinking young people across the board, no matter what your background is,” White tells Madison365. White is the founder and CEO of Intuition Productions LLC, a multimedia brand and millennial event planning business.
Pangea II is the second installment of a one-day live edutainment mixer showcasing “the power of togetherness, especially in a divided sociopolitical atmosphere.” There will be a live DJ, spoken-word montages, raffles and live music performances to entertain guests.
The events are always a lot of fun, but also an important chance to network and for young professionals to advertise and grow their businesses and side hustles.
“Networking brings a lot of economic growth to businesses that we work with and we are very proud of that. Over the last 18 years that I’ve been doing music, we’ve done significant numbers,” White explains. “We’ve calculated that in the last five years or so, we’ve helped businesses grow over $250,000 in cash … just by helping with music support and elevating the frequency so that people’s positive vibration is expressed in currency.
“So I think that’s what we’re looking to accentuate and really do it with another historic black entity in the Urban League and the [Black Business] Hub,” he adds.
At previous events hosted by White, local BIPOC millennial artists, musicians and textile designers have gathered in safe spaces to promote acceptance of difference and celebration of diversity.
“This is our 38th ‘Lovezone’ branded event. Lovezone is just basically R&B Ladies Night type of vibe, karaoke vibes, people singing along, where the artist is the audience and the people become the centerpiece of the celebration,” White says.
“I think, specifically, this space and this time is important because even though this is our 38th Lovezone [event], it’s only our second Pangea [event],” he continues. “So Pangea is a music, art and cultural mixer. It’s like an expression fest. We have some artists who will come and present some work and paint live, spray paint, and do some art while people are hanging out and networking. The whole purpose of it is to celebrate togetherness.”
Milwaukee-raised artist Adam Villegas, who owns a clothing company called Living Out Unreal Dreams, will be helping White with the art installation for Pangea II.
“He is an art grad from UW. So we’re both Badgers. He’s the art director. He’s helping with the art installation, and it’s gonna be nice,” White says. “It’s going to be a ‘The Land Before Time’ theme. You remember that cartoon? We’re really excited about it.”
White says that his vision is to create a safe, vibrant, intergenerational networking environment for professionals ages 21-40 years old. He says that people really love the karaoke part of the event.
Martinez White
“Karaoke can be a lot of fun. Music is what our feelings sound like,” he continues. “And if somebody has a feeling about a certain record or a memory or some experience that’s attached to their record, they may grab a microphone and express those feelings through the song. It’s a lot of fun.”
American Family Insurance will be the presenting sponsor.
“We excited about it, There’s gonna be some R&B vibes, some Afro beats and some reggaeton songs and music,” White says. “Reach out to us on our Intuition Productions Facebook page, and they can find the ticket information there.
“I just want people to come and party with us on the rooftop at this all-white affair at the Black Business Hub,” White says. “It’s an opportunity for us to celebrate together.”
Gov. Tony Evers has appointed Payal Khandhar to the Dane County Circuit Court – Branch 2, filling the vacancy being created by Judge Josann M. Reynolds’ resignation.
“Payal Khandhar is a highly regarded attorney who is committed to service and dedicated to improving her community,” said Gov. Evers in a statement. “She will be an exceptional judge for the people of Dane County.”
Khandhar began her legal career as an assistant state public defender in 2009, where she represented indigent clients facing criminal prosecution, first in Northwestern Wisconsin and then in Dane County, according to a press release from the governor’s office. In 2016, she became a private criminal defense practitioner as a partner at Jasti & Khandhar in Madison. Since 2018, she has also served as a supplemental court commissioner for the Dane County Circuit Court. Prior to attending law school, she worked as a case manager for formerly incarcerated women in a residential reentry facility and as a neighborhood-based case worker, assisting low-income families to stabilize their housing.
“I am honored that Governor Evers has appointed me to serve in this important role,” said Khandhar. “For decades, I have been working towards creating a more just and equitable community, and I intend on continuing my mission while serving as a Dane County Circuit Court Judge. I plan on approaching this new role with kindness, humility, and humanity towards all parties. I want to thank my family, friends, colleagues, and all the system-impacted individuals that have taught me the importance of a fair and impartial judiciary.”
Khandhar will complete a term ending July 31, 2025.
Left: Ariel Mattia, Raymond Mattia's daughter. Right: Annette Mattia, his older sister, in Why, Arizona in June 2024.
(Photo: Evelio Contreras/CNN via CNN Newsource)
By Caitlin Stephen Hu, David Culver, Norma Galeana and Evelio Contreras, CNN
San Miguel Gate, Tohono O’odham Nation (CNN) — The thermometer hit 111 Fahrenheit as we rolled up to a battered tent deep in the Tohono O’odham Nation reservation in Arizona. Under its shade lay around a dozen dazed looking families, many with small children. A stressed-looking mother of two paced back and forth.
They had walked for five hours to get here, and had been waiting all day. But they looked at us – and the tribal dignitaries on whose land they were tres
passing – with only mild curiosity. They were asylum seekers, looking for the green uniforms of US Border Patrol so that they could turn themselves in.
Chairman Verlon Jose, leader of the Tohono O’odham Nation, considered addressing them, and then turned away. “This is nothing that the nation can solve,” he said. “Whatever I say to them is not even going to be relevant, other than our prayers for their journey.”
The Tohono O’odham, or “people of the desert,” have lived in the Sonoran desert for thousands of years, their ancestral homelands stretching from what is now Pima County, Arizona, all the way to Mexico’s Sea of Cortez.
The US-Mexico border now slices across those lands, a 62-mile line of low metal fencing weaves between ancient saguaro cacti and that marks the southern limit of the Nation’s federal Indian reservation – and the edge of the United States.
The Tohono O’odham do not recognize this border; enrolled members speak their own language, live on both sides and travel back and forth. But it has become impossible to ignore amid record numbers of migrants crossing into the US from Mexico and a bitter political storm over what to do with them.
You could drive for miles on the sprawling Tohono O’odham reservation without encountering anyone beside the free-ranging cattle. But for decades, migrants and asylum seekers, northbound drug smugglers and southbound arms traffickers, and US Border Patrol agents have roamed here in endless pursuit across the rocky terrain.
The toll of all this traffic on the environment is obvious; discarded clothes, trash, diapers and even ID cards line the border.
In December, during the peak of recent border crossings, thousands of asylum seekers camped out on the Nation’s territory, burning the reservation’s wild mesquite trees for warmth as they waited to be apprehended. The sight of the broken branches, piles of abandoned plastic bottles and human waste left in the migrants’ wake was heartbreaking to the tribe, Jose told CNN.
“Your heart feels for the migrants and so forth like that… but then other part says look at the destruction that they’re causing us… look at the trash that they’re leaving,” Jose told CNN.
The chairman and Arizona governor Katie Hobbs wrote in a joint letter to the federal government last year requesting ramped up staffing and resources from the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to deal with the surge. But the Nation’s longstanding reliance on the federal government to enforce the border means an uneasy trade of tribal sovereignty for security. Border police have had violent run-ins with members, and the thought of a potential border wall is seen as a travesty here – a mutilation of the land itself.
“All we want is safe passage to our traditional homes, to our sacred areas. The drug activity, the migrant activity is going to go on and go on. And we’re caught in the middle of this,” Jose said.
Strangers in the desert
The Tohono O’odham reservation is part of Arizona’s Tucson sector and one of the busiest immigration sectors in the country in both apprehensions of border crossers and marijuana seizures, according to the Customs and Border Protection website.
Across the sprawling reservation, the tribe works closely with CBP, providing land for checkpoints, forward operating bases, surveillance infrastructure, and putting forward indigenous-led special units that investigate and track drug smuggling. The Nation says that it spends an average of $3 million annually to assist with border security.
Still, strangers walk onto the reservation all the time.
In the small southern community of Menagers Dam, just a 15 minute walk from the border, people turn up asking for water or a phone, others march straight into homes to raid their kitchens, said Annette Mattia, 61, who lives in the village. Some Tohono O’odham Nation members put out water or food for the migrants, others are afraid to. Some members have been involved in smuggling themselves, she says.
“We’re always calling (Border Patrol) because where we live is a bushy area with the trees still there and everything. And that was like the gateway for smugglers. You can just go walk in our yard and in the little trees, and you’ll find the slipper shoes the smugglers use, or their camouflage clothes,” she says.
People wait to be taken in by Border Patrol after crossing the US-Mexico border near the San Miguel gate on the Tohono O’odham reservation, Arizona in June 2024. (Photo: Evelio Contreras/CNN via CNN Newsource)
Still, seeing Border Patrol’s trucks and helicopters on the reservation and frequent questioning by agents also makes many of the Nation’s residents bristle.
“If you decide to go out into the mountains for the day, if you want to pick the cactus fruit or get materials from the desert, Border Patrol will be out there, and they will be on you: ‘What are you doing here, why are you out here?’,” Annette Mattia told CNN.
“You know, this is our reservation. It’s our nation. We can go hunting if we want to go hunting, we can gather if we want to gather,” she said. “They’re here because the border’s here.”
A deadly landscape
Sprawling across 2.8 million acres, it’s easy to imagine getting lost in this desert reservation. Massive rock formations are the only landmarks, rising between low plains dotted with dry shrubs and cactus forests.
Many migrants who cross here never make it out alive; the remains of at least 1,650 people have been found across the Tohono O’odham reservation since 2000, according to local organization Humane Borders, which works with the Pima County Medical Examiner’s office to track deaths.
Last year, the bodies of 81 people were found on the reservation, according to Humane Borders. So far in 2024, 10 bodies have been found here, according to the Humane Borders map, all discovered on the San Miguel corridor – the same route where we met dozens of people waiting with children as young as toddlers.
Most, but not all, are reduced to skeletons in the arid desert. In May, one unidentified man found close to the border was found “fully fleshed” – he had died from heat exposure within a day of being found, according to the county medical examiner’s report. In February, the body of a 22-year-old woman was found on the Baboquivari Peak mountain range; she was the victim of blunt force injuries, the medical examiner assessed.
Summer is the deadliest time for border crossings. But while migration through the Sonoran Desert has historically slowed during these searing months, that’s no longer the case today, a CBP spokesperson told CNN; human traffickers who’ve made a business of promising asylum in America now push migrants through the border year-round in order to maximize profits.
Demand for traffickers is high, despite the risks – which migrants may not always understand. Since the pandemic, people fleeing stuttering economies, climate change, crime and authoritarian governments have flocked to the US southern border, a CBP spokesperson told CNN – nearly all those journeys were facilitated by criminal groups.
“No one crosses on their own anymore,” the spokesperson told CNN. Cartels’ grip on the border area is near-complete, he confirmed; attempting to cross the Mexican side of the desert into the US without paying is another way to end up dead.
Migrants sent one way, drugs another
Today, faced with vast numbers of asylum seekers in a blistering landscape, the day-to-day work of Border Patrol often ends up being humanitarian. In the Tucson Sector, Border Patrol agents perform dozens of rescues each week, according to statistics posted online by the agency, and frequently end up treating dehydrated or injured migrants in the desert.
Even more often, agents simply ferry families from the desolate border where asylum seekers politely wait to be apprehended, to detention centers further inland – a task that one agent likened with annoyance to babysitting or Uber driving.
Some describe with nostalgia a Wild West version of their jobs from decades past, chasing drug runners across a dramatic landscape.
“Back in the day when it was just single males with a lot of narcotics, it was dangerous but kind of exciting,” said the agent, who requested anonymity because he did not have permission to speak publicly.
“Secure the border. We didn’t have to babysit. We were up in the mountains getting narcotics and stuff, chasing gun traffickers, drugs. But now it’s moms and infants. It sucks. Nobody wants to deal with a mama and baby.”
Border Patrol agents and Nation members say migrants, on whom so much national attention is focused, are often used as a distraction for law enforcement on the reservation. Cartels funnel large groups toward remote areas that are difficult and time-consuming to reach, in addition to being more dangerous for the travelers, while smugglers trek with drug-loaded backpacks up another route.
“The cartels want migrants to cross in rural areas to pull us away, so drugs and stuff can make it through while we’re busy… You’ve got to drive the freaking 30 or 40 minutes out there, pick them up, drive 30 or 40 minutes back. You ain’t got time to go chase three or four people with backpacks walking through the desert,” the agent told CNN.
Urban crossing areas are also often more closely patrolled than the desert wilds and are more likely to be blocked by a towering steel barrier, unlike these lands.
Mike Wilson, a Tohono O’odham Nation member who has gained celebrity in human rights circles for years spent putting out water for migrants on the reservation, says many of the deaths on the reservation were predictable.
In a recently published memoir, “What Side Are You On?” Wilson blames a US border policy of deterrence – blocking irregular migration at urban crossing points – for driving asylum seekers into Tohono O’odham lands and the most perilous parts of the desert.
The strategy, which originated in the 1990s, included a calculation that deaths resulting from the dangerous trek would deter future migrants. The number of illegal border crossings has risen since then.
Security vs. sovereignty
Frustrations over the border here came to a head last year, when Annette’s brother Raymond Mattia was shot and killed by a group of Border Patrol agents at his home. Nothing to do with immigration – they were supposed to be backing up a local Tohono O’odham police unit that was looking into a 911 call reporting two gunshots had been heard.
Footage from the agents’ body cameras showed their flashlights casting through the dark of the Arizona desert, choppily illuminating saguaro cacti and low shrubs in the neighborhood in search of movement in the area, before noticing the unarmed 58-year-old standing in his front yard. Obeying agents’ orders, he removed his hand from his pocket, withdrawing a cell phone. They began firing immediately.
“I thought they were yelling and shouting at illegals,” she recalled, describing their attitude as a “hyped up and ready to hunt.” “They had flashlights going like crazy, shouting, yelling at each other, and I was like, ‘What the heck is going on?’ Then I realized they were going to Ray’s house.”
It is unclear if Raymond Mattia was the person they were looking for; authorities made no allegations following the incident.
The US Attorney’s Office in Arizona has chosen not to press charges over the killing, prompting the Mattia family to launch a wrongful death lawsuit. But holding border agents to account has been increasingly hard to do following a 2022 Supreme Court ruling that gave federal agents broad legal protection against claims of excessive force.
“I know they’re here to protect the border: for the terrorists, the immigrants, the smugglers. But when they’re coming to the reservation to shoot a Native American person who is at home, they should be accountable for that kind of action,” Annette Mattia said.
In a statement last year criticizing the US Attorney’s decision not to prosecute, Jose linked Mattia’s death to a larger failing of border management.
“The US government’s refusal to enact sensible border solutions has brought undue hardship to O’odham and other border communities,” he wrote. “While politicians waste time debating walls and other ineffective and divisive ideas, our people are persecuted and in this case, killed by federal agents.”
The chairman sees the federal approach toward the border as all too focused on maintaining an imaginary line and scoring political points, and expressed frustration with the failure of Congress to find a bigger-picture, bipartisan solution – something that in recent weeks has led the Biden administration to rely on executive orders instead.
“Why would we want to protect a border? We want to protect the environment. We want to protect the people. We want to protect the communities around here,” Jose said. That’s his mandate from Nation elders, he said.
What the US should do, he said, is focus on “kicking its drug habit” to shrink demand for smuggled narcotics, and widen sustainable immigration pathways for economic migrants that allow them to come, work and eventually leave.
Still, as long as migrants keep coming here, so will Border Patrol – and the tribal government has been clear that it wants the federal agency to handle the immediate crisis. New buildings designed to serve as sleeping and living quarters for Border Patrol agents are currently being built on the reservation.
Standing on the border halfway up a mountain, where the low posts that mark the border stop, and the rocks and dry shrubs flow seamlessly between the US and Mexico, Jose was clear on his own red line: While much is out of the Nation’s hands, he will resist any kind of border wall – a prospect that has haunted the nation since the Trump administration, and which looms again with the former President’s reelection bid.
From his view, the very first migrant surge started at Plymouth Rock. “If ever there was a time to build a wall,” he said, “it would have been 500 years ago.”
Wisconsin Badgers middle blocker Carter Booth
(Photo by Dexter Patterson)
Carter Booth and Sarah Franklin of the University of Wisconsin volleyball team will represent the USA Senior Women’s National Team (WNT) at the annual NORCECA Final Six Tournament, held next week in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
This year’s roster for the NORCECA Final Six was pre-determined and highlights Franklin, a senior outside hitter for the Badgers who is the reigning national player of the year, and Booth, who is a junior middle blocker. Both Booth and Franklin have previous experiences in training with USA Volleyball back in March in Anaheim, Calif.
“We are treating NORCECA Final 6 as the first tournament of the new Olympic cycle that eventually leads to the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles,” U.S. women’s head coach Karch Kiraly said in a statement.“We are really excited about the future possibilities and potential of the athletes on this roster who will represent our women’s senior national team.”
The United States’ run in the tournament will start against Mexico on Wednesday at 4 p.m. (Central Time). Two days later, Team USA will face Canada, also at 4 p.m. (CT).
On June 29, the NORCECA Semifinals will take place, with medal matches the following day.
