By Alexandra Mendoza / San Diego Union-Tribune / April 18-19, 2026
The people of Tecate, Mexico, had heard the Trump administration would be continuing construction on the border fence in the area. But the blasts that have echoed through the small border town in recent weeks were not what residents had expected.
Heavy machinery and explosions have rumbled up the U.S. side of Kuchamaa Mountain, a place sacred to the Kumeyaay people on both sides of the border.
“It feels like they’re hurting a part of us,” said Luis Rafael Cota, who lives in the Juntas de Nejí y Anexos Kumeyaay community in Tecate and has witnessed the blasts, “a part of our culture.”
Kuchamaa Mountain, also known as Tecate Peak, or Cerro Cuchumá in Spanish, sits between two towns with the same name — Tecate in California and Tecate in Baja California.
In 1992, Kuchamaa Mountain was the first sacred mountain to be added to the National Register of Historic Places, as an “important religious site to the Kumeyaay Indians of San Diego County and Baja California,” the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said at the time.
The mountain is a sacred place for rites and rituals, as well as a place of healing. It is also known as a holy site where Kumeyaay shamans gained knowledge and power, as documented in federal records.
“It’s like a church to us,” said Norma Alicia Meza, a Kumeyaay leader from Juntas de Nejí y Anexos. “That’s where we hold our ceremonies.”
The Trump administration announced plans last year to build miles of additional 30-foot-tall border barriers along the San Diego County border, including the area near Tecate. Last month, Baja California officials took to social media to let the public know about “controlled rock blasting” as part of scheduled work on the U.S. side that could cause noise and vibrations.
The widely shared images of the detonations sparked disbelief and concern over the treatment of the mountain.
The Department of Homeland Security last year waived several environmental laws in order “to ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads in the vicinity of the international land border in the state of California,” including the National Historic Preservation Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, according to the Federal Register notice for the project.
Under NEPA, federal agencies must evaluate the potential environmental impacts of their planned actions before making any decisions.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said that the federal agency “maintains a tribal monitor on site to minimize cultural and environmental impacts and to address concerns to the greatest extent possible, while ensuring operational requirements are met.”
“At this time, CBP has not received substantiated information indicating issues related to access or damage to cultural artifacts in the Tecate Peak area. CBP is committed to respecting tribal access and cultural resources and works closely with tribal representatives and relevant agencies throughout the border wall construction process,” the spokesperson added.
Emily Burgueno, chair of the El Cajon-based nonprofit Kumeyaay Diegueño Land Conservancy, which advocates for the protection of sacred lands, alleged the federal government is violating property rights and federal laws to move forward with the border wall.
The conservancy has provided consultation to DHS and CBP to ensure the protection of the sacred mountain, including for the ongoing border wall project in Tecate. But Burgueno said the federal agencies are “not honoring the information that we’ve been providing them to protect the mountain.”
“It’s like going in one ear and out the other,” she said. “This is something we’ve been advocating to them, not just on this border wall project, but many projects, that they have desecrated our holy sites and cultural landscapes.”
Burgueno stressed that there was no consent or agreement regarding the use of explosives for construction in the mountain.
“We as a Kumeyaay nation know this project is going to go through whether we agree with it or not,” Burgueno said. “Our focus is the protection and conservation of our sacred and holy mountain.”
The mountain is also located alongside a binational conservation easement established in the early 2000s by the Tecate-based nonprofit Fundación La Puerta, which owns the land on the Mexican side, in partnership with the Mexican nonprofit Pronatura, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Cal Fire, to protect the biological diversity and cultural value of the area.
‘Defending our roots’
Last weekend, dozens of residents, including Kumeyaay people on the Mexican side, gathered on a small Tecate soccer field in the shadow of the existing border fence, built during the first Trump administration. From there, they could see where construction is underway to close the open gap in the border barrier.
Tribal members performed a traditional ceremony to honor the mountain.
“Defending the Cuchumá means defending our roots,” read a handwritten sign posted at the event site alongside others.
“We want to save (the mountain) as much as possible,” said Raúl Fernando Meza, from the Kumeyaay community of Juntas de Nejí y Anexos.
The concerns have reached as far as Mexico’s National Palace.
During one of her daily press conferences last week, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum directed the Secretariat of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to review the matter after being asked about it by a reporter.
Baja California Secretary of Culture Alma Delia Ábrego called for an end to the demolition activities on the mountain in a letter sent last week to CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott, who at one time headed the Border Patrol in San Diego.
“The site’s value as a biocultural and sacred heritage is a historical and social reality that predates any administration,” she said. “For the binational (Kumeyaay) people and for the identity of this border region, this mountain stands as a living monument of resistance and spirituality.”
Tecate Councilmember Claudia Cota, a Kumeyaay tribal member who attended the ceremony, reiterated that, as Mexican officials, they were respectful of U.S. sovereignty. Still, she lamented the project’s impact on the Native community and the environment.
The Tecate River Special Committee, composed of community organizations and local authorities, raised concerns related to the region’s hydrological cycle and the potential harm to its biodiversity and biocultural heritage.
On Friday, Baja California officials met privately with Kumeyaay people, including a tribal member from the U.S., in Tecate, Mexico. Following the meeting, representatives told the media that the details would be made public at a later date.
Ana Gloria Montes, from the San José de la Zorra community and a national councilor for the Kumeyaay in Mexico, said after the meeting that she hopes the efforts being made south of the border will send a message north.
Border wall construction
Construction in Tecate is part of a project to build nearly 10 miles of new border wall system along the San Diego-Mexico border. The project includes a 7.6-mile section of primary fence and associated features starting about 3 miles west of the Tecate Port of Entry.
It is being funded by H.R. 1, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Federal officials said that additional barriers were needed in the San Diego area, as it has been a hot spot for illegal border crossings. However, that hasn’t been the case for over a year due to President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration.
Migrant apprehensions plummeted within the Border Patrol’s San Diego sector by 97% from January 2025 to March 2026, the latest CBP data shows.
“The border wall that we are building out allows every single agent to be more effective, and it allows us to shift personnel to the coast, to look for tunnels, and to take out the drones that are coming across,” Scott, the CBP commissioner, said Thursday during a House Appropriations Committee hearing on the 2027 budget.
The surrounding area has also recently been designated a restricted military zone, known as a National Defense Area, as evidenced by a sign at the foot of the mountain warning trespassers to stay away.
Late last year, the Department of the Interior announced the transfer of approximately 740 acres of public land in San Diego and Imperial counties to the Department of the Navy. This designation allows military personnel to enforce federal law and temporarily detain individuals unlawfully present in the area.
“All of this is being done because the usual laws that protect cultural resources and that require environmental studies to be done before any of this work would happen have been waived, because supposedly there’s a national security emergency,” said Michael Wilkin-Robertson, an anthropologist and author of the 2017 book “Kumeyaay Ethnobotany: Shared Heritage of the Californias.”
“It’s really heartbreaking,” he said. “Having worked with tribal peoples, especially in Baja California, I know that every part of their land is full of meaning.”
Cota and other Kumeyaay residents in Tecate, Mexico, said that their plea goes beyond an opposition to the construction of the border wall.
“We know they have to protect their border,” he said. “All we ask is that they don’t harm the mountain.”
