70多天来，数十名环保活动人士与亚利桑那州—墨西哥边境上的一棵古老的棉白杨树，共同成功阻止了唐纳德·特朗普总统耗资500亿美元修建边境墙的计划。
For more than 70 days, dozens of activists and an ancient cottonwood tree on the Arizona–Mexico border have successfully disrupted the construction of President Donald Trump’s ruinous $50 billion border wall.
自7月起，一名又一名抗议者轮流占据这棵在当地被称为“祖母树”的棉白杨。此前，该地区的另外三棵棉白杨已被政府承包商砍伐。如今，位于美国一侧的这棵“祖母树”便成了抗议活动的中心——在亚利桑那州的洛奇尔镇及邻近的墨西哥索诺拉州，活动人士们在此聚集了一年多，共同反对边境墙的修建。
Since July, one protester at a time has occupied the cottonwood, or the grandmother tree, as it is locally known. After three other cottonwoods in the area were torn down by government contractors, the remaining grandmother on the U.S. side of the border became the site of a growing protest camp in the remote town of Lochiel, Arizona, and neighboring Sonora, Mexico, where organizers gathered for more than a year to oppose the border wall’s construction.
周一，全副武装的联邦特工强行介入。据现场活动人士估计，约150名边境巡逻队队员——其中许多人蒙着面——在抗议者进行晨祷时突袭了营地。至少有10名示威者遭逮捕，那棵树龄达200年的棉白杨也被推土机夷为平地。
On Monday, heavily armed federal agents moved in with force. Activists on the ground estimate that 150 Border Patrol officers — many of whom masked their faces — raided the encampment during the protesters’ morning prayer ceremony. At least 10 demonstrators were arrested, and the 200-year-old cottonwood was bulldozed.
正如亚利桑那州记者约翰·华盛顿所报道的那样：“特工们开始砍树时，还有人坐在树枝上。他们用高空作业车将那人救下后才砍倒树木。上午8点半左右，‘祖母树’倒下时，现场传来了阵阵尖叫声。”自那次清晨突袭后的48小时内，这些环保卫士们始终拒绝离开，目前仍与联邦特工处于对峙状态。多位参与者向《Intercept》透露，目前约有50人坚守阵地以阻止施工继续进行，还有数十人接到紧急支援号召后正赶往现场，以保护这片岌岌可危的边境生态环境。
As Arizona-based journalist John Washington reported, “agents began cutting the tree while a person was still sitting in its branches. Agents removed that person with a cherry picker and then felled the tree. Screams could be heard as ‘grandmother’ fell around 8:30 a.m.”In the 48 hours since the early morning raid, land defenders have refused to leave and remain in an ongoing standoff with federal agents. Numerous participants told The Intercept that around 50 people are holding the line against further construction, with dozens more en route following urgent calls to support the encampment and defend the imperiled borderland ecology.
周二，又一名抗议者爬上了边境墙施工路线上仅存的一棵杨木树，这棵树位于墨西哥一侧。据土地保护组织的通报，这棵树曾在8月中旬短暂被抗议者占据，“如今再次成功阻止了施工”。抗议者的目标是阻止在偏远的圣拉斐尔谷地修建两道各高30英尺的并行边境墙。目前，该地区已有数英里长的双墙结构建成。这一区域人口稀少，几乎无人将其作为越境通道，但却是著名的野生动物迁徙走廊。
On Tuesday, another tree sitter climbed the last remaining cottonwood standing in the path of the border wall construction, this one on the Mexico side. The tree was briefly occupied by demonstrators in mid-August and, according to a press release from the land defenders, “is once again halting construction.”The protesters’ aim to stop the construction of two parallel, 30-foot-high border walls ripping through the remote San Rafael Valley. Miles of the double wall structure have already been built in the area. The region is sparsely populated and hardly ever used as a border-crossing site by humans but is renowned as a unique wildlife migration corridor.
周一被砍倒的那棵杨木树，是边境线美国一侧最后仅存的4棵古老大树之一，它们原本都位于计划修建的边境墙路线上。
The cottonwood felled on Monday was the last of four ancient grandmother trees on the Arizona side of the border, which stood in the path of planned wall construction.
直到本周，联邦执法力量一直对抗议者营地及树上抗议活动采取相对放任的态度。活动人士称，这主要是因为营地位于私人土地上。这一情况在周一也并未改变。
Until this week, federal forces had left the encampment and tree sit in relative peace, largely, activists said, because the camp is located on private land. That fact had not changed on Monday.
“从昨天早上起，边境巡逻队就开始进入私人领地，但他们并未出示搜查令，”雷切尔在周二接受记者电话采访时说道。出于担心遭到执法部门针对的顾虑，她没有透露自己的姓氏。“他们没有任何法律依据可以进入私人领地。目前看来，他们正急于推进施工进程，至于法律后果则留待日后处理。他们一心只想把边境墙修起来，全然不顾此举会对我们以及这片土地造成何种伤害。”
“Border Patrol has been coming onto private property since yesterday morning. No warrants are shown,” Rachel, a land defender who withheld her last night out of concern for being targeted by law enforcement, said on a call with reporters on Tuesday. “There’s no legal ground for them to come onto private property. And the feeling is that they’re pushing through the construction process as quickly as possible, and they’ll deal with the consequences of the law later. They just want to push the wall through, regardless of the harm they have to cause to us and to the land in the process.”
据雷切尔及其他接受《Intercept》采访的当地活动人士透露，突袭行动发生后，施工队迅速展开作业，挖掘出一条深沟，这对墨西哥一侧那棵刚刚被抗议者占据的杨木树的根系构成了威胁。
According to Rachel and other activists on the ground who spoke to The Intercept, construction workers have moved quickly since the raid, digging a deep trench that threatens the roots of the newly occupied cottonwood on the Mexico side.
周一，德拉奥萨家族成员贝利西亚·林奇发表声明称，欢迎抗议者进入她所拥有的位于边境沿线的私人领地。林奇在声明中对这些土地守护者说道：“我要感谢你们不仅挺身而出保护那棵‘祖母树’，还守护着这片栖息着众多动物与昆虫的土地。”
A statement on Monday from Belicia Lynch, a member of the De La Ossa family who owns one of the tracts of private property along the border, confirmed the protesters were welcome on her property. “I just want to thank you guys for being out there to not only protect the grandmother tree, but the land itself that many animals and bugs inhabit,” Lynch told the land defenders in the statement.
目前，边境巡逻队及美国国土安全部尚未对《Intercept》的提问作出回应。
Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security have not yet responded to questions from The Intercept.
就在联邦政府对洛奇尔营地发起打击之前，德克萨斯州比格本地区的反边境建设活动人士刚刚取得一场法律胜利。上周五，一名美国地方法官颁布禁令，要求在法院审理当地环保及社区团体提起的诉讼期间，暂停比格本地区的所有边境墙建设，包括国家公园及州立公园内的施工项目。法官在裁决书中指出，原告们的多项诉求极有可能获得支持。
The federal attacks on the Lochiel encampment came on the heels of a legal victory for anti-border activists in Big Bend, Texas. On Friday, a U.S. district judge granted an injunction to stop all border wall construction in the Big Bend area, including in national and state parks, while the court hears a lawsuit brought by local environmental and community groups. In the order, the judge wrote that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on at least one of their claims’ merits.
然而，由于特朗普政府为其边境政策提供了近乎无限的资金支持，他们仍能持续投入资金修建这座具有破坏性的边境墙。不过，在索诺拉州洛奇尔、德克萨斯州比格本及其他地区的活动人士们明确指出：绝不能想当然地认为政府就能得逞。采取各种干扰与干预措施不仅切实可行，更是绝对必要的举措，而且可以从多个层面向政府施加压力。
But with practically unlimited funding for his border regime, Trump’s administration can continue fueling money into his violent and destructive border wall. What activists in Lochiel, Sonora, Big Bend, and beyond make clear, however, is that the government’s victory cannot be assumed. Disruptions and interventions are not just possible but also an absolute necessity, and pressure can be applied in an array of directions.
今年8月，一位来自亚利桑那州的墨西哥裔“护树行动”参与者对《Intercept》说道：“边境无处不在——这意味着那些承包商以及有影响力的大人物可能就在你家后院、你所在的城市，甚至就在离你住处一小时车程的地方。” 土地守护者瑞秋则道出了这场斗争的至关重要性。
As one Arizona-based Mexican American tree sit participant told The Intercept in August, “The border is everywhere, which means that there are subcontractors and there are power players maybe in your backyard, maybe in your city, maybe an hour drive from where you’re living.”Rachel, the land defender, made the stakes of the fight clear.
“我们必须在此阻止边境墙的修建，因为按照目前的趋势发展下去，美国将不再是任何人的安全之地，”她周一说道。就在通话进行时，营地里传来消息：联邦特工将试图把坐在墨西哥一侧树上的抗议者带下来。截至发稿时，索诺拉州的这棵“祖母树”仍有人坚守；反对特朗普修建边境墙及其背后种种行径的斗争也远未结束。
“We have to stop this wall here because the trajectory they’re going on, there is no safety in the U.S. for anyone,” she said on Monday. The call was cut short as news spread through the encampment that federal agents would attempt to remove the tree sitter on the Mexico side. At the time of writing, the grandmother tree in Sonora remains occupied; the fight against Trump’s border wall, and all it represents, has not been lost.
周三，营地参与者在社交媒体上发出“号召令”，呼吁大家前来纪念那棵被砍倒的杨树，并继续开展反边境墙斗争。“如果你一直盼着能来到洛奇尔，现在就是时机，”他们写道，“让沉重的心情化作行动的动力吧！”
In a social media post on Wednesday, encampment participants announced a “call to presence” to celebrate the life of the felled cottonwood and continue the anti-border struggle. “If you have been waiting to come to Lochiel, this is the time,” they said. “Let your heavy heart lead you to action!”