U.S. border wall construction crews have been detonating explosives on Cuchumá Hill since early April, damaging a site sacred to the Kumeyaay Indigenous people and prompting Baja California state officials to schedule a diplomatic meeting with the U.S. consul in Tijuana this Friday. The hill, also known as Tecate Peak, straddles the border just west of the city of Tecate. A 35-meter carved monolith considered sacred by the Kumeyaay was reportedly damaged by one of the blasts.
Tecate residents say they received no prior warning. “They’re destroying it,” Indigenous rights advocate Norma Meza Calles told the news agency EFE. “For you, it’s just a mountain; for us, it’s our church.”
Cuchumá Hill Holds Dual Heritage Status in Mexico and the U.S.
Cuchumá Hill is not an ordinary stretch of borderland. Mexico classifies it as intangible cultural heritage, a designation that recognizes the ongoing spiritual practices the Kumeyaay have carried out there for centuries. On the U.S. side, Tecate Peak has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1992. That dual recognition makes the site unusual along the 1,954-mile border.
The Kumeyaay are one of the oldest Indigenous groups in the Californias. Their ancestral territory spans from coastal San Diego County south into the mountains and deserts of northern Baja California. Communities exist on both sides of the border, connected by shared language, kinship, and ceremony. Cuchumá Hill has long served as a gathering place for rituals and the transmission of knowledge from elders to younger generations.
Isaul Adams Cuero, a Kumeyaay man, told El Universal that the hill was historically where “wise” members of the group passed life lessons to students. Claudia Cota, a Kumeyaay woman and councilor with the Tecate municipal government, told KSDY Channel 50 that the detonations “have altered the natural environment of the hill.” She pointed to damage to small animals, native flora, and subterranean water that feeds local aquifers.
Trump Administration Waived Over Two Dozen Protective Laws
The blasting is legally possible because the Trump administration invoked national security waivers to override environmental, archaeological, and water protection laws in the border zone. The same approach was used at Mount Cristo Rey near El Paso, where former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem waived more than two dozen laws last June to speed construction.
These waivers are authorized under the REAL ID Act of 2005, which grants the Secretary of Homeland Security broad power to set aside legal requirements that would delay border barrier construction. Once invoked, there is essentially no domestic legal mechanism on the U.S. side to challenge the waivers in court. Federal judges have consistently upheld the waiver authority as constitutional.
That legal reality leaves Mexico with limited tools. Tecate Mayor Román Cota Muñoz told EFE he has chosen not to “interfere” because the construction is taking place on U.S. soil. But he acknowledged that “the hill’s location means any modification on one side has visible effects on the entire environment.”
Baja California Officials Are Pushing for Friday’s Meeting
Baja California’s state government arranged the Friday meeting with the U.S. consul in Tijuana. Kumeyaay representatives from both sides of the border and Mexico’s consul in San Diego are expected to attend. Alma Delia Abrego Ceballos, Baja California’s culture minister, said Cuchumá Hill represents “resistance and spirituality” for the Kumeyaay people.
At the federal level, Gilberto Herrera Solórzano, a congressional deputy representing Tijuana, has called on Mexico’s Culture Ministry to investigate and publicly disclose the extent of the damage. He also urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) to push for a suspension of blasting. President Claudia Sheinbaum said last week that both ministries were already reviewing the situation.
Mexico’s legal leverage is limited but not nonexistent. The Foreign Relations Ministry could file a formal diplomatic protest or raise the issue through the International Boundary and Water Commission, the binational body that manages border infrastructure disputes. Mexico could also bring the matter before international cultural heritage bodies, though such efforts carry moral weight more than enforcement power.
Cuchumá Hill Is Visible Daily From Central Tecate
The hill dominates the landscape west of downtown Tecate. Residents describe it as the “faithful guardian” of the city. For anyone who has driven the Tecate crossing or spent time in the town’s central plaza, the rocky peak is a familiar and defining landmark.
The blasting follows a pattern established at Mount Cristo Rey, where the El Paso Sector of U.S. Border Patrol posted video of controlled detonations on March 16. In public comments to U.S. Customs and Border Protection about that project, more than 80 people expressed concern about environmental damage. CBP responded that a biological survey found “no federally listed threatened or endangered species” and determined there was “minimal impact to vegetation and behavioral patterns of wildlife.”
Friday’s meeting in Tijuana will be the first formal diplomatic engagement on the Cuchumá Hill blasting. Whether it produces a pause in construction or only a protest on the record remains to be seen. Reporting from La Jornada, EFE, El Universal, and El País contributed to this article.