TECATE, MEXICO — U.S. federal contractors have been blasting and bulldozing Kuuchamaa Mountain, which straddles the United States and Mexico near Tecate, to make way for new sections of wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Explosions on the mountain have sent rocks hurtling down its Mexico side, drawing condemnation from Kumeyaay Nation leaders who consider the peak sacred.

Much of the increased barrier construction began this year after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security waived cultural and environmental laws. Border barrier construction has expanded along the 1,954-mile boundary even as illegal crossings have declined to record low levels. The Trump administration plans to cover at least 1,400 miles of the border with walls, backed by legislation that devoted over $46 billion to construction.

"This is sacred to us like a church for you all. The mountain is our healer, our psychologist," Kumeyaay Nation tribal leader Norma Meza Calles said at a ceremonial gathering at a Mexican wellness resort, where she burned white sage and gathered guests into a semicircle facing Kuuchamaa Mountain. "Here is where we gather strength to live in this difficult world," she said.

The National Park Service listed Kuuchamaa Mountain, which rises 3,885 feet above sea level, in the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, noting that disturbing its natural state would be sacrilegious. Some tribal leaders have met with DHS officials to urge protection of the mountain and are considering legal action.

"Body and land are the same word in the Kumeyaay language," said Emily Burgueno, chair of the Kumeyaay Diegueño Land Conservancy, a California nonprofit that works to protect Kumeyaay lands. "We feel that in our DNA," she said. "No one ever consented or supported the use of dynamite on the mountain," Burgueno added. "Tribes along the border are all experiencing the same tragic desecration of our cultural and sacred sites," she said.

In Arizona, DHS contractors carved through a 1,000-year-old fish-shaped geoglyph called Las Playas Intaglio in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge last month. A contractor inadvertently disturbed the site west of Ajo on April 23, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement, vowing to protect the remaining portion.

Members of the Inter-Tribal Association of Arizona, representing 21 tribes, traveled to Washington last month to lobby against a 20-foot secondary border wall and a 30-foot bollard wall planned on Tohono O'odham tribal lands. They met with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who expressed his intent to build more border walls as fast as possible.

CBP has awarded contracts or begun construction on over 600 miles of new border wall with companion surveillance technology, and a double wall is planned or under construction along another 370 miles. The agency said in a statement that 535 miles of remote, rugged terrain will rely solely on detection technology, and that it is working to minimize construction's impact by leaving drainage gates open in wildlife corridors. The Trump administration says the barriers are necessary to keep people and drugs from entering the country illegally.

In Sunland Park, New Mexico, crews set off blasts this year on Mount Cristo Rey, a pilgrimage site topped with a limestone crucifix. CBP is seeking to seize a strip of the mount owned by the Roman Catholic Church for wall construction. The Diocese of Las Cruces asked a judge this month to deny the land transfer, calling it an affront to religious liberties.