Raymond Mattia was a Tohono O’odham Native American living on Native American land when he called US Border Patrol in the Tucson, Arizona sector to pick up a group of migrants on his property. The Border Patrol has a long and violent history against Native people. Before entering Mattia’s property, agents decided he was a dangerous and armed individual based off of rumors. Agents emptied their guns into the Mattia’s body killing him shortly thereafter, then created a perimeter around the body in fear of the other Natives. This fear, this idea that Native Americans are violent is taught to agents in training and by the vice-president of the Border Patrol union Art del Cueto who told the right-wing outlet The Daily Caller in 2021 that Tohono O’odham are drug and migrant smugglers.
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