(RNS) — The Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces, New Mexico, signaled in a legal filing it intends to fight the Trump administration’s fast-moving attempts to seize its land through eminent domain to extend the southern border wall.
The land targeted by the federal government is at the base of Mount Cristo Rey, a mountain and pilgrimage site topped by a 29-foot-tall limestone statue of Jesus Christ that dates back to 1940. The diocese said the border wall would obstruct pilgrimage routes.
“The erection of a border wall through or along this holy site could irreparably damage its religious and cultural sanctity, obstruct pilgrimage routes, and transfer sacred space into a symbol of division,” the Diocese of Las Cruces said, according to legal documents.
Seizing the land or constructing physical barriers would “constitute a significant infringement on religious freedom and the rights of worship, which are protected under both the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” the diocese wrote in the legal filing Friday (May 8).
The day prior (May 7), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security wrote in its own legal filing that it estimated the value of the 14 acres it plans to seize was $183,071. Eminent domain allows the government to …