Catholic Diocese Challenges Trump Administration's Lawsuit to Seize Border Land On El Paso Religious Site

Hoping to preserve a religious site dating back to the 20th century, the Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces, N.M., signaled in a legal filing it intends to fight the Trump administration's attempts to seize 14 acres of its land outside of El Paso to install more border barriers.

The lawsuit targets land sitting at the bottom of Mount Cristo Rey, a 720-foot-tall mountain home of the iconic 29-foot-tall statue of Jesus at its summit that overlooks Ciudad Juárez, El Paso, and Sunland Park, N.M.

The land would be used to "construct, install, operate, and maintain roads, fencing, vehicle barriers, security lighting, cameras, sensors, and related structures designed to help secure the United States/Mexico border," according to the government's filing.

Last week, lawyers for the Trump administration filed the lawsuit in a federal court in New Mexico against the Diocese of Las Cruces after their resisting of federal efforts to take the land. The lawsuit argues that the land is needed to install barriers and other technology “designed to help secure the United States-Mexico border.”

The Diocese said the barriers would obstruct pilgrimage routes. Every fall, up to 40,000 people make the pilgrimage to the top of the mountain for a mass hosted by the Diocese of Las Cruces and El Paso.

"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 obtained by the National Catholic Reporter.

The administration argues it has the ability to take the land under its power of eminent domain so long as they justly compensate the owners and parties of interest. According to the court documents, the church has been offered $183,000 for the land.

Mount Cristo Rey is currently the only significant stretch of land without a border fence in the El Paso metro area.

The church continues to push back against the lawsuit, hoping to protect its First Amendment right to religious expression.