Catholic Diocese Fights US Effort to Seize Land for Border Wall

A Catholic diocese in New Mexico is in court opposing the Trump administration’s effort to seize church property to construct more fencing along the southern border, accusing US officials of religious freedom violations.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces filed a brief on Friday urging a federal judge to deny the Justice Department’s request to take steps to acquire the land through what’s known as the power of eminent domain. The court action marks the latest escalation of controversy over the site, and comes amid recent tensions between President Donald Trump and members of his administration and Pope Leo XIV. 

The diocese’s attorneys are arguing that they should have an opportunity to fully air legal challenges to the seizure before the US government can move ahead with obtaining the property. The church said it intends to press claims under the US Constitution’s religious exercise protections as well as a separate law, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The land is at the base of Mount Cristo Rey, a religious site that features a 29-foot-tall stone statue of Jesus Christ completed in 1940. The diocese contends that the construction of a barrier wall would interfere with pilgrimages that tens of thousands of people make to the location each year. The US government has proposed paying $183,000 for the tracts of land. 

“The government’s proposed taking will substantially burden the free exercise of religion by the Diocese, its parishioners, and the other faithful who seek to commune with God on Diocesan property,” the diocese’s lawyers wrote.

The government said in its court filings that it needs the property “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.”

Spokespeople for US Customs and Border Protection and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A representative for the diocese and its lawyers at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy & Protection at Georgetown University Law Center also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

According to Customs and Border Protection, the agency is seeking to build 1.32 miles of “border barrier” south of Mount Cristo Rey. Last summer, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem approved a waiver of certain environmental protection rules in order to speed up the project. The diocese previously expressed opposition to the plan.

The Trump administration has found itself at odds with Catholic church leadership in recent weeks. Trump attacked Leo in an online post after the pope shared a message opposing military conflict amid the US-Israeli war against Iran, and accused the pope of supporting Iran’s nuclear ambitions. In later remarks, the pontiff noted the church’s opposition to nuclear weapons and underscored that “the mission of the Church is to proclaim the Gospel, to preach peace.”

The Las Cruces diocese’s legal filings don’t reference the recent high-level back-and-forth.

The case is United States v. 14.259 Acres of Land, 26-cv-1458, US District Court, District of New Mexico.

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