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The Trump administration is suing a Catholic diocese in New Mexico to seize land for border wall construction, a move that has led to a federal court case over religious freedom at a landmark pilgrimage site.
The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to acquire approximately 14 acres of land in Dona Ana County belonging to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces through what is known as the power of eminent domain.
As reported by Bloomberg, the government intends to use the property to install fencing, security lighting and cameras near the base of Mount Cristo Rey. Federal officials have proposed $183,071 as just compensation for the tracts, according to the legal complaint.
The site is home to a 29-foot-tall limestone statue of Jesus Christ and serves as a major religious destination.
Attorneys for the diocese stated in court filings that the shrine was a destination for tens of thousands of people each year and that the construction of a physical barrier would interfere with these religious activities.
“The mountaintop shrine is the site of annual pilgrimages,” attorneys for the diocese wrote in a response, Axios reported. “On the feast day of Christ the King each fall, as many as 40,000 faithful climb Mount Cristo Rey to ‘marvel at the beauty of the monument and the view offered from the summit’ and to participate in a mass.”
The diocese is fighting the seizure by citing the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
In a brief filed Friday, the church urged a federal judge to deny the request for immediate possession, stating that the government’s plan would substantially burden the free exercise of religion.
“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.
This legal dispute follows recent public tensions between President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV.
Trump recently criticized the pontiff online after he expressed opposition to military conflict involving Iran. Trump accused the pope of supporting Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
The Vatican responded by emphasizing the church’s mission to preach peace, though the diocese did not reference these diplomatic tensions in its specific legal filings.
The Department of Homeland Security previously waived environmental protection rules to expedite the construction of 1.3 miles of barrier in the area. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin initiated the lawsuit against the diocese, following a waiver approved by former Secretary Kristi Noem.
The government stated in court filings that it needed 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.”
Similar resistance from private landowners in West Texas has already led to delays and the removal of wall sections in some national and state parks.
The Trump administration has suggested the landowners have almost no choice to ultimately avoid construction. Letters to private landowners asking for access to private property say that if construction isn’t voluntarily allowed, the land could be taken through eminent domain.
The Independent has contacted the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department for comment.
