La Lomita chapel, in its present incarnation, dates to 1899; there’s been a chapel here since 1865, although this one replaces that earlier adobe construct, which a flood destroyed after its builder’s death. The chapel today stands open to all, though it’s a Catholic church. www.latimes.com/…
As the legal battle plays out, work on the 25-mile, $1.4 billion fence project — already paid for by Congress — has proceeded. The fence is expected to be built atop the levee just north of the chapel, with a 150-foot “enforcement zone” to the south, which the priest fears will limit access to property owners and law enforcement.
Father Roy measured what he calls the “militarized zone.” He said it would extend on to the church property, across the graves of three of his pets (two donkeys and a llama), “right up to the wall of the chapel.”
This month, four Democratic senators — Charles E. Schumer of New York, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois and Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico — requested Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen disclose how the diocese and other property owners will be affected by the fence.
It’s in danger of being obliterated — or else obstructed and cut off from the rest of Texas, including its parishioners — by the “border wall” the so-called president wants erected. Construction’s supposed to start in weeks, and the government claims religious concerns are immaterial to its eminent domain rights where the chapel and historical surroundings are concerned, even though there’s no money for the wall in the Budget (supposedly, this project, and the one that will destroy a nearby butterfly refuge, has already been allocated). La Lomita is a stone’s throw from the Rio Grande.
Laredo’s Henry Cuellar has a bill to stop the wall from damaging Mission’s landmarks, including La Lomita, Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, the Butterfly Refuge, and similarly sensitive environments
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, announced a proposal that would prevent wall construction at the National Butterfly Center in Mission and in other environmentally sensitive areas, which comes just weeks before shovel-ready work is set to begin.
Specifically, the proposal would prohibit construction in the following locations: Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, La Lomita Historical Park, the National Butterfly Center — all in Mission. Other locations include the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge in Alamo, in the northern or eastern vicinity of the Vista del Mar Ranch tract of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge, and SpaceX, according to a release from the congressman.
Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge, nearby, is left off the proposal because the federal government already owns that land. Congressman Cuellar rightly notes that the wall is a massively expensive 14th-century solution to a 21st-century problem.
An MSNBC report describes the hazards the chapel faces, and includes members’ (and the pastor’s) reactions to the “imminent threat along our southern border” so prominent in the so-called president’s fantasies.
Now, if you didn’t know from the hat and the TAMU warmup jacket that Fr. Roy Snipes isn’t exactly your standard-issue Catholic priest, knowing he says his Masses in a church with no running water, no electricity (or other interior light fixtures) and no rules to keep away furred folk might be a clue.
Meanwhile a few miles from La Lomita, landowners whose homes and livelihoods are at risk from the same claims of eminent domain didn’t find the so-called president’s lightning-fast visit to South Texas persuasive.
Reynaldo Anzaldua, 73, of Donna, said Trump’s presence in the Valley is an insult after the president attempted to sell a crisis on the border during a nationally televised address.
Anzaldua also characterized the president’s visit as disrespectful to Valley residents who are aware that there is not a “crisis” on the border.
“It’s a slap in the face to us, and it should be an embarrassment to him,” Anzaldua said of the president’s visit to the Valley. “It’s pretty obvious that the man dislikes Hispanics. Everything that comes out of his mouth suggests that, and (that) he is trying to rub this (visit) in our faces, and that’s what he’s doing by coming here and talking about the border wall business.”
Anzaldua’s a Vietnam Vet, and he’s seen this kind of campaign to rob homeowners and landowners in the Lower Rio Grande Valley before. A former Customs officer himself, he lost several acres after trying to fight off eminent domain in 2006, when the federal government seized land along the levees at the Rio Grande. Other members of his family have also been similarly robbed of their land.
Activist Scott Nicol has doubts that, without an emergency declaration, the construction can even begin on land the federal government has not yet condemned with court clearances: Much of the land is still private property; the State of Texas is the landowner at Bentsen Rio Grande State Park. Nicol said this makes it difficult for construction to begin next month, unless the administration circumvents the law to do so.
Sylvia Ramirez, of Mercedes, also dismissed the president’s visit as a stunt. “If he is going to come, I wish he would try to have his representatives speak to us directly about our concerns because there haven’t been any public, face-to-face forums for stakeholders in the area regarding the border wall. It seems like the government wants limited input.” She said if she had the opportunity to speak with the president she would convey to him how much it would hurt her family to have a wall cut them off from their family’s burial grounds. “This border wall, if it actually comes to pass, would negatively impact our family’s legacy, including the family’s chapel and two cemeteries that have been a part of our family since the 1800s, cemeteries where some of us still plan to be buried.”
Then there’s the National Butterfly Refuge whose director is Marianna Wright. “Wright explained that while the official border is the Rio Grande River, the wall itself will be built about 2 kilometres inland, bisecting the centre's property and encasing 70 per cent of it in a "no man's land."
"Once this 36-foot-tall wall is in place, all terrestrial life on the other side of the wall will drown in the event of a flood," Wright said. Last year, the The U.S. Department of Homeland Security waived several environmental laws to expedite the building of the wall. According to Wright, funding for the section of the wall that will cut through the National Butterfly Center has already been approved, as part of the 2018 omnibus appropriations act. "This is not an if, this is a done deal.... We are informed by the office of border wall management that the bulldozers will arrive at the end of February, or maybe the 1st of March."
The wildlife along the border includes a large number of endangered and threatened species, but of course that doesn’t matter to the so-called president and his mania for a wall.
Rio Grande-Bentsen State Park is also in the wall’s way.
State Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, filed Tuesday a resolution that would ask Congress to stop planned wall construction slated only weeks from now in Mission, according to a news release. “Bentsen State Park is one of the RGV’s most treasured and visited sites,” Hinojosa said in the release. “Not only is it part of the World Birding Center, which attracts more than 30,000 visitors annually, it is also a gathering place for families and friends of all ages and economic status. Our state parks protect our native wildlife and also help promote a healthy lifestyle for our residents. I will do everything I can to protect this park for our children, grandchildren and future generations.”