{"id":135952,"date":"2026-05-13T17:24:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T17:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/05\/13\/government-moves-to-seize-land-from-new-mexico-state-for-border-wall\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T17:26:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T17:26:35","slug":"government-moves-to-seize-land-from-new-mexico-state-for-border-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/05\/13\/government-moves-to-seize-land-from-new-mexico-state-for-border-wall\/","title":{"rendered":"Government moves to seize land from New Mexico state for border wall"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div data-testid=\"rich-content\">\n<div class=\"transition-all duration-300 overflow-hidden \">\n<p class=\"text-(18px) md:text-(20px) first-of-type:mt-5 mt-(16px) lg:mt-(28px) leading-(28px) md:leading-8 normal \">The New Mexico Catholic Diocese is facing the possible seizure of some of its lands by the U.S. government to facilitate the construction of a border wall between the United States and Mexico. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text-(18px) md:text-(20px) first-of-type:mt-5 mt-(16px) lg:mt-(28px) leading-(28px) md:leading-8 normal \">The Diocese of Las Cruces is named in an eminent domain request in a civil action filed by the federal government in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico on May 7.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-(18px) md:text-(20px) first-of-type:mt-5 mt-(16px) lg:mt-(28px) leading-(28px) md:leading-8 normal \">The filing was made at the request of the Department of Homeland Security. It says he wants the land to &#8220;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 within the State of New Mexico.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-(18px) md:text-(20px) first-of-type:mt-5 mt-(16px) lg:mt-(28px) leading-(28px) md:leading-8 normal \">The land in question is located northwest of El Paso, Texas. Government plans show plans for an extensive border wall for the site.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-(18px) md:text-(20px) first-of-type:mt-5 mt-(16px) lg:mt-(28px) leading-(28px) md:leading-8 normal \">The government said it would compensate the defendants in the case just over $183,000. The Dona Ana County Treasurer was also named in the filing. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text-(18px) md:text-(20px) first-of-type:mt-5 mt-(16px) lg:mt-(28px) leading-(28px) md:leading-8 normal \">The Las Cruces Diocese did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the controversy. But in a court filing on May 8, the diocese said the seizure of the land would impose a \u201cconsiderable burden\u201d on the religious freedom of both the diocese and \u201cother faithful who wish to commune with God on diocesan property.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-(18px) md:text-(20px) first-of-type:mt-5 mt-(16px) lg:mt-(28px) leading-(28px) md:leading-8 normal \">The disputed land parcel runs along the base of Mount Cristo Rey, the diocese said in its filing. Atop that mountain is a 29-foot-tall statue of Jesus Christ, marking a pilgrimage site that the diocese says is &#8220;a site of annual pilgrimage&#8221;, drawing thousands of people to the mountain. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text-(18px) md:text-(20px) first-of-type:mt-5 mt-(16px) lg:mt-(28px) leading-(28px) md:leading-8 normal \">The diocese had previously told the government that the seizure of the land &#8220;would be a significant infringement on religious freedom and rights of worship&#8221; given the religious importance of the site. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text-(18px) md:text-(20px) first-of-type:mt-5 mt-(16px) lg:mt-(28px) leading-(28px) md:leading-8 normal \">The filing asks the court to halt proceedings until the First Amendment dispute is fully decided.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New Mexico Catholic Diocese is facing the possible seizure of some of its lands by the U.S. government to facilitate the construction of a border wall between the United States and Mexico. The Diocese of Las Cruces is named in an eminent domain request in a civil action filed by the federal government in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":135955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[1495,914,3546,3369,3731,6302,2035,5693],"class_list":{"0":"post-135952","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bible-news","8":"tag-border","9":"tag-government","10":"tag-land","11":"tag-mexico","12":"tag-moves","13":"tag-seize","14":"tag-state","15":"tag-wall"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135952"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135956,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135952\/revisions\/135956"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}