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MISSION — A historic chapel that served as the basis for the city’s name will no longer lie behind a border wall as community leaders and church officials initially feared.
The future of La Lomita Chapel, which sits near the Rio Grande, came into question amid plans of border wall construction under President Donald Trump’s first term. At the time, the federal government planned to seize the chapel’s land to construct a border wall along a levee near the chapel that would have isolated the historic site between the wall and the river.
But under new plans, the wall will be behind the chapel and closer to the river, according to U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democrat from Laredo, who said he’s been trying to protect specific sites along the border from border wall construction.
During a visit Wednesday to a couple of those sites — including La Lomita Chapel and the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge — Cuellar revealed these updated plans from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
“They’re trying to accommodate to an extent,” Cuellar said, though he noted the construction of border wall in close proximity to the river could pose flooding concerns.
Because of fears of how the chapel and other significant sites would have been impacted by the border wall during Trump’s first term, Cuellar, along with the Rio Grande Valley congressional delegation, secured protections in the fiscal 2020 appropriations bill, assuring that funds could not be used to build a border wall there.
The protected areas include the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, the Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, La Lomita Historical Park, the National Butterfly Center, the Vista del Mar Ranch tract of the Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge, and historic cemeteries.
However, through the One Big, Beautiful Bill, Trump’s signature funding bill, the Department of Homeland Security was able to bypass the appropriations process and use funds for constructing a border wall in those areas.
Cuellar has added a legacy rider into the appropriations language for 2027 that would prohibit DHS from using funds for border wall construction in those previously protected areas, but that legislation likely will not be voted on until the end of the year.
That will likely be too late to spare the wall’s construction at the Santa Ana refuge which is expected to begin next week, Cuellar said. Last month, the refuge announced the closure of the levee to bicycle and pedestrian traffic for construction.
“What they’re doing, in my opinion, and I think we all know, is they’re trying to beat the clock on this to say, ‘Before that law comes in, we’re going to go ahead and get it built,’” Cuellar said of DHS’ plans.
The only way to stop it at this point, Cuellar said, would be to find a way to delay construction or convince the agency to pause.
DHS did not respond to questions about border wall construction at Santa Ana or La Lomita.
While Cuellar said DHS’ current plans are to build the wall behind La Lomita, the interactive map of border wall plans posted online by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which is part of DHS, shows the wall would still be built in front of the chapel. However, the interactive map doesn’t update in real time.
Father Roy Snipes, a member of the Oblate priests who has fought for the preservation of the chapel, said he would be happy if the border wall were placed closer to the river.
“You wouldn’t even know the wall was there,” said Snipes, who holds mass at the church every Friday morning.
“If you could come here and pray, and not even see the wall, or know the wall was there, that would be pretty sweet,” he said.
But not all agreed. Stephanie Lopez, executive director of the National Butterfly Center, said the wall would still affect the livelihood of border residents who would lose access to the river.
“Knowing that those buoys are coming in on the river, plus the wall right on there, would be such a shame and so bad for our environment,” Lopez said.
Reporting in the Rio Grande Valley is supported in part by the Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc.
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