Mission on a Hill
MISSION, Texas — Dozens of people packed into the one-room chapel Friday to pray that the 19th century mission known as La Lomita, perched on a hill above the Rio Grande, won’t be sealed off behind a border fence.
Worshipers bowed their heads during the Catholic novena prayer vigil, the latest of nine Masses that the Rev. Roy Snipes has held to oppose to the fence.
The mayor of the town of Mission, his wife and the city manager stood with them among the rustic pews, and several police officers watched with the overflow crowd outside.
A Border Patrol agent sat in a marked SUV on a nearby levee, where the fence would be built, and watched.
“Never did we contemplate a wall” rising nearby, Snipes said.
Snipes, known as “the cowboy priest” for his Stetson and pack of adopted stray dogs, prayed in a mix of English and Spanish.
“Between reflection and hysteria and whatever else, Lord, we pray to be true to ourselves,” Snipes, 73, told about 50 people in the chapel before blessing them with the holy water he draws from the river.
The modest sandstone chapel is caught between the coming fence — 18 feet high, made of steel bollards — and the Rio Grande, the dividing line between the U.S. and Mexico.
Landowners said they saw crews arrive to clear brush this week several miles west of La Lomita for the fence. The $1.4 billion, 37-mile stretch of border barrier was funded by Congress last year. It is expected to rise atop the levee just north of the chapel, with a 150-foot “enforcement zone” to the south that would swallow the whitewashed outpost.
Snipes, who was ordained in the chapel in 1980, has been against the fence since October, when the Border Patrol filed a federal lawsuit to condemn land around the chapel and begin surveying.
He worries about the future of the mission, where he says priests once lived in a bunkhouse with stables and a blacksmith. He worries that it would block access and scare away the faithful, most of whom are Latino.
Building a fence in the Rio Grande Valley is geographically tricky. The Rio Grande winds north and south, east and west, through what’s essentially a delta, around homes, farms, cemeteries, churches and other landmarks. That’s why much of the new fence will be built atop a levee, in some cases miles north of the river.
In the past, when the Border Patrol built fences in the valley north of homes and businesses, it installed locked gates and shared the combinations with property owners. Some complained the gates were left closed and restricted access to public sites, like parks. Others said they had a chilling effect, scaring people away who mistakenly believed land south of the fence was in Mexico.
In recent months, property owners along the planned path of the fence have been receiving letters from federal officials, but little information about construction plans. First, the letters asked for permission to survey. In some cases, they notified residents that the government was suing them in federal court to access the land.
More recently, they offered to buy some plots outright for about $32,000. During the last major federal effort to survey and build in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, property owners who hired attorneys sold their land for millions. This time, many owners have already consented to have their land surveyed. Some are considering whether to sell or hire lawyers to negotiate.
Selling was not an option at La Lomita. The local bishop and diocese have fought the fence and the government efforts to survey.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Randy Crane in nearby McAllen ruled that government surveyors could access the church property on terms set by the local diocese. Crane said he has visited the chapel and that surveying wouldn’t constitute a “substantial burden” on religious freedom.
Until the issue is resolved, Snipes plans to continue holding Friday morning Masses at La Lomita. “Saddle up,” he said, “And come on down.”
