The procession of more than a thousand people walked from Our Lady of Guadalupe church in Mission to the grounds of La Lomita chapel, the historic riverside mission which gave the border town its name. It was August 2017, early in Donald Trump’s first term, and the marchers carrying signs that read “Salvar La Lomita” and “Save Our River” knew that the new president planned to turn a dirt levee, running about 100 feet north of the modest white house of worship, into a border wall—30 feet tall and consisting of a concrete slab surmounted by steel posts, topped with floodlights and cameras, with a patrol road and a 150-foot-wide “enforcement zone” extending from its base and encompassing the chapel.
The next day, the people brought their protest to the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. News had leaked that Santa Ana, set aside as habitat for the migratory birds that fill South Texas’ skies every autumn and spring and for the endangered ocelots that move silently through a wildlife corridor alongside the Rio Grande, was slated for the first new stretch of wall. The Trump administration would ultimately condemn the property of hundreds of landowners along the planned wall’s path, but those court proceedings would take time. The wildlife refuge was federally owned, so the conversion of the levee that ran between the visitors center and the trails could start right away. Those who cared about the refuge joined hands, forming a line nearly a mile long on the levee and denouncing its planned replacement with a barrier that would devastate the refuge.
These protests and the many that followed repeated the same refrain: “No Border Wall.” Some politicians took notice.
