Family reaches settlement in fight to protect historic cemetery from border wall
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One Valley family said they’re elated after they’ve reached a settlement agreement with a local construction company that was building a border wall near their historic cemetery.
One of the descendants of the cemetery is named after - Eli Jackson – said she and her extended family are relieved because now they can work on preserving their family's significant history.
"I think to me, it is the best thing ever, because I don't have to worry where I am going to put my dad,” Adelina Yarrito said. “I don't have to worry about the rest of my family members who are there."
The family took legal action and spent years of litigation battles to stop border wall construction near her family's sacred cemetery.
The Southwest Valley Construction Company started building the border wall in August 2020 under the Trump administration.
A large portion of the wall was being built just 40 feet away from cemetery property despite a 2020 U.S. appropriations bill that prohibits using federal funds to build fencing within historical cemeteries.
RELATED: In Trump's final days, border wall construction continues near historic Texas church
Samuel Reyes - the attorney representing the Jackson descendants - said the construction work caused damage to the property
“We did start to see that it really was causing cracks in the grave, in the structure,” Reyes said. “We believe that it was shifting the graves and causing damage underneath the ground with the vibrations and everything. We thought then we had enough to get them on negligence construction."
Reyes filed a petition against the company in 2020 alleging negligent construction. A district court judge granted Reye's request for a temporary restraining order.
The TRO eventually expired, and the case went to a federal court.
President Joe Biden in 2021 issued a moratorium, putting a halt to border wall construction.
“We believe also that they were trying to rush because they knew that Biden was going to halt it,” Reyes said. “They wanted to get in as much in as they could, it would cause more damage in rushing those kinds of things. They didn't properly, I think, do a proper investigation of what the effects of that construction was going to cause on the cemetery."
The legal team representing Southwest Valley Construction Company agreed to settle last March - and pay the Jackson family for the damages they caused.
Yaritto said the money she received from the settlement will go toward preserving the cemetery.
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