EL CALABOZ, Texas (CNN) — Eloisa Tamez says she isn’t scared anymore, just determined. “I am not backing down,” she said.
The U.S. government wants to build a border fence like this one. About 100 landowners are fighting it.
Tamez owns three acres of land along the Texas-Mexico border where the Department of Homeland Security would like to build a border fence. The property is a remnant of a 12,000-acre grant from Spain to her family in 1767, before the United States even existed.
“It is my history. It is my heritage,” Tamez said.
This week, the Justice Department began legal action against landowners and municipalities who have refused to give government surveyors access to their land.
Tamez expects she will be sued sometime soon, but she is not intimidated.
Asked how long she will fight, she said, “As long as I have to.”