It was once an important site for the Cavalry of Christ, a group of priests who traveled long distances on horseback to minister to Catholics living on isolated ranches along the Rio Grande.

[7][8] The area developed into a village as the Oblate Fathers constructed a rectory, a guest house, a blacksmith shop, a buggy shed, and quarters for the lay brothers and laborers in what is now La Lomita Historic District.

[11] Professor Terry G. Jordan-Bychkov has suggested that La Lomita chapel, along with several other small, parapet-gabled buildings in the region, were designed by the noted French-American priest and architect Pierre Yves Kéralum: "Father Keralum had the expertise, background, and mobility to achieve a substantial implantation of the Atlantic European roof type.

After the procession, Pastor Roy Snipes was nominated for an award by Catholic Extension, a national fundraising organization that supports poor mission dioceses across the country.

[18] According to Mary McCord, a Georgetown University ICAP attorney representing the diocese, "a physical barrier that cuts off access to the chapel, and not only to Father Roy and his parish but those who seek to worship there, is clearly a substantial burden on the exercise of religious freedom.

[20][21] Soon afterwards, however, Trump declared a National Emergency Concerning the Southern Border of the United States, and the White House Counsel claimed that the restrictions contained within the annual appropriations law did not apply, leaving the status of La Lomita and the other sites still in question.

[23] Although the budget deal ultimately protected the chapel from wall construction,[3] in May 2020, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security notified U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar (Democrat of Texas), the vice-chairman of the United States House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, that DHS intended to deploy the Linear Ground Detection System, a "virtual wall" technology, in the Rio Grande Valley, although the department would still need to permission of the chapel to deploy any infrastructure on the property.