“I DON’T BLAME the Border Patrol. I blame our country,” Sister Norma Pimentel told Rep. Jim McGovern on a hot afternoon in McAllen, Texas, last August.
“It’s like a burning building,” explained Pimentel, director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, “and we’re sending them back into it.”
Pimentel was describing the U.S. policy of deporting Central American refugees back to their home countries, while Rep. McGovern (D-Mass.) nodded in agreement. He had just visited the Border Patrol central processing facility, and Pimentel was leading him on a tour of the humanitarian respite center at Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
The difference was striking: At the processing facility, children were detained in what McGovern described as “cages”; at the respite center, Catholic Charities staff and volunteers provided food, showers, clothing, medical exams, and an air-conditioned place for refugees to wait for a bus ride to meet family members living in the U.S.
Because of large influx of refugees last summer, initially those who could verify that they had relatives already living in the U.S. were processed by Border Patrol and released with papers allowing them to travel by bus to reunite with family, where they would await an immigration hearing—and possible deportation. But after being dropped off at the McAllen bus station by the Border Patrol, many waited for hours for their bus to arrive—often with nothing but the clothes on their back and papers in hand.
That’s where Catholic Charities stepped in. In June 2014, they converted the Sacred Heart parish hall—normally used for community events and wedding receptions—into a humanitarian respite center to help with the growing numbers of refugees wandering around the nearby bus station. Sister Leticia Benavides, a therapist with Catholic Charities who helped direct the relief work at Sacred Heart last summer, estimated that 5,000 refugees came through their doors in their first two months of operation alone. At the peak of the refugee influx last July, the respite center was serving 200 refugees each day.
Many refugees were not so lucky. During the 2014 fiscal year, the U.S. deported more than 120,000 Central Americans back to their home countries, according to a year-end report issued by the Department of Homeland Security. Those deported faced the prospect of returning to the very conditions that caused them to flee their home countries in the first place: political instability, gang violence, and abject poverty.
Politicians in Washington and Austin framed the crisis as an “immigration invasion” of “criminal aliens,” but Texas immigration lawyer Susan Nelson pointed to government data suggesting it would have been better described as a humanitarian refugee crisis. Data provided by the U.S. Customs and Border Protections showed that apprehensions of families and unaccompanied minors on the southwest border rose from 14,855 in 2013 to 68,445 in 2014—an increase of more than 350 percent. This data also showed that those apprehended in 2014 were overwhelmingly not from Mexico, but instead from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, where the U.S. “war on drugs” has pushed violent gangs and drug cartels from Colombia and Mexico.
Nelson explained that economically driven immigration patterns typically involve parents traveling to the U.S. and later sending for their kids to rejoin them. In the recent crisis, however, parents have been using their life savings to send their kids alone to the U.S., a pattern that points to desperation, not economic motives. “This is not about immigrants stealing jobs,” said Nelson. She described the terror many Central American children face in their home countries: “Kids are being raped and murdered,” she explained. “They are not safe at home or school.”
WHILE ARGUMENTS about immigration reform kept Congress from taking any steps toward meaningful action, politics didn’t paralyze the work of the respite center. Catholic Charities has no political leaning, explained Benavides; its purpose is solely to meet humanitarian needs of anyone in crisis. But she believed that by putting aside individual political views and keeping a singular focus on helping families in need, the respite center could send a message about the possibilities of collaboration across the political spectrum and provide what she called “a great example of ecumenism at work.”
She was right. As Catholic Charities started coordinating the relief efforts, a number of churches and nonprofit organizations joined in: Nearby Calvary Baptist Church washed towels and blankets, while the local United Methodists responded to any urgent needs that arose, such as last-minute supply runs. The Salvation Army sent crews to make meals especially suited to the dietary needs of the dehydrated refugees, and the international organization Save the Children provided a supervised play area for the refugee children so their parents could rest. The Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley stored donated food, clothing, and toiletries until needed at Sacred Heart.
Even the broader community got involved: The city of McAllen provided temporary shower facilities in the Sacred Heart parking lot and a police presence on the grounds, while the city of Mission loaned 50 cots that filled two air-conditioned tents provided by the Texas Emergency Medical Task Force. In contrast to the divisive rhetoric about immigration on the national stage, Benavides noted that there was no resistance from church members to the relief efforts.
ON THE DAY I visited the respite center, volunteer coordinator Alma Révész briefed volunteers who traveled from as far away as Orlando, Fla., and Steamboat Springs, Colo. Other volunteers included an Episcopal youth group from San Antonio, a Mennonite family from Waco, and a group of Catholic sisters from Corpus Christi.
Révész told the volunteers that Catholic Charities provided refugees with basic necessities as well as a three minute long-distance phone call to their home country and another call to their destination family. She noted that everyone they served had already been processed and temporarily released by the Border Patrol. However, she pointed out that even if someone were to arrive at the center without processing papers, there would be no other Christian option than to provide them with food, clothing, and a shower before sending them on their way. With a smile she referred to Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 25: “When I was hungry, you gave me something to eat.”
And while Révész’s focus was on serving rather than making a political statement, it didn’t take long for word to get out about the work at Sacred Heart. Along with Rep. McGovern, a range of people from conservatives Glenn Beck and Ted Cruz to actress and activist America Ferrera have visited Sacred Heart, including major media outlets such as Time, NPR, and USA Today.
“Hopefully they feel like there’s some compassion for them and that there are people who feel for the journey that they’ve been on and for the struggle they’re fighting to preserve their lives and the lives and future of their own children,” Fererra said of the refugees she met at the respite center. “And I would want to say more so to all the mothers and fathers and parents who are safely in this country to really think about what it would be like to be in their shoes.”
Salvation Army volunteer Michelle Baldwin described the refugee crisis as a historic moment for the U.S. “Not since the Irish potato famine have we had refugees like this,” Baldwin said. “This is history.” Baldwin, her adult son Larry, and fellow Salvation Army volunteer Dee Dee Martin drove through the night from their homes near the Texas-Oklahoma border to volunteer in the Sacred Heart kitchen. In her 12 years as director of the Food Bank in Cooke County, Texas, Baldwin said, nothing prepared her for what she found at Sacred Heart: “The children have endured unimaginable hardship. The look in a pregnant woman’s eyes is pure terror. These people are desperate for hope. Here they get a shower, a meal, a doctor, hope.”
Hope is precisely what Catholic Charities provided for Digna Rodriguez and her young family. Rodriguez made the treacherous journey from Honduras with her two daughters, ages 2 and 5. After the Border Patrol found her in labor, they called Catholic Charities, who rushed her to the hospital where she gave birth to a son.
During his tour, Rep. McGovern asked Pimentel if he could speak with Rodriguez. Through a translator, she told him that her 5-day-old son was named Esteban, that she and her family were taking a bus that very afternoon to reunite with cousins in Kentucky, and that her husband was still living in Honduras. As they talked, her son slept quietly under the close supervision of Save the Children volunteers, while her daughters ate soup and fruit served by the Salvation Army volunteers. Her 5-year-old daughter smiled politely and offered hugs to volunteers.
THE MEDIA’S SPOTLIGHT turned to the refugee crisis last summer, but significant numbers of unaccompanied minor children have migrated to the U.S. at least since 2008. The numbers have fluctuated, and media attention has waned since last year, but the humanitarian emergency at the U.S. border is far from over: 2015 is projected to see the second-highest number of Border Patrol apprehensions of children and families (after the previous year’s all-time record).
And politically, little has changed: Though President Obama announced a plan for executive action on immigration in November that would have deferred the threat of sudden deportation for many immigrant families, some conservatives in Congress have hailed the president’s approach as “illegal and unconstitutional amnesty.” In February, a federal judge in Texas issued an injunction against Obama’s actions one day before they would have gone into effect. Though the administration promptly appealed the judge’s ruling, real change in U.S. border policy seems likely to remain elusive for some time.
Meanwhile, Sacred Heart remains committed to its mission. “We seek out the hurt and abused, the isolated and alienated, and victims of alcohol and drug addictions,” says its website. “We commit ourselves to enhancing the dignity of life by working for peace and justice.” The respite center is still serving refugees at the Texas-Mexico border and plans to continue for the foreseeable future—an outpost for a Christian alternative in a nation immobilized by political bickering.
“Being Christian, we have only one response,” said Baldwin. “We treat these people with the humane compassion that every human deserves.” Jesus once contrasted his disciples with political leaders who claim to be “benefactors.” In south Texas, that contrast could not be starker.
Got something to say about what you're reading? We value your feedback!