The journey continues...

We began our day at the Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services office with Ana Hey, an Immigration Lawyer. Last year 22,000 were detained by Immigration & Customs (I.C.E.) Enforcement but her office could only serve 160 cases with only 3 attorneys, less than 1% of those detained. This year with the "Child Separation"" Policy of the U.S. government, they have received a grant so they could hire up to 12 more attorneys to serve all the families  seeking asylum due to the violence and extreme poverty they are experiencing in their home countries, like Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. 

What many people don't understand is that Asylum is a legal way to enter the U.S. and all one needs to do is to present themselves to a Border Patrol Agent at the border to be granted entry and then go through the Immigration Courts to determine the merit of their case. What happens instead is that persons, who have done nothing more than flee for their lives with their children, are treated as criminals and are placed in detention centers and given less than someone found guilty of a crime. Many of the detention centers are for profit and there is a strong prison lobby to keep these centers open to profit this "industry" of human imprisonment and therefore little incentive to make this situation different.

Some ask why don't these people who are displaced from their homes in Central America just go to Mexico. The truth is that Mexico has not been recognized by the International community as a safe country to claim Asylum. We need to remember that people would rather be in their own country, their own culture on their own land. 

Ana Hey & Nazareth students

From here we  met with two Border Patrol officers, what a juxtaposition of messages!

Both officers are clear about their duty and oath to protect the U.S. border. Yet they were able to tell us that they are finding over their 15-16 year career the changes they have seen in who they are finding attempting o cross our southern border. When they began their careers, those crossing illegally were mostly single men seeking employment in the U.S. and now they are family units seeking Asylum from Central America. We asked what do you feel you need to do your job well? And they responded with, "Yes we need a barrier and we need more technology and more Border Patrol Agents." And then they added, and we need to fix our "Immigration Policy."  Something we can all agree on!

Cristo Rey Clinic

We then returned to Juarez to visit with Dr. San Juan Mendoza and the Cristo Rey Clinic, where she has lived and worked in solidarity with the people in this Colonia of Juarez for the last 20 years. She practices "Social Medicine" meaning she treats the whole person, including offering health education. She relies on "Divine Providence" and generous donors to keep her clinic operating.

                                                              Danica an aspiring physician and Dr. Mendoza

From here we went to Casa Tabor where we met Sr. Betty Campbell RSM & Peter Hindes, O.Carm. They have both spent their lives living with and accompanying people throughout Latin America. They started CRISPAZ, an organization they served people in El Salvador. I first connected with CRISPAZ in 1986 when I visited two dear friends, Sonata Bohen & George Plage, who  served with CRISPAZ in the refugee camps in LaLibertad, El Salvador during the Civil War. I again went to El Salvador in 2006 with our Sister, Mary Jane Mitchell SSJ, who served with CRISPAZ following the earthquake in El Salvador. It was with deep gratitude that I was able to meet these faithful servants, who continue to accompany the people in this Colonia of Juarez. Much of their work today is to bring attention to the vilence happening there, especially to women. 

Here is Betty's handwritten account of all the deaths since 1993 that she gives to every group that visits Tabor House.

Betty has created a kind of "Memorial" for all the journalists, women and men murdered in their area and invites guests to write a name on the memorial  and to take a name to pray for.

                                                                       Martyrs Memorial Wall

Jamie Fazio  writing a name on the memorial.

For our supper this night, our meal was made by a refugee named Elizabeth. Nine years earlier her 14 yo son went to the police to report a murder he had seen committed in his small town in Mexico. As a result of this report, a truck full of 10-12 men went to his house and shot everyone. Killing her brother, sister-in law, and cousin and leaving her for dead with 5 bullet wounds.

She spent 4 months recovering in Juarez hospitals & El Paso. Fortunately her son, daughter and husband survived and are seeking permanent residence in the U.S. which has not been easy, despite her near death experience and the death of so many loved ones.

To be continued....

Columban Center Border Awareness Experience

I am grateful to be back in El PAso, on a different kind of mission. Our little group of 13 from Nazareth College arrived in El PAso late Saturday night to be greeted by Fr. Bob Mosher, from the Columban Mission Center. He will host  us for the week both in. El Paso & Juarez. 

Through the Columban Mission Center in El Paso, Texas, we will meet with organizations and institutions related to U.S./Mexico border issues — poverty, migration and human rights.

Our first stop on Sunday morning was Parroquia Corpus Christi in Anapra. Mexico. It was great to see Fr. Bill Martin whom I had met when I was in El PAso last time.

After Mass we met in the community center of the parish with a number of youth and volunteers from the parish to hear their stories about working in the factories in Juarez as a result of NAFTA. One of the outcomes of that treaty was for U.S. companies to set up border factories and hire people who were poor and pay them poor wages to benefit the company with no benefits and hard work and no ability to negotiate better working conditions and wages.One man told us he has worked 20 years in the factory and makes the same amount of money as the day he started but he is afraid to say anything because he could lose his job and not be able to feed his family.

Another challenge is because the pay is so poor many times families encourage their children to leave school and not go on to higher ed in order to work in one of these factories and contribute to the family finances; and the cycle of poverty just continues.

Something to note, the workers in the factories do piece work and the items are assembled in the U.S. so labels can say "Made in America". Whereas they should say, with the help of slave labor in Mexico!

We then went to the Library of the Good Shepherd which was started 20 years by Cristina. She is a woman who with less than a grammar school education herself and realized that the children in Anapra, a very poor suburb in Juarez, were doomed to continue a cycle of poverty without a decent education. The challenges were extreme poverty that kept parents from paying school fees, buy uniforms, buy books, etc. In addition, many children had no birth certificates because parents couldn't pay those costs and therefore the children were unable to even enroll for school.

With the help of the Columban Fathers, the Sisters of Charity I stayed with in December and their many connections, Cristina was able to help finance these needs, offer tutoring and on-going support to the children. She began with 12 children and today over 475 children have been helped through this little sign of hope. Today there are nurses and teachers, etc. giving back to the community because of Cristina. Never underestimate the vision of one and the help of many, especially God!

Please pray for all these wonderful people and their efforts to bring about justice. Please pray for our little group as we begin a new day here on the border.

In peace & gratitude,

Sr. Donna

Sister Phyllis Tierney Joins Volunteer Efforts on the Border

Sister Phyllis Tierney is spending time assisting asylum seekers on the border in El Paso, Texas through the end of January.  Sister Phyllis is volunteering through the AnnunciationHouse program.  

Here are some reflections from her days assisting at the Mesa Inn Shelter 

Day 2

This is my second day. I arrived yesterday afternoon with two women from Rhode Island. They are assigned to a different site so we may not see each other again. 

 Mesa Inn is one of the sites where Annunciation House rents rooms for refugees.  The shelter has been averaging 50 plus people per day.

Anne Meyer-Wilbur is here (SSJ Associate) and is working at Mesa Inn so we are together. She is amazing and keeps going! Last night I helped in the clothing room

Anne's handiwork...i help with the sorting!

Today I was supposed to start at 2 pm but a large group arrived at noon time unexpectedly so we have been working all day. We’ve had difficulty because it takes time to wait until rooms are clean. One family moved 3 times because the shower was broken and there was a flood later. The cold water has been off in the building that I am in and maintenance has been working at it all day.
Volunteers bring in meals. Tonight it was a family that cooks and brings dinner to the shelters on a regular basis. There were about 70 people tonight with guests and volunteers.

Sister Phyllis Tierney and Father Peter discussing room reservations

Volunteers helping to sort and organize food donations

Day 3

We had another group of 40 people today but we were called ahead of time so we could prepare. They came from Guatemala and Honduras and had been in detention for several days prior to arriving. We hear that in some places people have been given little to eat. At supper we sat with a woman and her daughter from Guatemala. Her husband is in Florida. He had paid a coyote to bring her.

Day 4 and 5

Yesterday Anne and I went out for breakfast because we weren’t on until later in the day. We came back to the hotel and Anne went to the laundromat. I was looking for a free hour in my room but I told another volunteer to call if our expected group arrived before lunch. Ten minutes later a group of 60 plus arrived!  Last night we were told that 100 would arrive today. We received 50 but waited most of the afternoon for them to arrive. The day was sunny and the children played outside. We had sidewalk chalk so we had some fun with the kids! Tonight a dad and his small daughter were going to North Carolina. He had spent his time weaving a bracelet out of yarn. He gave it to me before he left. It is the small and unexpected gestures that mean so much!

Some guests wash out their clothes because there are no facilities and dry them on the bushes and by the pool!

Week 2

For several days we have had an average of fifty people a day and our schedules have been pretty similar to the first week.

I took my day off on Thursday and had the opportunity to visit the University of Texas Campus at El Paso. The architecture of all the buildings is Bhutanese and the buildings are very graceful. The campus grounds are lovely with contemplative spaces. Sara, another volunteer and I visited the Centennial Museum on the campus.in the afternoon Sister Isobel, a Daughter of Charity, took Marjorie (another volunteer) and me to Juarez so we could see the city and visit one of the families she helps. 

On  Friday, we had 70 people so we kept hopping!

The Immigrants' Creed

(This creed professes the Christian faith through the experience of an immigrant.)

I believe in Almighty God,
who guided the people in exile and in exodus,
the God of Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon,
the God of foreigners and immigrants.

I believe in Jesus Christ,
a displaced Galilean, who was born away from his people and his home,
who fled his country with his parents when his life was in danger,
and returning to his own country suffered the oppression
of the tyrant Pontius Pilate, the servant of a foreign power,
who then was persecuted, beaten, and finally tortured,
accused and condemned to death unjustly.
But on the third day, this scorned Jesus rose from the dead,
not as a foreigner but to offer us citizenship in heaven.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the eternal immigrant from God’s kingdom among us,
who speaks all languages, lives in all countries,
and reunites all races.

I believe that the church is the secure home
for the foreigner and for all believers who constitute it,
who speak the same language and have the same purpose.

I believe that the communion of the saints begins
when we accept the diversity of the saints.

I believe in the forgiveness of sin, which makes us all equal,
and in reconciliation, which identifies us more
than does race, language, or nationality.

I believe that in the resurrection
God will unite us as one people
in which all are distinct
and all are alike at the same time.

Beyond this world, I believe in life eternal
in which no one will be an immigrant
and all will be citizens of God’s kingdom,
which will never end. Amen.

"The Immigrants’ Creed" is excerpted from The Book of Common Worship: 2018 Edition.
 

Now that I am home, the very word home seems almost strange to say and then to add the word "my" seems even stranger. My home, my community, my room, even my bed is so ordinary and yet such a gift. Then I must go on to ask… Why can I say “my” where millions around our globe can only dream of such things?

The refugees at our southern border in El Paso taught me over and over to say, “Gracias a Dios! Thanks be to God!” This is a phrase that was a part of every conversation, no matter how difficult their experience, Gracias a Dios!

As a first world U.S. citizen this is a phrase I generally would hear by those who live on the borders of our society, whether it be an inmate at Monroe County jail, or a homeless woman at Bethany House, “Thanks be to God!”

As a Catholic Sister I have much to learn from my sisters and brothers on the borders of life who place themselves in the very center of the heart of God, so freely, so naturally and so often. 

Gracias a Dios, for my congregation, the Sisters of St. Joseph, who sent me to El Paso with their love and support.

Gracias a Dios, for the community of Sisters of Charity who so warmly welcomed me into their home . 

Gracias a Dios, for Annunciation House and the countless folks who are so generously giving to our refugee sisters and brothers to offer them a warm welcome and support for the next step on their journey.

Gracias a Dios, for all the refugees who welcomed me into their lives.

Gracias a Dios, for Phyllis Tierney SSJ of Rochester, who left for El Paso today.

Gracias a Dios, for all the love and support God gives every moment of every day!