McALLEN, TEXAS – The caravan of thousands of Central American immigrants is coming, to be met at the border by the military. Possibly militia groups too – some are loading up their rifles and heading south. As they look ahead, humanitarian groups working with asylum-seekers along the U.S.-Mexico border aren’t sure exactly when and where the caravan will arrive – whether the asylum-seekers will head as a group to one spot or split up and spread out. They don’t know what will happen when the immigrants arrive or what President Donald Trump will do. Already, people in the Rio Grande Valley see the presence of U.S. troops, who are stringing razor wire along the border fence, conducting maneuvers, circling in helicopters overhead. There also are concerns about overwhelming the humanitarian response, with thousands of asylum-seekers approaching and volunteers already exhausted from months of trying to meet the need. Asylum-seekers, many of them families with children, arrive at the … [Read more...]

MCALLEN, TEXAS – What happens when the caravan gets here remains to be seen, but a recent fall day at a bus station near the border demonstrated more the resilience and determination of asylum-seekers and humanitarian volunteers – sort of new best-friends in crisis – than any glimpse of a well-designed federal system. On two days that week, immigration officials dropped off roughly 500 asylum-seekers per day, nearly all of them families with children, at the bus station in McAllen, Texas. There was no advance notice of the big numbers – about 300 more immigrants than is typical showing up and needing food, water, and shelter. So many came that the nearby Humanitarian Respite Center, operated by Catholic Charities under the leadership of Sister Norma Pimentel, ran out of space. That’s where families seeking legal asylum in the United States sleep, eat, and use the bathroom between when they are released from detention and their buses actually leave. It’s a small space operated … [Read more...]

BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS – They swam, they rafted, they waded, they walked through the desert. They got caught. That’s the short, surface version of the stories of these 45 Central American immigrants. Their cases were all heard on the same morning this fall before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald G. Morgan in a federal courtroom in Brownsville, Texas. This is a story of process, not of the histories and hopes and dreams of these people – 38 men and 7 women – or the economic and political forces that drove them north, or the fierce political debate in the United States over what immigration policy is and ought to be. There are spaces for that. This day, in this formal room with the arched ceiling and long wooden benches, it was a time for process: for each of the 45 defendants to stand, shackled, to plead guilty, to take the next step towards deportation and being sent back home. These people are not seeking political asylum – not claiming to immigration authorities that they face … [Read more...]

BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS – The asylum-seekers show up at the Brownsville bus station one after another, just released from detention, moving forward into the unknown. Here are two of their stories, told through a Spanish translator, Belinda Bradford, as they waited at the Good Neighbor Settlement House for their buses to depart that night. The Honduran. He left because of political unrest. “A lot of people don’t have choices for education or for work,” said the tall 24-year old with wavy sideburns. “You’re always told or threatened what to do. It’s put a lot of people at risk.” Bradford said other clients have said similar things. The authorities allow many to attend only primary school, “then they take you out of school and tell you where to work.” This man said he traveled through Mexico in the back of a trailer, with “no water, no food, for three days straight. In the heat. They were packed in like sardines.” At the border, he crossed under the bridge with a group of five … [Read more...]

BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS – They walked single file into the Brownsville Greyhound station before the sun had risen in the sky, dropped off by immigration authorities from the Port Isabel Detention Center. A Somalian was on his way to meet a cousin in Everett, Washington – although it took volunteer Andrea Rudnik close to two hours and phone call after phone call to sort out his bus ticket. A man from Eretria, who’d been held in detention for three months, was now heading to Oakland, California, to meet his brother. He would be riding buses for dozens of hours, with stops in San Antonio, El Paso, Los Angeles and finally Oakland. All are in the United States legally, having initiated the process of applying for asylum, and most are on their way to stay temporarily with friends or family. Down the road, some may be given permission to stay permanently, and others refused that and deported. For the time being, they had just been released from detention, had no money or food, and … [Read more...]