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May 1, 2019(Appeared in Beacon, May 2, 2019 - By CECILE PAGLIARULO)
LAREDO, Texas
Based less than three miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Laredo has in place a unique department to address the unprecedented need in its area. It’s called humanitarian relief services. This one-of-a-kind ministry, with only a handful of staff and volunteers, exists to serve the hundreds of migrant families and individuals who are crossing the border from Mexico seeking asylum in the United States.
But due to its small staff, Catholic Charities in Laredo is being overwhelmed by the crush of humanity crossing the border into Texas non-stop, day after day, causing a crisis of unprecedented proportions.
The migrants all have the same face – “a look of defeat and fear along with confusion and uncertainty,” said Carlos Roldan, director of Father English Food Pantry in Paterson, who was part of a four-member team from Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Paterson, who spent 10-days early in April assisting Catholic Charities in Laredo as the humanitarian crisis continues to unfold. There, they helped thousands of immigrants, all hailing from the Central American countries of Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala. “They were all dehydrated, dirty, hunger and tired,” said Roldan.
After being released by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, many migrants end up at a Greyhound bus station in Laredo hoping to catch a bus to reach family members who will receive or sponsor them.
Scott Milliken, CEO of Diocesan Catholic Charities said, “Immigration is an extremely tough situation to discuss, political views aside. With the assistance of Catholic Charities USA, in April alone, our staff was able to assist in sheltering, feeding, and coordinating transportation for more than 4,000 individuals and more than 350 families. Some 94 percent of the people who were helped were escaping the drug cartels from Honduras.”
The Paterson team along with other volunteers greeted about 100 of these asylum seekers in a span of three days providing them with food, water, information and a phone to use to call relatives. The phone calls are used to let relatives know they are safe and for family members to purchase bus tickets for them. Many of the migrants said the volunteers from Catholic Charities were the first kind faces they had seen since in a long time.
Issayana Munoz, a paralegal in the immigration services department at Diocesan Catholic Charities, said, “They called relatives from all over the country: California, Maryland, Louisiana, Virginia, New York and New Jersey. They need their relatives to vouch for them and to purchase a bus ticket for them. When they reach their destination, the migrants are required to report to a local ICE field office within 30 days and meet with an immigration judge to hear their asylum case.”
With immigration being such a polarizing issue in the United States, the volunteers described the immigrants they met. They said they didn’t meet anyone who seemed suspicious or to be a criminal. Almost all of the migrants were young families with infants and children escaping life-or-death situations. Extreme violence and poverty have taken a toll on many countries of Central America. Corrupt governments in Central American have led to many experiencing the violent death of a loved one, an attempt at gang recruitment, a rape, harassment by a police officer and death threats. A region known as the Northern Triangle, is believed to be one of the most dangerous places in the world. The volunteers noted that a lot of the migrants were dads bringing their sons, presumably to take their sons away from the gang recruitment and gang violence.
Jean Nicholas, LPN, Department for Persons with Disabilities in Oak Ridge, who was one of the volunteers from the Paterson Diocese, said, “I wanted to help. I wanted to see the situation. We see a lot of the situation here on television but I wanted to know what the real story was. What I learned was all new to me, these weren’t Mexicans but Central Americans hoping to legally seek asylum from their countries.”
Because of daily strife in these countries, desperate people travel thousands of miles on foot through Mexico risking death, rape, human trafficking and other evils to reach the U.S. Most, if not all, are robbed during the perilous trek. Weather conditions are often harsh ‑ either too cold or too hot, never in between. The volunteers form Paterson met children who made the trek with no shoes and babies with no diapers. One of the woman, they met hadn’t eaten in days.
Lourdes Torres, another member of the team, who works at DPD’s Kelleher Apartments in Butler, said, “These people are resilient. There are so many brave stories we heard. One family was telling us how they were kidnapped by the Mexican cartel. The cartel was asking their family member here in the states for $32,000 to release them but they didn’t have that kind of money. The father said he prayed so much that they didn’t hurt his kids. They released them days later.”
“We met one young woman in her early 20s who was one semester away from graduating college with an engineering degree,” Roldan said. “She didn’t want to leave but she saw no other choice. It was either be killed or somehow find hope,” he said.
In addition, to offering food, water and a phone at the Greyhound station, Catholic Charities in Laredo also provided overnight shelter at its new refugee center, called La Frontera, for those who had bus tickets to leave the following day. At h center, the migrants are given hot meals, clean clothes and travel kits with toiletries. They also provided with warm showers and a place to sleep. Providing a much needed respite after a journey that may have taken anywhere from a month to as long as four months. The Paterson team met one migrant group that left on Christmas Day but had just crossed the border while they were there.
While Catholic Charities is a large network throughout all three counties in the Diocese of Paterson, Catholic Charities in Laredo only has one building with nine employees. Because of the lack of manpower, the Paterson team also assisted them in their everyday operations such as setting up the food pantry. They also folded tons of clothing that had been donated.
For those in the Paterson Diocese, who would like to assist Laredo in its mission to help these migrants, volunteers are needed to assist hands-on. They also were in need of baby items and smaller-size adult clothing. Personal hygiene items and basics like underwear were also in short supply.
The Paterson volunteers hope to return to Laredo. The trip was life-changing for all four of them. Roldan will be returning in May using his own vacation time to assist Catholic Charities in Laredo. Even though they work at Catholic Charities, the four volunteers had never heard of such harrowing experiences. Nicholas said, “Just when you’ve thought you’ve seen difficult conditions and poverty, this is at a whole different level of poverty and desperation. It was eye-opening.”
[To help the Humanitarian Relief Services Department at Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Laredo, packages of needed items can be sent to: Catholic Charities, Diocese of Laredo, 1919 Cedar Ave, Laredo, Texas 78040 or visit: www.dioceseoflaredo.org/catholic-charities-diocese-laredo.
