The Immigration Ministry of St. Michael and All Angels
works across the entire community.
St Michael's shares resources and volunteers between the Landing, Casa San Miguel, and Las Familias to feed, clothe and provide services to our immigrant neighbors. Our many partners include RoadRunner Food Bank, Adelante, Desert Harvest, ABQ FaithWorks, VIDA (Correspondence with migrants in detention), ABQ Community Safety Department, Catholic Charities, Las Cumbres, Annunciation House, El Paso and local school Douglas MacArthur Elementary School. Over 50 SMAA volunteers serve these vital Ministries.
A Light in the Darkness
Our January 10, 2024 Journey to the Border Shelters Courage
We are humbled by the courage of the asylum seeking families we saw this month in the El Paso shelters from Guatemala, Venezuela, Columbia, Peru, and Chile. A Guatemalan woman, Pilar, on her way to a sponsor in New York, was fleeing for her life. She had evidence that her village police force was raping a local 12 year old girl. Pilar bravely hid the girl and got her safely to distant relatives. When the village police found out, they planned Pilar’s murder. She was able to escape and make the dangerous journey to our border. Letizia, from a dangerous region in southern Mexico where her husband had been killed by the cartel, saved and borrowed enough money for herself and daughter to take a bus to the border in Juarez. When she was robbed at gunpoint of all her money in Chiappas, her only option was to illegally ride on the top of a fast-moving train that migrants call “La Bestia” aka “the train of death”. Letizia tearfully told the shelter volunteers how she had laid on top of her daughter throughout the long journey, fearful that her daughter may fall to injury or death on the high-speed railroad tracks. Complications “It’s a manufactured political crisis” Michael, the manager of the largest shelter that we serve told us. We trust his insights after his 30-year career as a Customs and Border Protection officer, much of it in Washington D.C. “In 1986, when I was walking the border, we had 5,000 officers, with no technology, and 2 million immigrants crossing our southern border.” None of us had ever heard of a border crisis then. “Now, there are 20,000 CBP officers, with camera, drone and heat sensing detection, and 2.4 million immigrant crossings in 2023. We don’t need more border protection. “ The dedicated volunteers that staff the El Paso shelters see exactly what needs to be fixed in the US Immigration system. Yet politicians are not listening to them. The CBP-1 app is required for any immigrant to enter the US “legally” at a designated location. A smart phone, high speed internet, fluency in only English Spanish or Creole, and months of patience is required. If an immigrant is somehow able to pass this difficult criterion, the average wait time, spent in Juarez, a hotbed for rape, robbery, kidnapping and murder, is 3 months. “We need more money and personnel dedicated to immigrant services, not protection.” Michael emphasized. Compassion Our compassion allows us to understand why an asylum seeking family, often with a baby and young children, desire to get their loved ones to the safety of the US as soon as possible. One shelter observed that 75% of their 200 shelter guests had not been successful in getting a CBP-1 appointment. The immigrants had chosen to cross into the United States between official checkpoints and surrender themselves to a Customs and Border Protection officer, asking for asylum. An immigrant can only ask for asylum on US soil; this is legal under US and International law. 99% of the guests in the shelters that we visited had US government permission and paperwork to be in our country and travel to a city to await their immigration court date. Yet the sensationalizing of our border crisis for elections calls these law abiding immigrants “Illegals.” Immigration Services are needed in the frontline shelters to help immigrants become citizens with work permits to solve the labor shortage in our country’s service industries. Currently, there are only 6 Immigration Services centers in our whole country! More targeted personnel and money are needed to help these hard working immigrants with family and community values, become productive US citizens. We are grateful for each of you, our donors, who provided $81,600 worth of critically needed supplies to the El Paso Asylum Seeker shelters that we served in 2023. In December alone, you helped us to provide 425 warm jackets/hoodies, 640 new briefs & bras, 750 pairs of new socks, 350 hats/gloves, 95 bottles of OTC medications for cold/flu, and much more. What a compassionate difference you made to so many asylum seeking adults and children! |
How to Help |
Compassionate Action Needed
Right now, the Biden administration is being pressured to make new, harmful restrictions to the US asylum policy. These are extreme, anti-immigrant, anti-family provisions that violate international law and have little to do with border management. Find out more and contact your government representatives at TAKE ACTION: Urge the Biden Administration and Congress to Reject Extreme, Anti-Asylum Provisions Amid Ongoing Funding Negotiations | CWS (cwsglobal.org) Our Las Familias Team will be utilizing this February to gather our teams of volunteers to plan our 4th year of supporting the Asylum Seekers and the shelters that we serve in El Paso. Our next journey to the asylum seeker shelters will be Wednesday, March 6th. We appreciate your donations, which allow us to buy in bulk at a significant savings for the supplies needed. Please get any items to us or St. Michael and All Angels church by Sunday, March 3rd. Please understand that due to a lack of space in our SUV’s and the shelters these are the only items that we can accept:
Quicker and Easier Ways to Help Donations help us buy in bulk to get the best price.
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Las Familias Solidarity Team |
Thank you for your courageous and compassionate action in our divided culture. You make a bigger difference than you can possibly know by showing your care for these asylum seeking families that have already suffered so much. If you believe that our work is important, please tell a friend.
With our gratitude, Liz & Mike Hanna, Sharon Palma, Denise Ulibarri Clauss, Linda McCreary and the many volunteers on the Las Familias Solidarity Team Contact: liz_hanna@hotmail.com, vdulibarri@gmail.com, asharonp@gmail.com All photos courtesy of Liz Hanna |