This morning I arrived at the respite center just after 8:00am to find yesterday’s arrivals wiping down and putting away the thin blue mattresses they slept on overnight in the respite center’s waiting area. After signing in I headed straight to laundry closet attached to the showers trailer. Sure enough towels needed to switched out of the washer and put in the dryer. I then gathered the dirty towels from the 1st round of morning showers and started a new load in the washer.
Next on the agenda was to wash out shower floors, remove hair from drains, wipe down sinks, throw away dirty clothes, and mop up as much excess water as I could. All week I have found little adherence to putting dirty clothes and towels into their assigned baskets despite having clearly marked signs in Spanish as to where each should go. But then I reminded myself that immigrants arriving at the respite center were most likely illiterate and unable to read in any language.
After tending to the showers, I went to check on the supply of sandwiches only to find two immigrant women and a young immigrant boy already hard at work making sandwiches. Immigrants wanting to help has been a constant occurrence since I arrived on Monday, but today presented an even more special opportunity in this regard.
So the two women and young boy assembled the sandwiches, while I followed behind to package the sandwiches in ziplock bags and store them in the fridge. It wasn’t long that we had exhausted what remained of the bread for the morning, but thankfully the fridge was mostly full by that time.
I next turned my attention to the snack packs and found what remained from yesterday’s supply (see above). I processed to arrange an assembly line of snack pack items. By the time I was ready to begin making the snack packs there were two young boys passing through and asked if they could help. This proved critical because a number of other adult volunteers had been called away on shopping errands for the respite center. So Danny, age 13, andosualou, age 7, dived right in to help to replenish the snack pack shelves until we ran out of space. I pointed to each snack item and said how many of each were to go into a snack pack. They caught on very quickly and soon these two boys were filling packs so fast that I found it was me running behind to refill boxes of the snack pack items. What little Spanish I know allowed me to ask the boys how old they were, when was there birthday, and if they had any brothers or sisters?
After thanking the two boys for their awesome effort, I found it was time to serve soup to the children. So I took my tray of six soup bowls and took them out to the children until all of them had been served. Sister Anne then came and asked if I could reorganize one of the pod storage units behind the respite center. She wanted to make room for several gallons of water and other supplies that the city’s local food bank would deliver later in the day. With a little creativity I managed to make enough space for the food bank’s delivery.
Another delivery came soon after, which had been rather unexpected. A local Methodist church dropped close to 200 deli sandwiches to included in the snack packs. This incredible example of inter-faith cooperation was crucial because we had run of bread by late morning and our sandwich supply had begun to dwindle. But thanks to the Methodists our fridge was busting at the seams with sandwiches.
I finished the day checking on the men’s showers, helping a couple families find new shoes from the donation closet, serving more soup, and handing out snack packs to families leaving for the bus station.
I also learned a little more about how the immigrants make their way to the respite center. Some cross the border on rafts and some on foot. Some have tried their best to elude ICE and the border patrol, while others cross fully expecting to be picked up.
Once they are picked up, a couple of scenarios begin to play out. Many will seek asylum, some will make some other kind of petition for entry, and others will be sent back. Anyone with children are pretty much assured they will be able to plead their case.
However because the determination process is so long, the border patrol cannot hold these immigrants indefinitely. Once it is determined that they will not be sent back right away, the adult immigrants are given a GPS track that is fasten around their ankle. In addition they are given a kind of “electronic router” that is to be plugged in as soon as they arrive at their next destination and they must remain within 12 miles of that router at all times.
From there it is a series of court dates and other legalities that will determine if their stay will be permanent or not. I don’t have the time right now to discuss how this process is not only incredibly flawed, but totally unsustainable.
But the one thing I can say for now is that if one thinks that ICE, the border patrol, detention centers, and lengthy court proceedings act as deterrents to illegal immigration, then consider the respite center’s new reality. A reality where 500 arrivals a day is no longer an anomaly, but the expectation. Yeah you’re math is right, 500 x 365 days a year= 182,500 immigrants arriving at just one small humanitarian respite center in one small border town. If this does not meet the definition of crisis, then I’m not sure what does?
CJE