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.
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Trust
How does a person learn to trust again after their lives have been shattered? The volunteers at the El Paso Asylum Seeker shelters often hear that they are the only friendly faces that the families have seen in months. A bus from Customs and Border Protection with 30 processed and released asylum seekers arrived while we were at one shelter. We saw the exhaustion and apprehension on the faces of the adults and the clinging fear of their young children. Many had visible deep cuts on their faces, arms and hands from the razor wire barriers at the US border. We could only imagine their traumatic psychological wounds. Each family arrived with only the clothes on their backs, which they had worn for weeks. A clean change of clothes, underwear, shoes, basic medical care, a shower and a hot meal at the shelter gradually revived the spirits of the new arrivals. Slowly the migrants’ stories were shared as these asylum seekers began to trust the compassionate, caring shelter volunteers. A woman from El Salvador was the assistant to her city’s mayor and had uncovered evidence of his embezzlement of city funds. After she reported it to the police, the death threats to her family began. Her husband was murdered, forcing the woman and her daughter to flee for their lives. Another family, from Ecuador, had a prosperous business in their hometown. The cartel began demanding “protection payments”, with a higher price every week. When the family could no longer afford to pay the exorbitant amount, their business was burned down and their lives threatened. The parents fled with their son and daughter, trusting that they would find safety and a new beginning in the US. Talents The asylum seeking parents come with many professional talents, years of experience, and a strong work ethic. Eager to work and support their families, asylum seekers are ready to fill our country’s many labor needs. Work permits, though, can be difficult to get. It is a complicated application. The cost is $410 per person. If the migrant waits up to 7 months in Juarez for one of the scarce appointments with Customs and Border Protection using the CBP-1 phone app, the processing time for a US work permit is still 5 weeks. In the meantime, there is no legal means for them to work and support themselves. If a migrant is fearful of crime ridden Juarez, where the majority of migrants are robbed, kidnapped and/or raped, they often decide to cross the Rio Grande to seek asylum and turn themselves in the US Customs and Border Patrol. The wait for a work permit for these migrants is 9 months after all of their legal paperwork for asylum is completed. Some of the El Paso shelter managers have created a collaboration to ease the work permit process, with the help of a government agency. Currently, this group is assisting 100 legal asylum seekers per week to apply for work permits, often with a waived fee. Their goal is to be able to assist 1,000 talented asylum seekers per week who desire to fill an open job in our country. Truth Unfortunately, there will be no reform to our US immigration policies before the presidential election. Yet there are many lies spread about migrants. “Dangerous, murderers, rapists” are the immigrant descriptions used by politicians and media that seek to spread fear. One of the most important things that we can all do is to be Truth Tellers. Spead the truth wherever you can. The asylum seeking families that we meet each month are mostly young mothers and fathers with babies, toddlers and children. They are fleeing death threats, violence, famine and dictatorships. These asylum seeking families want the same things that we do for our families, safety, education, dignity and a family supporting job. There have been several multi-year studies that document that immigrants are more law abiding and have a 60% less rate of incarceration than US born citizens do. Please read the study at The mythical tie between immigration and crime | Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) Borders are not open. In fact, the border is more reenforced than ever before. Read how the US is partnering with other nations to decrease illegal/irregular immigration. American Leadership Is Winning on Migration | Opinion - Newsweek Thankfulness We are grateful to our donors that make a change of clothing, new underwear, shoes, toiletries and more possible. The Biden administration policies have decreased the number of Asylum Seekers in the El Paso border shelters by 40%. Instead of serving 540 immigrant per week in the 3 shelters that we serve, they now help 300 per week. That means that the Asylum Seeking families can discard their dirty, torn garments that they have worn for weeks and receive 2 changes of clothing; one to wear and one to wash. This makes a profound difference in their dignity and self -confidence. Thank you for bringing so many smiles, and tears of gratitude that we are honored to see! Our next trip to the Annunciation House network shelters in El Paso is September 4th. We are pausing during the August Texas heat to allow our volunteers to rest and renew our efforts. Please get any items to us or St. Michael and All Angels by Sunday, September 1st. 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.
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How to Help |
Donations help us buy in bulk to get the best price.
Thank you for standing with asylum seeking families as they seek safety and work to support their family. We say to the volunteers and guests at each shelter, “These are items donated by people who live 300 miles away. They welcome you & want you to know that they care about you and your family!” If you believe that our work is important, please tell a friend. |
Las Familias Solidarity Team |
With our gratitude,
Liz & Mike Hanna, Sharon Palma, Denise Ulibarri Clauss, Linda McCreary and the many volunteers on the Las Familias Solidarity Team All photos courtesy of Liz Hanna |
