Catholic Charities sends volunteers to border

By William T. Clew
The Catholic Free Press

Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Laredo, Texas, needed help.
In that border city with Mexico, Catholic Charities offers humanitarian relief services for people seeking asylum in the United States.
Waves of people are coming from Central America through Mexico to seek asylum here, according to news accounts. After they apply for asylum and are cleared and released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Catholic Charities of Laredo helps them so they can reach their sponsors.
With a staff of just seven, and with 200 to 300 asylum-seekers a day coming in, the Laredo Catholic Charities said it was overwhelmed. They asked Catholic Charities USA for help. The national organization called for volunteers.    
Four Spanish-speaking women from Catholic Charities Worcester County were among those who answered the call.
They are Maritza Cedeno, an administrator in the Leominster area, and Danishka Valdes, an administrator in the Milford/Whitinsville area, who volunteered in Laredo from May 26 to June 3.  
 Maydee Morales, director of emergency services in Central Massachusetts, and Natasha Rodrigues, a staff worker in Worcester, volunteered from June 3 to June 10.
Most of the asylum-seekers they helped were from Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala, the women explained. They had been detained at the U.S. border, had applied for asylum and had been able to find relatives or friends who agreed to take responsibility for them. They then were released and that is when Catholic Charities, including the volunteers from Worcester, began to help.
Ms. Morales said many of the migrants were young: late-teens to 30s. They had traveled a long distance and were tired and uncertain about what would happen to them. She, Ms. Valdes and Miss Cedeno agreed that when the migrants were greeted in Spanish and given help, the relief was evident on their faces and in their reactions.
Miss Cedeno said none of the asylum-seekers they worked with spoke English.
“Not a drop,” she said.
Ms. Valdes said one woman spoke neither English nor Spanish. She was Romanian and Catholic Charities workers used Google translation to communicate with her.
The volunteers’ 10-to-12-hour working days consisted of “everything,” Miss Cedeno said. They greeted the asylum-seekers, got them to the Catholic Charities shelter where they could clean up and get a shower, helped them make contact with family and sponsors, and distributed such items as diapers, baby wipes and personal hygiene items.
Those last items are the sorts of items the Worcester volunteers give out at their offices in Massachusetts. But there is a big difference in making them available to perhaps 20 people a day  and distributing them to as many as 300 people a day.
Ms. Valdes said those who reach the border but have no contacts or sponsors are sent back. Those who had sponsors were released each day from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 4 to 6 p.m. They were welcomed and taken to the shelter run by the Laredo Catholic Charities.
The sponsors buy bus or airline tickets for the people they agree to sponsor. A confirmation code is used so that the asylum-seekers can pick up their tickets at the airport or bus terminal. Catholic Charities volunteers go with them to help.
 Ms. Valdes said there are border patrol personnel at the bus terminals and airports who check the papers of the asylum-seekers, and sometimes the volunteers, too. The volunteers from Worcester, fluent in both Spanish and English, are Puerto Rican and therefore are United States citizens.
Ms. Morales said she suggests that the asylum-seekers travel by bus rather than by plane. They are more likely to have their papers checked at airports, which can cause delays and potential problems, than at bus terminals, she said.
Ms. Morales said a highlight of the trip for her was holding a 1-month-old baby who was born as her family made the journey to the border.
Ms. Morales said her week working with the asylum seekers in Laredo was “absolutely worth it. It was the greatest experience of my life. We helped make people feel human again.
Miss Cedeno also said it was “an amazing experience.” She was impressed with how compassionate people can be in times of trouble.
Ms. Valdes called her week “the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
Catholic Charities USA paid for their transportation, to and in Texas, and for their accommodations. Catholic Charities Worcester County paid their salaries, according to Timothy J. McMahon, executive director.