No easy solution to border crisis

At right, after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico into the United States to seek asylum, a 4-year-old migrant child sleeps on the ground by his mother while they wait to be transported by Border Patrol in La Joya, Texas, April 8.
CNS photos | Go Nakamura, Reuters

By Bill Doyle | CFP Correspondent

Father Stephen E. Lundrigan, pastor at Annunciation Parish in Gardner, knows firsthand about the U.S.-Mexican border crisis because two years ago he volunteered at a diocesan processing center for migrants at the border in Brownsville, Texas.
Some Americans believe the U.S. should close the border and some think migrants should be allowed to enter the country to enjoy a better life.
“Either way there’s a problem,” Father Lundrigan said. “Do you want them in or not? It’s not that simple. Either answer does not provide a solution.”
Father Lundrigan saw that the U.S. lacked the infrastructure, not to mention the jobs, to handle thousands and thousands of poor immigrants crossing the border. To put it in perspective, he said to imagine 18,000 people arriving at the Worcester Common seeking food, shelter and jobs.
“The infrastructure to take these people and assimilate them has not been developed,” he said. “I think the government is more worried about engaging in battles between political parties rather than figuring out this serious problem.”
Father Lundrigan would like to see cooperation between government, private industry and local communities instead of the government establishing regulations that don’t always apply. And, of course, the pandemic has made the border crisis even more challenging over the past year.
Many migrants travel hundreds and thousands of miles, often by foot, to try to escape the poverty, drug cartels, gangs in their Central American countries to seek a fresh start in America.
“They have come from terrible situations,” Father Lundrigan said. “The crux of the thing is their choice in between the horrific situation where they came from or homelessness in the U.S. They don’t have a good choice.”
Father Lundrigan was among four priests from the Worcester Diocese who visited Brownsville, Texas, Jan. 30- Feb. 1, 2019. He worked with the Brownsville diocesan processing center that fed, clothed and relocated immigrants who U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)  released from detention centers because they had relatives in the country.
“When we were there,” he recalled, “it was standing room only, people moving through there. And those were just the ones being released.”
The facilities were pushed to capacity two years ago and more migrants are trying to cross the border today because they believe President Biden is more willing to accept them.
That processing center in Brownsville was located in a former nursing home, but has since closed due to complaints from local residents, Father Lundrigan said.
He also worked at a center on the Mexican side of the border that housed immigrants who were trying to cross the border. It was surrounded by a wall and wire, and was guarded to keep the migrants safe.
The U.S. government should create more processing centers, he said, but realizes there’s the concern that if the facilities are too comfortable, they’ll encourage more people to cross the border. On the other hand, recent video of the overcrowded conditions is appalling. 
The solution may not be easy, but Father Lundrigan believes that either conditions must improve in Central America so people there can live comfortably or the U.S. must find jobs and housing for migrants here.
Unfortunately, U.S. financial aid for the poor of Central America can end up in the hands of corrupt government officials in those countries instead of helping the poor.

Sister Paula Cormier of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Leominster worked with migrants in El Paso, Texas, from Feb. 6-21, 2019. 
“This has been a problem in our country for at least 20 years,” she said, “and we’ve never resolved it as a country. So what we’re doing now is we’re putting Band-Aids on a situation that is not working.”
She worked with the poor in Peru for 13 years, but the crisis at the border is more challenging.
“It was far more complex than what people think it is,” she said. “I don’t think it’s possible to just say, ‘We shouldn’t allow people to come anymore, we should close the border,’ or, ‘We should tell them not to come because we have too many problems of our own.’ Those are very slight ways of addressing a deep and complex issue.”
Sister Paula believes the U.S. should withhold aid to Central American nations until they improve conditions at home.
Sister Dorothy Scesny of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Leominster worked at La Posada Providencia in San Benito, Texas, on the Mexican border Feb. 6-21, 2019. The shelter is run by the Sisters of Providence in Pennsylvania and has hosted more than 11,000 migrants from 87 countries since it opened in 1989. 
La Posada has cultivated a network of social service agencies, medical and dental professionals, immigration attorneys, churches and volunteer groups. The organization provides shelter, food and education with the help of volunteers from the city and around the country. Sister Dorothy taught the children English.

KEEPS UP TO DATE

The shelter emails Sister Dorothy a bulletin each week to keep her up to date. She also remains in contact via phone and email with Sister Zeta of the Sisters of Providence.
“They’re all looking for volunteers again,” Sister Dorothy said, “because there’s just so much going on, especially with the children. They try to keep them relaxed and unafraid.”
Sister Dorothy estimated the shelter’s three buildings house twice as many migrants as two years ago when she was there.
“Parents are sending their kids out by themselves,” she said, “because it would be better for them to be alive than join a drug cartel or be in a gang.”
Some border towns in Texas don’t welcome migrants, but Sister Dorothy said the people of San Benito do and they donate their money and time before the migrants move to other parts of the country to live with relatives.
“They live the Gospel,” she said of the San Benito people, “but our government, it’s so far from the Gospel, it’s shameful.”
Because aid sent to Central America doesn’t always reach the poor, Sister Dorothy urges America to support the church and social service organizations, not the governments, to assure help reaches those who need it. She pointed out that Sister Norma Pimentel has done great work as executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley.
Father Hugo A. Cano also visited Brownsville, Texas, from Jan. 30 to Feb. 1, 2019. In his roles as the director of the office of Hispanic Ministry and co-director of the Holy Name of Jesus House of Studies in Worcester, he deals daily with undocumented people and families asking for prayers for relatives unable to travel over the border or staying in detention centers or shelters.
In Brownsville, Father Cano spoke to the migrants in Spanish. He said they told him about the harsh conditions of the detention center, not being able to take showers, not enough food, not even a decent blanket. Some got sick.
Father Cano believes the government runs the detention centers too much like prisons and that more humanitarian agencies are needed to work with migrants at the border.
Working with the migrants touched Father Cano.
“It’s the same expression,” he said, “that Pope Francis says, ‘When you are with people and they talk to you about their struggles and their situations, you see in their faces the face of the suffering Christ.’”