Texas

Kathleen, Erin, Cathy and I have struggled as to how to communicate our recent experience.  We just returned from McAllen, Texas, after volunteering for seven days at the Humanitarian Respite Center.  We are trying to be sensitive that we not draw attention or adulation to ourselves.  However, we all feel strongly that we have a moral obligation to promote the tremendous work that the Center does.

In brief, the Respite Center assists families after they have spent 4-6 weeks traveling to the U.S. Border during a time when the daytime temperatures are over 100 degrees.  Typically they then spend an additional 3-7 days in one of four area detention centers.  They are vetted by immigration and upon their release, these young families arrive at the Respite Center.  If they ever had sleeping bags, ruck sacks, backpacks or purses at this point they have been confiscated - along with their belts and even their shoelaces.  These people, most with little children, arrive with absolutely nothing - nothing.

  

The Humanitarian Respite Center welcomes them (sometimes with applause), offers them safety, shelter, a shower, food, a mat upon which they can rest and a change of used clothing including, donated shoes, new socks and underwear.  If a medical person is available they can be seen.  There are also trained people who will help them get in contact with their sponsor and arrange transportation to their final destination.  Some will leave the same day, many spend the night on the mats or in chairs.

   

Please consider helping the Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, Texas.  Here is a link to their contact information:

Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley

Checks:  Specify for the Humanitarian Respite Center

                700 N. Virginia de San Juan Blvd.

                San Juan, TX. 78589

Donations: Especially shoes, deodorant, small shampoos, leggings and belts

                    Humanitarian Respite Center 

                    115 S. 15th St.

                    McAllen, TX.  78501

Website:  financial donations can be made on this website

                  CatholicCharitiesRGV.org

                  Includes a link to Amazon to donate items

While unpacking donations one day I came across a note which read, "These clothes are donated in memory of my mother, Mary, who would be disgusted by the way we are treating people".   

First Impressions

First impression of the Humanitarian Respite Center:  What the place offers is amazing.  Immigrant families are welcomed, offered a shower, clothing, food, a place to rest in and assistance with transportation to their final destination.  Entire families walk in with nothing, no luggage, no backpack, nothing.  These are not people who are going on vacation - they are moving from their home countries for good and most of them have had their shoe laces and belts confiscated at the Detention Center. 

The organization is bizarre.  A woman showed us around for maybe 5 minutes.  She asked us to help with the distribution of clothing.  Twenty minutes later the 4 of us were In charge of the clothing area.  At 1:00 when we wanted to break for lunch the volunteer coordinator said great, there aren't a lot of people right now, we'll just shut it down until you get back.

The tasks are as varied as anyone could imagine.  On my way to the supply area (think a 90 degree, 2nd floor warehouse) to find hotel-style shampoos, I stopped to clean up after a little boy who was throwing up.  He had just gotten out of the detention center that day and while the center is air conditioned, it was 100 degrees outside.   There are stacks of gym type mats that the families unstack and sleep on.  If they happen to be in the shelter overnight, that's where they will stay.  We also provided hygiene items, shampoo, deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste but not soap.  There is liquid soap inside the showers.  We made a refrigerator full of sandwiches, ham, cheese and bread.  

I wish I spoke and understood Spanish.  I could not have been more impressed with Kathleen and Erin's ability to communicate.  At one point in the afternoon the coordinator asked Erin and me to bring a woman and her daughter to the airport (very much a rarity).  While we were gone Kathleen dealt with a medical emergency and Cathy sorted donated items, made sandwiches and worked the hygiene area, all with a smile on her face making people feel welcome and comfortable.

 Lastly, the whole organization seems very loosely run.  "Here is what needs to be done, ok see ya."  People donate stuff.  People show up wanting to help so they sort the donated stuff.  People need a change of clothing so we give them some of the donated stuff.  In it's most simplistic form, this is what the HRC does.  When we were homeless you gave me a place to rest, when I was hungry you fed me.  When I needed clothing, you clothed me.  God bless the people we met today from McAllen, Chicago, Vancouver, Washington, Austin and the nun who brought some of her students from New Jersey.

The Families

The Families,

   The families coming in the shelter have been on the road for an average of 4-6 weeks.  The high temperature here is always over 100 degrees.  In addition to their travel time they have been in the detention center for 3-7 days.  It is my understanding that there are four detention centers in this area.  All of them release the immigrants to the McAllen bus station.  At least one of the detention centers is a tent city.  If they had any possessions during their journey, they're gone by the time The Customs and Border Patrol agents drop them off at the bus station.  A volunteer from the respite center walks the families over to the center from the bus station which is across the street.  

    Before they are able to leave the detention center they are vetted by the US government.  The vetting process includes the immigrants having a sponsor to support them.  At this point they are released into the US to pursue their asylum claim.

   Upon entering the Respite Center they are welcomed (remember up until now they have been in a jail type setting).  Each family unit is given a welcome bag which includes individual tooth brushes, tooth paste, deodorant, comb and a small hand towel. They are told that the center is not a government organization and that the staff and volunteers are here to help them on their journey and that there are people here who will help them contact their sponsors.  If they want, their children can go to a play area while this registration process is going on.  They are offered shower facilities, food and a change of clothing including new underwear and socks.  At this point they have no belts and no shoelaces which were taken from them at the detention center  These people literally have nothing.  

   There are stacks of gym mats in the clothing area and people are free to put them on the cement floor and rest.  During the course of the day it is very common to see people sound asleep on the mats, individually or even families.  Today I walked past the area and as usual there was a group people  on the mats.  A woman was sleeping with a child between her bent knees and chin and two men were awake and reading bibles that were given to them at the welcome station.  It is very common to see nursing mothers in this area as well.  If they stay overnight, this is where they will sleep.  

    As a group, these people are exceedingly grateful and seemingly bone  tired.  If the Center can arrange for their transportation with their sponsor, the ideal is to have them leave the same day.  I don't think this happens too often but it's hard for me to tell.  

   Families are welcome to avail themselves to a free canteen-type area.  This area dispenses virtually every miscellaneous thing that the center offers, tissue, pieces of toilet paper (never whole rolls), shoelaces, crayons for the kids (they only get three), feminine hygiene, diapers, combs, shaving cream, razors, hair bands and Chapstick.  

Things I Want To Remember

Things I want to remember:

   The little girl named Samantha who ran up to Erin after Erin and I made an airport run. The little girl ran to Erin as we walked in the door, took her hand and brought her back to the play table where Erin had been playing games with her earlier.

   Meeting Alexander who started off the day as one of the immigrants to whom we gave clothes.  However he finished the day as a volunteer.  He, his pregnant wife and their little girl left Honduras after he saw a man beheaded with a machete.  

   Kathleen "talking down" a pregnant woman.  She was concerned because she had a history of high blood pressure and she was at the respite center all alone.  

  Sorting an Amazon Box and finding a card in the box which read, "This gift is given in honor of my mother, Mary, who would be disgusted by the way we are treating people".  

   Cathy gave a man a Rolaid.  He asked for a second for his little boy.  When she poured them out of the bottle, a third one rolled out and she gave him all three.   His eyes got wide and he repeated, Gracias, Gracias. Such gratitude for three Rolaids.   

   How the two sisters from Seattle decided to rearrange the racks in the warehouse.  If this is how you think it needs to be done - then let's do it that way.   We moved 1000 pounds of bags but the flow of the place worked better the new way.  

   There are never any size 28 men's pants.  Nobody in the US wears size 28.  

   Sister Mary Alice said 90% of the people use a coyote to get to the US border and most of the families travel for over a month before they are detained by the border patrol.  A coyote in it's most favorable light is a guide.  There have been coyotes who have abandoned whole groups of people in the middle of the desert.  Another job of the coyote is to pay the necessary bribes to the drug cartels.  The cartels run entire areas in which the immigrants must pass through.   

   On Friday Kathleen helped a woman and her son at breakfast.  Another woman with a  very small child wandered into the dining area without going through the line and just sat down at one of the tables.  When the little boy saw this exhausted woman, he got up from his table and gave her his own bowl of cereal.   These little, unseen acts of kindness makes anyone who is watching want to cry.  Kathleen helped the little boy get some more cereal.   

   On Friday in the warehouse, Chad, who was from Texas, came up to me and told me that his group gathered in prayer the previous night and held my family up in prayer.  'We thanked God for you and your family coming down to help.'  How does one react when someone tells you that?

   A group from Washington D.C.  Half of the group came from a synagogue and half from a Catholic Church.  They came into the center on a slower day so they washed down the gym mats upon which the families slept and rested.  It would be a fair assumption that this was the first time they had been washed in the three months the center has been open.  

   The thought that went through my head almost every day was, how bad does your life have to be to one day turn to your spouse and say, gather the kids, pack only what we can carry - we have to leave.  They know they might not get in and they know they don't even speak the language.  There was a man and his daughter in the center when we were there.  He was told that they had a better chance of being admitted if they split up.  He and his daughter made it through but they had still not heard from his wife and the other child.

   I've heard different variations of this: "nobody puts their child in a boat unless the boat is safer than the land and nobody puts their child in the water unless it's safer than the boat and nobody chooses to leave their home country for good unless you just can't stay there anymore." 

   We were told before we arrived that most of the people have been traumatized, either in their home country, during their journey or in the detention centers.  

   The Respite Center provides families a safe space but all of these people remain on their journey.  When they leave the center they are all given a large brown envelope which contains their documents allowing them to be in the country.  On the front of the envelope is stapled a single page stating "I do not speak English.  I am taking the XX pm. Bus to XXXX.  I am trying to get to (name of city).  Can you help me?"  As they walk out of the center they are given sandwiches, a few snacks and some bottled water.  Many of these young families still have multi-day bus trips ahead of them.    

   There is a large piece of art that is placed so that when a family walks into the building it's the first thing they see.  It says  Estamos contigo .  It means: we are with you.  It lets the families know that the people in the center are there to help but it also reminds the volunteers why we are there.  

   Each day can be a roller coaster of emotions.  One minute you read that the US government argued in court that the personal hygiene requirement standard for the detention center could be met by providing each family with one toothbrush.  The next minute you're in the warehouse of the center looking at fifteen cases of toothbrushes.  Many of them were sent by individuals in packs of one or two.  Five minutes later you find yourself wondering if the donations subside, how long before the toothbrushes are all gone.  At its peak the center was providing 7,000 toothbrushes per week.  

   If you choose to volunteer at the center, I may be setting you up for disappointment. There are few solemn or profound moments during the day.  Days are spent cleaning, sorting, giving out clothing, unpacking boxes and bags, serving food, making multiple trips to the upstairs warehouse, filling a refrigerator with simple sandwiches, handing out shoelaces, toilet paper, hair bands, razors, shaving cream and diapers.  The profoundness is when you're done and you think of the remarkable risk these young families have taken and you contemplate how they are doing now.  

   

Funny things I want to remember:

  The SUV index is 11.  Kathleen:  I didn't know the UV index went up to 11!

   Olive Garden:  After buying a microwaveable dinner Cathy thought it necessary to explain to me that microwaveable meant, "You can just put in the microwave and then warm it up".

    After leaving Cathy in the back seat of a running car (air conditioned) the three of us got back in and Cathy said, "I'm just glad nobody kidnapped me.  Anyone could have just gotten in the car and driven away with me in the backseat!'

    Kathleen could not get over that we can buy a case of water for three dollars.  In New York she's used to paying $2.50 for a single bottle on the street!

    I'll never understand how people donate high heels or a cocktail dress to a shelter.