The Casa de Bienvenida migrant shelter, located on the grounds of the Sacred Heart Church in the Segundo Barrio, will close its doors on October 7, the chaplain announced, causing surprise among the border community.
According to its organizers, the shelter created by Jesuit Father Rafael García decided to close its facilities that had been operating since April 2023, due to the decrease in encounters and numbers of migrants in the El Paso Sector.
“The migrant population began to decrease after June, which led to the decision. This made us realize this reality and we decided to close our shelter as of October 7,” said Father Garcia, noting that the shelter, aimed primarily at women and children, began operating 24 hours a day right at the beginning of the migration crisis.
He said that since its opening, assistance has been provided to more than 120 people, although they regularly exceeded the capacity to serve as many as possible without affecting the quality of the service.
“Here, preference is given to families or single mothers with their children,” she said, adding that the shelter opens at 4 p.m.
On April 1, 2023, and in response to the arrival of thousands of migrants from various countries in Central and South America, the center was opened as a shelter for migrants, prior to the end of the controversial Title 42, a measure implemented by President Donald Trump, citing public safety issues due to the presence of the Covid-19 pandemic that impacted the global community.
He recalled that in response to the unprecedented surge of migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border, he decided to open the temple gymnasium, located at Oregon and Father Rahm, with virtually no preparation time to provide overnight shelter for people who needed emergency housing in the face of the winter weather.
At the time, Bishop Mark Seitz had urged all parishes to respond. The Diocese of El Paso had four migrant shelters, but they only received migrants who had been processed by the Border Patrol.
Although there were several shelters in the city that were responding to the emergency, most only received people who were certified and released by federal authorities, in this case CBP, to comply with the policy established by the Government and free up funds for their operation while they awaited their next steps in seeking asylum in the United States.
At that time, hundreds of migrants sought refuge in the various shelters, but due to the lack of space, they had to sleep outdoors. The benches around the Sacred Heart church and in the alleys became their beds.
Others, mostly Venezuelans, gathered around the Homeless Opportunity Center, located at 1208 Myrtle, looking for food and money to travel by bus to other cities in the interior of the country.
According to Araceli Martin, spokesperson for the shelter, the foreigners have a mixed immigration status: some carried with them documents issued by the Department of Homeland Security through the CBP One application, but others had crossed the border illegally.
“We are assuming the costs of providing services to undocumented people. We cannot request federal funds to obtain reimbursement for these services due to the lack of documentation,” Martin said after pleading for community participation on that occasion.
With the migrant ban set to lift on May 11 of last year, shelters across El Paso operated at maximum capacity. Father Rafael Garcia, pastor of Sacred Heart Church, the shelter director, and his team scrambled to serve as many people as possible.
The parish had been operating the shelter with donations and grants from a few religious congregations, but the financial needs were overwhelming, with over 20 people on staff (3 shifts and kitchen), food, utilities, supplies, over-the-counter medications, etc. In rare cases, the shelter provided assistance with travel to the migrant’s destination city.
“We will do what we can according to our capacity,” said the Jesuit priest, underlining the motto of constant comfort for him and his team of collaborators.
While the situation was overwhelming for Sacred Heart Church and other shelters across El Paso, Father Garcia found hope in the help he received.
However, he recalled that on April 24 of that year, the number of asylum seekers increased dramatically, far beyond the shelter’s capacity. Unfortunately, many had to camp in the alley and on the sidewalks.
Reports from the United States Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP), in conjunction with the El Paso Border Patrol Sector, reported that they have seen a total of 243,618 in this fiscal year so far, waiting for September to have the final numbers for this fiscal year 2024.
October 2023: 22,106 meetings; November 2023: 22,408 meetings, December 2023: 33,966 meetings, January 2024: 17,514 meetings; February 23,918 meetings, March 30,422 meetings, April 30,397 meetings, May 23,478 meetings, June 14,513 meetings, July 11,614 meetings and last August 13,282 meetings.
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