Talk story: An enlightening visit to the U.S./Mexico border

OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY

“Pope Francis has often talked about going to the peripheries and encountering the lives of the people that we meet there. Never in my wildest dreams did I believe that I would be able to do it in such a tangible way here in our country this weekend, to literally go to the peripheries to encounter individuals whom so many people just seem to discard and say don’t deserve our time and attention, but they are like everyone of us just wanting basic treasures of life and love and care for their families.” (Bishop Joseph Bambera of Scranton, Pa., a member of a July 1-2 delegation of U.S. bishops to Mexico Border)

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Houston Galveston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, led a delegation of five other American bishops, on a July 1-2 fact-finding “talk story” visit to the U.S.-Mexico Border. Here are some of the highlights reported by Catholic News Service.

Bishop Daniel E. Flores of the Diocese of Brownsville, Texas, where the visit began, set the tone. “The bishops are visiting here so they can stop, look, talk to people and understand the suffering of many who are amongst us. It’s part of the purpose of Christian life to talk to people and hear their suffering.”

In nearby McCallen, Texas, the bishops visited Catholic Charities Humanitarian Respite Center, a short term hospitality center launched in 2014 in response to the surge of primarily Central American immigrants crossing the border to escape widespread violence in their home countries. The director of the center, Sister Norma Pimentel, who has received accolades from Pope Francis, put the visiting bishops to work alongside her regular volunteers.

Cardinal DiNardo and his fellow bishops served chicken soup and tortillas to children who had just arrived with their parents from the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) Center. The scene inside the cramped respite center is one of organized chaos. Some children play with toy cars. Others lay on mats, exhausted from the weeks-long journey from Honduras or El Salvador and their days spent at ICE detainment centers.

Adult men tried to sleep in chairs, while young women looked for outlets to charge their ICE-issued GPS ankle bracelet monitors. When the children were invited to eat first in the adjacent dining room, some refused to leave the arms of their parents, even while being offered their first hot meal in days or weeks.

Each of the bishops later pulled up chairs to chat with immigrants scattered throughout the room. Three men from Honduras told Bishop Joseph Bambera why they made the perilous, three-week journey with their children. “The maras make it impossible to live,” said Pedro Marquez, referring to the very violent Honduran street gangs. Sitting between him and the bishop was his 11-year-old daughter, Yamilet. “They tax us to live in our own house, tax us to have a business, and if we don’t pay, we get killed,” said Marquez.

Bishop Flores later reflected on the gravity of situations that motivate Central Americans to flee to the United States. “Many people would much prefer to stay home if they didn’t feel that their children’s lives were at stake.”

Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez spoke about the Mass the bishops celebrated in Spanish with 250 children at a nearby U.S government detention facility called Casa Padre, a former Walmart.

“It was, as you can imagine, very challenging to see the children by themselves,” Archbishop Gomez said. “Obviously, when there are children at Mass, they are (usually) with their parents and families … but it was special to be with them and give them some hope.”

Bishop Bambera said the boys listened intently during Mass and seemed to show a particular piety not usually seen in children that age. “I saw a few boys wiping tears,” he said.

At a July 2 press conference at the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle, a national shrine on the Brownsville border, the bishops stressed the “urgent” need to do something to help the children.

“The children who are separated from their parents need to be reunited. That’s already begun and it’s certainly not finished and there may be complications, but it must be done and it’s urgent,” said Cardinal DiNardo.

“We have some concerns about family detention,” the cardinal said. “In the past there was an alternative to detention — family case management programs.” He said case-management programs were a “cost-effective alternative” to family detention, and that Catholic-run charities would be glad to assist the government with running them.

The Family Case Management Program was developed in January 2016 as a way for families who cross the border to be closely supervised by social workers while they wait for their cases to be decided. The Trump administration abruptly shuttered the program last year, replacing it with detention.

The bishops said that changing how the United States deals with immigrants is both necessary and feasible. “It is possible to address the needs of immigration reform. We just need to make the decision that we can do it,” Archbishop Gomez said.

Immigration is “not just a matter of politics. It’s a matter of humanity,” he said.

Bishop Bambera said talking with immigrant families reshapes perceptions about illegal immigration, and challenges political preconceptions.

“When you have the opportunity to sit down with a family, labels melt away,” he said. “When you talk to somebody whose deepest desire is not to exploit a country and take everything they can, but to provide for their children, and keep their children safe, then labels melt away.”

For more about this “Talk story” visit of U.S. bishops to the border, see the USCCB website www.usccb.org/about/public-affairs/backgrounders/migration-issues-backgrounder.cfm.

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