Can I hide in the boot of your car?

Columban Lay Missionary, Rosalia Basada tells of the heartache of not being able to do more to assist undocumented migrants who want to cross the border into the United States for a better future. 

Rosalia Basada (centre) with Gironima and other residents at Casa del Migrante waiting for their appointment to cross the border. Photos: Rosalia Basada

Rosalia Basada (centre) with Gironima and other residents at Casa del Migrante waiting for their appointment to cross the border. Photo: Rosalia Basada

In October last year, the Columban Sisters arrived at Casa del Migrante as volunteers for a year. I began to visit their centre every week and after a while I asked if I could become more involved with their work there and began to observe Sr Virginia Mozo’s afternoon class with the children and young people. Then we agreed to divide the group into two, with Sr Virginia looking after the children while I looked after the older ones. This was a weekly class. It involved organising various activities including indoor games, playing with flash cards, learning numbers through games and basic English classes. Of course attendance was erratic as the situation of these families was very unstable with people either returning to their homelands or crossing the border from Mexico to the United States.

However there was one young Mexican woman named Geronima who consistently attended the classes for three months. She was always very attentive and enthusiastic. Geronima and her family had been forced to leave their home town because of the violence there. They dreamed of a safe and bright future in the United States. Wanting to learn as much as she could, Geronima often helped in the kitchen, in either the morning or afternoon shift, and showed a great deal of promise.

Then one day, during our class, Geronima asked me if I was intending to cross the border into El Paso, Texas, any time soon. I told her that I cross the border regularly for meetings or for a break. She then asked if she could come with me - hiding in the boot of my car!

Of course, it was impossible to accede to her request. Security is always so tight at the border with documents and vehicles always closely checked by the border patrol and all future crossings curtailed if found to be people-smuggling. But I felt so sad and weak and powerless in saying no to her.

During the border mass at Canal del Rio Grande between El paso and Ciudad Juarez. Photos: Rosalia Basada

During the border mass at Canal del Rio Grande between El paso and Ciudad Juarez. Photo: Rosalia Basada

A few weeks later, Geronima, with her single-parent sister and three nephews, had to leave the Casa del Migrante and go to stay near the Zaragoza International Bridge and wait for a date for a migration appointment. The last time I saw her she was still waiting for it.

As a missionary at the border it has been a constant and painful experience, meeting undocumented migrants trying to cross the border, being unable to help them and seeing them being deported. Each day I encounter migrants in hopeless situations and I ask myself what more can I do to help them. At least I can be there to listen to them with compassion and hold their hands.

Rosalia Basada is a Columban Lay Missionary who volunteers at Casa del Migrante, a migrant shelter in Juarez, Mexico.

Postscript

In very recent times, Casa del Migrante is reported to be looking after 600 or more migrants while the Coronavirus continues to spread. They are providing beds or mats for everyone and there are regular visits by medical personnel.

As people become infected they are isolated in a large room in the corner of the property. Columban Sister Virginia Mozo says that the number in the room is constantly growing.

In a recent article, Columban Fr Bob Mosher based at the Columban Mission Centre in El Paso, Texas, reported that, as the Coronavirus spreads, the migrants are grateful for what help the faith communities and volunteer organisations are providing. “I appreciate your visit,” one Honduran woman has told over a dozen groups from the U.S that have visited over the past three months, “but please remember that we are only so many families in this one shelter. There are thousands more outside this shelter, forced to face the dangers of kidnapping and extortion in a very dangerous city, as well as the crowding and sickness at the Casa del Migrante.”

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