Norma Pimentel, a sister of the Missionaries of Jesus, is director of Catholic Charities for the Rio Grande Valley.
By Sister. Norma Pimentel
Washington Post
Dear Mr. President,
We welcome you to our community here in South Texas along the Rio Grande, which connects the United States to Mexico. I wish you could visit us. Our downtown Humanitarian Respite Center has been welcoming newcomers for the past four years.
When families cross the border, they are typically apprehended by authorities, held for a few days and released with a court date to consider their request for asylum. After they are released, we receive them at our respite center. By the time they find their way to our doors, most adults are wearing Border Patrol-supplied ankle bracelets and carrying bulky chargers to keep those devices powered up.
Helping these families has been our work since 2014, when tens of thousands of people, primarily from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, crossed into the United States through the Rio Grande Valley Sector, creating a humanitarian emergency in our community.
Dear Mr. President,
We welcome you to our community here in South Texas along the Rio Grande, which connects the United States to Mexico. I wish you could visit us. Our downtown Humanitarian Respite Center has been welcoming newcomers for the past four years.
When families cross the border, they are typically apprehended by authorities, held for a few days and released with a court date to consider their request for asylum. After they are released, we receive them at our respite center. By the time they find their way to our doors, most adults are wearing Border Patrol-supplied ankle bracelets and carrying bulky chargers to keep those devices powered up.
Helping these families has been our work since 2014, when tens of thousands of people, primarily from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, crossed into the United States through the Rio Grande Valley Sector, creating a humanitarian emergency in our community.
Before the respite center opened, dozens of immigrant families, hungry, scared and in a foreign land, huddled at the bus station with only the clothes on their back, nothing to eat or drink, and nowhere to shower or sleep. They waited hours and sometimes overnight for their buses.
Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley first opened the center at Sacred Heart Church in McAllen and worked collaboratively with city officials and other faith denominations and nonprofits, such as the Salvation Army and the Food Bank, to provide newly arrived immigrants with some basic necessities. We have moved to a bigger facility since.
Every day of the year, from morning to evening, families coming over the border are welcomed at our center with smiles, a warm bowl of soup, a shower and a place to rest. Most families are exhausted and afraid, carrying little more than a few belongings in a plastic bag. They come in all forms and at all ages. Few speak any English.
Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley first opened the center at Sacred Heart Church in McAllen and worked collaboratively with city officials and other faith denominations and nonprofits, such as the Salvation Army and the Food Bank, to provide newly arrived immigrants with some basic necessities. We have moved to a bigger facility since.
Every day of the year, from morning to evening, families coming over the border are welcomed at our center with smiles, a warm bowl of soup, a shower and a place to rest. Most families are exhausted and afraid, carrying little more than a few belongings in a plastic bag. They come in all forms and at all ages. Few speak any English.
Most are in great need of help. Some days, we see 20 people. Other days, it's closer to 300. In recent weeks, it has been very busy. Some stay a few hours, but many spend the night before heading on to new destinations. Since we opened, more than 100,000 have come through our doors.
We work closely with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Rio Grande Valley Sector, and our team has cultivated a culture of mutual respect and dialogue. Our center staff, in communication with the Border Patrol, prepares to receive groups of immigrants who have been released.
We work closely with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Rio Grande Valley Sector, and our team has cultivated a culture of mutual respect and dialogue. Our center staff, in communication with the Border Patrol, prepares to receive groups of immigrants who have been released.
We try to meet the need. It is vital that we keep our country safe, and I appreciate the work of the men and women in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection who are vigilant as to who enters our country. I pray for them daily.
(To read the rest of the article, click on link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/01/10/welcome-border-mr-president/?utm_term=.838af016084b
19 comments:
God bless you sister.
Visit the hud funded housing anywhere in the valley. They are full of reynosa and matamores citizens. 95% of the tennents are mexican citizens and they qualify for every program. All the daycare centers are full of mexican citizens from matamoros. They go to daycare centers so they don't pay electricity and don't buy groceries. Pinche mojados mamones.
The mission statement of one hud funded company states "We Serve The Senior Citizens Of The Valley" BULLSHIT they serve citizens of Mexico...
That is why we have low wages here and the gringo with their stupidity and their convenience automatically assume all Hispanics came from mexico bola de pendejos.
To 10:39 & 10:42, Sister Norma's center is funded by Catholic Charities and donations, not by HUD. Your concerns may be valid so why don't you complain to your congressman or to HUD officials.
100,000
have been fed, clothed, and released!!!
that is crazy! it is a crisis.
100,000 law breaking, disease carrying, uneducated, non english speaking, ready to procreate unproductive,members of society are now a burden to the hard working tax paying citizens of our community (emphasis on hard working citizens of community not US Citizens)
pinche church helping criminals
hey Catholic Church!!! we have hundreds of foster children in the RGV
why dont you step up and help them!
come on Team Brownsville, foster some kids!
puro hypocrosy!! team mis huevos
How many refugees has the Vatican accepted? How tall is the wall around the Vatican?
y yo sigo sendo el quey, let keep help the church so they can help all these illegals out and the local residents pos que se los yeve el tren, lol.
to:January 10, 2019 at 12:09 PM
Re-read the post carefully nobody mentioned the church self-righteous hipocrate, but now that you mention the church and all those nuns and priests riding around in their brand new fords bought by donations by the poor HERE in brownsville you and them have no shame. Stupid sanctimonious fool with your holier-than-thou attitude.
Throw her in jail period.
Los jots nomas andan buscando niños para llevar los para su casa en la estación de boses. Los bonitos si , los feos no. Como Hitler en Auschwt. Hasta no se les quieren acercar. UYYY!!!!
I have wandered how these so called refuges/ illegal immigrants dying of hunger running from danger AFFORD cells phones ?... who is behind this paying for them , , something is wrong people
To January 10, 2019 at 10:39 AM,
Where are you getting your 95% statistic? Do you actually have proof of this, or are you just pulling a number out of a hat?
You are definitely entitled to say whatever you want, but you can't make up your own facts. That's not how it works.
More like 50% freeloaders vs 95%............still too many.
Stand outside H.E.B. downtown and see how much cash changes hands for food cards and how much of the groceries go Mexico.
Foreign aid?
Where are the fraud investigators?
An opinion can become a fact-a belief that is adequately backed up by evidence or reasons. Opinions can be based on facts or emotions. An opinion, however, is a statement that holds an element of belief. But truth is something which depends on a person's perspective and experience.
So experience makes an opinion as a truth same as proof.
Magicians pull things out of hats but they can't pull an opinion out of a hat, unless you know of a magician that does that.
In reality this is how it REALLY works...
To January 11, 2019 at 8:54 AM
If you are concern about the figure mentioned don't believe anybody go out and do a survey about concerns listed.
An opinion can become a fact-a belief that is adequately backed up by evidence or reasons. Opinions can be based on facts or emotions. An opinion, however, is a statement that holds an element of belief. But truth is something which depends on a person's perspective and experience.
So experience makes an opinion as a truth same as proof.
Magicians pull things out of hats but they can't pull an opinion out of a hat, unless you know of a magician that does that.
In reality this is how it REALLY works...
This woman only makes the problem worse and the border more difficult to secure.
Of course she is, she's enabling everybody to come to the border and that help is available.
Some nonhuman animals, including chimpanzees, orangutans, and perhaps dolphins, have at least a primitive sense of self (Boysen & Himes, 1999).
She is defeating the purpose within these group of people to gain their sense of self help and instilling the concept of gime gime gime... Not good.
RIGHT let them fence for themselves, jump the fence and become a productive illegal
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