Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
3 days……72 hours.
Such a short time in a person’s life.
And yet…….
On Tuesday I flew to McAllan, Texas.
When I was asked why I was going, I said it was simple, Randi and Jan asked me to go.
What I would find I did not know.
I was meeting nurses from HPAE in New Jersey and Teachers from UFT in New York.
Our goal was to visit a juvenile detention centers at the southern border and report back to AFT members on whether the children’s health and education needs were being adequately met.
Tuesday evening we gathered with teachers from Texas Locals (PJSA AFT, Edinburg AFT, McAllen AFT, La Joya AFT and Texas AFT). We each introduced ourselves and the Texas teachers told us what a teacher’s life is like at the border. It is a combination of the challenges teachers everywhere face and the special challenges of immigrant families. They spoke of the trials and reasons many of these families had left their home countries and made the dangerous journey here.
It was a powerful evening of love……and tears.
Wednesday morning we met with local students who have formed “
Beyond The Border” to work with immigrant children. These high school students who started volunteering at the local Catholic Charities respite center as part of a public service graduation requirement. They were so moved by the families, and especially the young children, that they took on a commitment to visit the center 3 days a week to read to the children, color with them, play with them, befriend them. Their stories of love were inspiring.They have reached out to classmates and students from surrounding districts and formed Beyond the Borders, because “Education and love shouldn’t have any borders to it.”
They were inspirational, in the work they are doing, in there ability to bring others into this work, and in there ability to convey their story to others. We would see them later in the day at the center.
We were denied entry at the federal detention center that houses children. We had worked though a United States Congressperson on our request. Last Friday the request was denied because “AFT doesn’t have ‘standing” even though we are the country’s second largest teachers and nurses union and the welfare of children is at the core of our mission. We were told to re-write our request on that basis, which was done, and we were denied again. One of our party approached the door of the building to see if maybe they had reconsidered, while the rest of us stood on the sidewalk, roughly 100 feet in front of the building. After being denied entry once again, she returned to us and informed us at the sidewalk, where AFT president Randi Weingarten and Executive Vice President Evelyn DeJesus spoke to us.
Border patrol agents approached us and told us we must leave because, “you are on personal property.”
The truth is, we were on federal property, we were all U.S. citizens, and were 100 feet from the building doing no harm.
But to avoid a conflict we moved to the roadside, putting us probably 300 feet from the building.
At this location, we held hands and prayed, for the children, for the families, and for our country.
The agents followed us and attempted to interrupt our praying. They threatened us with arrest and local police and a tow truck arrived. (The local police never approached or spoke to us and our cars were parked in a parking lot marked Visitors’ Parking, which had no gate or signs of restrictions upon entering.)
We were a group of United States teachers and nurses, who had gone through the proper channels not once but twice, seeking to insure the safety and well-being of children. We were on federal property, not private property. We never posed a threat, never even approached the building.
When asked to move, we did.
And we were threatened with arrest.
One has to ask Why?
We decided against arrest today and left. We went instead to a place where we were welcomed, a respite center run by Catholic Charities.
We met up with our new high school friends who were volunteering there today.
The center is for families who have been processed by Immigration, given a court date, and have families in the U. S. who will take them in. They get dropped off at the bus station across the street, volunteers greet them, and they are welcomed in, given soup as a first meal because many have not eaten well and their stomachs may not handle something heavier, get to shower for the first time in perhaps months, and get help making arrangements with family. The children can color and play and just be kids.
One little boy, maybe 4 years old, had pimples on his nose and near one eyebrow. Through an interpreter, his mom said they had all been badly sunburned, especially their faces on their journey. They were given “cream” to put on their faces but being 4, he wouldn’t keep it on. At this point I realized I was looking at what was left of blisters from a full thickness third degree burn.
These families risk their lives not because they want to, they do so because they must. They are fleeing horrible, dangerous conditions, something all of us would do. Many walking miles and miles over the course of 3-4 months. It was 102 degrees outside.
They are detained by border patrol and treated as criminals. One of the needs of the center is shoelaces and belts. I saw many people without shoelaces.
Shoelaces and belts are taken away from criminals.
He was 3 or 4 years old.
We must be better than this.
We brought boxes of supplies with us, we toured the center and we spent time with the families. We saw were they play, were they eat, where they sleep. Most spend about 24 hours here. Social workers help them make calls to their families and arrangements for bus or airline tickets to get to them. They are given rides to the airport (the bus station is nearby) and given a grocery bag with a few supplies such as granola bars for their trip. They are penniless and their only clothes are on their backs.
We left changed people, we teachers and nurses from the northeast.
Back at the hotel we gathered in the lounge and listened to a guy play the guitar and sing before heading to bed.
I think we just needed to be together.
I got to the airport early the next day and I guess there was a reason. Shortly after clearing security a man with a very small boy stopped me. He showed me a Manila envelope and pointed to a sheet of paper that was attached to the envelope. The sheet read, “I don’t speak English, please help me. I have a bus or airline ticket.” He showed me a ticket and said "Dallas." I walked him over to the status board and showed him how to find his flight and gate number. Then we walked around the corner to find gate 6. As we walked I recognized the white plastic rosary beads around his neck. I saw several people wearing them yesterday at Catholic Charities. Then I saw the blue shopping bag he carried, from where he had pulled the envelope. Catholic Charities had told us they give people a bag with a few things they might need on their bus or plane, and just such a Manila envelope. I said “Catholic Charities” but he didn’t understand. I showed him the pictures of the building I took yesterday. He smiled and said “Honduras.” As we arrived at his gate, I gave him a thumbs up, we smiled and he said "gracias.
2 fathers at an airport in Texas.
The only difference is the country we were born in, the color of our skin, and our native language. I even suspect we share the same Catholic faith.
God is calling us to be better. To love our sisters and brothers.
Thank you AFT Connecticut, AFT Nurses & Health Professional, AFT - American Federation of Teachers, Evelyn DeJesus, Randi Weingarten, Jan Hochadel for this opportunity.
#TearsFlowingInTexas
If you want to help, you can go to the McAllen Catholic Charities Respite Center’s page at
https://www.catholiccharitiesrgv.org/Donations.aspx
Or to their Amazon Wish List at
https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/JJVAJFS3VIIQ/
