Belinda Hernandez Arriaga: Sister Norma is beloved by so many, and Pope Francis has really seen the work that she’s done on the ground and has recognized her work among working with refugees and immigrants to the United States. She has really gained an international spotlight for the work she’s been doing and for speaking out against the Trump Administration’s family separation policy. Sister Pimentel was selected to receive the Laetare Medal by the University of Notre Dame in recognition of her outstanding service to the Catholic church and society in May 2018, and I can personally attest to the amazing work that Sister’s doing on the ground daily to be there for the families, the many families and children that she sees both at Catholic charities, respite center, and now on the Mexico side. With that I’m going to open it up for Sister to begin and then I’ll introduce each panelist as your time comes up, so thank you Sister Norma for being here and we’d love to start hearing from you, Sister Norma.
Sister Norma Pimentel: Thank you, Belinda. Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts on what is happening at the border. Today, the families of the refugee camp in Matamores are demoralized. It has been over a year that they have been waiting, hopeful, that someday they could enter the United States. Unfortunately, the asylum process established at the border as a result of MPP, has been another form of deterrence for the families to enter the United States. It is evidently immense to discourage and break their spirits, which at this point has been successful doing just that.
Many of the women are broken to the point that out of desperation and hopelessness have wanted to throw themselves into the river and drown. Women have voiced that they are so afraid, even to sleep at night, out of fear that someone can come into their tent and harm them. Recently, a mother shared with me that someone came into her tent while she was sleeping with her little girl. When she woke up she noticed that things were missing, a lot of things. Immediately, she feared for the life of her child that could have been taken and to her relief she wasn’t. Unfortunately, many others have gone missing and they just never hear from them again. The stories of abuses and violations of the camp are so many and yet they’re so afraid to say who or to point at who it could be. It is out of fear for their lives and that of their children. They just want it to stop. They just don’t want to go back home because they know it’s a sure death and in any other country would be not safe, and they only want to be able to enter the United States where they believe they will be safe.
These abuses that are taking place, are not being corrected, and showing abundance of things. They don’t want us to bombard them with so many wonderful things, they want to just be helped out of this inferno that they are in right now. The efforts to end MPP, the solution is the only thing that they think they need MPP. By forcing families to go to Mexico contributes to criminal activities. They are destroying the families beyond what we saw with separation of children. It is the most perfect deterrence policy established by this administration because it has successfully stopped families from entering the United States. At the expense of the dignity and the well-being of thousands of refugees who are continually enduring human suffering and because it is out of sight, it is out of mind and, therefore, not my problem. The United States doesn’t even have to feel bad about it. The fact remains that the United States is the sole responsible for such atrocities that are happening to thousands of families at the border. We have failed humanity because we have failed to stop policies that are breaking the human soul. Let us stop the humanity and the policies that destroy life, let us stop MPP. Thank you.
Belinda Hernandez Arriaga: Sister Norma, thank you so much for speaking out and being there, and I know that just seeing you here with the other speakers, it’s a very emotional time because Sister Norma has been seeing this for so long and now for a year on the Mexico side. And for those that are on the front lines, this is very emotional to see our fellow families, people just like you and me, children, mother’s, father’s, tios, tias, abuelos, suffering just like you and I, and so to be there and be able to say that this is breaking the human soul, Sister, it is. Thank you for being with us today to share the story. I really appreciate that so much. We have, now, Lili Rey. Lili Rey is founder of the Bay Area Border Relief, and as a community activist she has years of volunteer experience focusing on protecting and restoring the rights of women. Political fundraisers as well, Lilli is on the board of Protect Our Defenders, the only national organization solely dedicated to ending military sexual assault. Two years ago, outraged by the family separation policy, Lilli traveled to the southern Texas border with a small group of like-minded people and shortly after founded the Bay Area Border Relief. We’ve made 7 trips to the Border bringing supplies and support from volunteers from all backgrounds, and the BABR continues to support asylum seekers here in the US, as well as those stuck in Matamoros under the cruel Migration Protection Protocols policy. Thank you, Lilli, for being here and please introduce your thoughts as well to the group.
Lilli Rey: Thank you, Belinda. And thank you all for being here. It’s so inspiring to see so many like-minded people with such huge hearts who are here and want to hear from everyone who’s involved in one way or another because we’re all part of this. Inspired by the Margaret Mead quote, “never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” A small group of us did go to the south Texas border in McAllen, Texas. It was June of 2018, and we called ourselves the McAllen 12 and that’s when we met Sister Norma there and we worked at the Respite Center for just a short time. And when we came home, we were connected with Belinda Arriaga and that’s when Bay Area Border Relief took off. We’ve been to the border seven times now, three times of the 25-ft truck full of donations, and bringing them across the bridge to Matamoros is no small feat because you do that in wagons. It’s complicated to come across in a vehicle, and now as things have gotten progressively worse and shut down what I would give to be able to be there right now with our wagons and items to bring across. It’s so cruel, it’s gotten worse every single day, and most recently, two weeks ago with the hurricane, it’s already living hell then you add the hurricane with its fear of rising water, then that finally back soft and then there’s more mosquitos than anybody knows what to do with. The life is just horrific, and as I always say, if these people could go home, they would. This is not a camping experience, this is their lives and they deserve what international law allows; which is to seek asylum.
So, Bay Area Border Relief, in our seven trips, we have over 60 people who are in our organization, who now continue to help from afar and we are part of the collaborative that is the Dignity Village Collaborative that is a group of NGOs there at the border, and at this point now it’s hard to not be there, but we send our love and our prayers and our thoughts. And a lot of the Bay Area Border Relief people are in touch with people at the camp because they are human beings like everyone on this call who need, just like everyone on this call needs, and to hear the stories, the cruelty, the lack of humanity, just makes everyone skin crawl, but we didn’t want to just sit back and wring our hands so we continue to raise money and we continue to help in many, many ways. We help provide water. We recently helped provide money to pay for the repellent, as well as the fumigation that’s going to make what’s already horrible living there just a little bit more bearable to not have to be smacking mosquitoes, and to see the bites on some the little legs of these babies and children, the lack of humanity is staggering.
So, if nothing else, everybody has to vote. Everybody has to vote in November and get everyone you know to vote because the only way that this is going to change dramatically is by there being a change in the regime in November.
So, the Bay Area Border Relief, we’re on Facebook and we have a website and we’re always taking contributions. We not only help with needed supplies, but we also help with legal aid and legal assistance for people at the border as well as those that have relocated here to the San Francisco Bay Area. We used to say why goodness just if we could just get across the border, and then life is still not easy for the asylum seeker once they get into the US, but we compare to what it’s like to be held in Matamoros without the ability to come across, it makes life here seem not easy, but certainly easier because at least they have the plan in place. We are happy to be part of the collaborative, happy to be part of Dignity Village and we’re not going anywhere. We’re continuing to stay with this, to stay with Sister, and the tias and abuelas, and RCM and GRM and team Brownsville, so that we can provide some level of care and love until this ends. Thank you.
Belinda Hernandez Arriaga: Thank you, Lilli, so much, and you know, it is so important to think about how do we, right now all of you that are here-we’re so grateful, how do we combine activism and also relief at the same time. Folks right now are really suffering at this very moment, what their living through, and the hurricane was a huge situation that happened and so we go back and forth between helping them in real time and then trying to fight this effort, which all of you being here today really makes a difference and we hope that at the end you use your voice and activism to try to push for change.
We want to introduce someone very special today. His name is Jorge Armando Sanchez Abreu. Jorge is a 31 years old Venezuelan national, who migrated to the United States after facing political persecution in Venezuela. Jorge was forced to wait in Mexico after seeking asylum in the United States because of the Migration Protection Protocol, and this protocol is the MPP program that we’re speaking about. It’s a United States program that forces migrants seeking asylum to wait in Mexico for their immigration hearings, which is what sister Norma explained that have now been waiting for a year; living in tents, living in some of the worst conditions you can imagine. In 2005, Jorge received a bachelor’s degree in science, and later a law degree from the Universidad Bicentenaria de Aragua en Venezuela. Jorge has advocated for basic fundamental human rights, and was involved in political activism in Venezuela for which he faced political repression. He was forced to flee his country with his wife and daughter in order to save their lives. Jorge is now in California, and I think Jorge’s voice is so important in this conversation because it’s only been a few months that he has left the MPP process and he’s talking daily with families, just like everyone here, that are in MPP. So, I’m going to translate for Jorge and he will be speaking in Spanish.
Jorge Sanchez: (Already in Spanish along with a verbal English translation from Belinda) [1]
Belinda Hernandez Arriaga: Thank you so much, Jorge, for sharing your story, your heart, being honest as a witness and what he lived through this terrible situation and we will be hearing more from Jorge. I’m going to turn to Thelma Garcia, as we listen to Jorge talk about the legal barriers and challenges, we have Thelma who is an amazing attorney on the ground in south Texas. She’s been working with some of our families and we were actually there with her during a time when the 9th circuit ruled MPP unconstitutional, but it stayed and now it’s being moved up to the court system, but we were there that day when this happened and Thelma went up and fought her way to the front of the line with border patrol agents to try and get some of her clients through. Unfortunately, she was turned away, but Thelma is definitely on ground. She’s been an attorney for 41 years in the state of Texas. She’s licensed in the United States Federal Court and in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. She practices immigration with a concentration in deportation removal, detention, asylum and visas. She’s a board member of various community organizations in Texas, and has contributed to pro bono legal work on Zero Tolerance, separated families for the together, and free non-profit organization. Thank you, Thelma for being here.
Thelma Garcia: Thank you, and I really appreciate your invitation here. Obviously, what’s needed in all our issues is exposure and being able to do this with so many people who know a lot more people that will be sending the message out to everyone. The situation, obviously, is worse, than when you and I met down here and you’re aware of that of course, Belinda. I did want to give just a brief history through the Trump Administration, as to the different policies that he’s implemented down here in the border.
As Jorge said, we had the parents-children separation back in the spring and summer of 2018, and obviously everyone saw through the media how horrible the treatment was of this separation. It cost a lot of trauma, a lot of psychological issues for the children, as well as the parents. I represent several of those families and we are still fighting to try to get some kind of normalization for the families, for the children. They’re still having a lot of psychological issues concerning the separation. Right after Trump implemented that program, he then implemented the program where the conditions, well the hieleras, that’s when we started to see the conditions of the hieleras, that’s where the people were being held. How deplorable and how horrible all those conditions were. Again, we have to take recourse through the federal system.
We went to a federal court locally down here in Brownsville. We lost our case, but actually, we brought a lot of exposure to the issue as well. People that we named in our lawsuits were eventually released within 12 hours after we filed the lawsuit. The person was no longer at the hielera, but they were being moved to detention centers. Once they got moved to the detention centers, they were given the right of going through the credible fear interview and explaining to an asylum officer what their fear was of returning back home. If they passed their interview, then they would be able to go to the removal process, the normal immigration process of seeing a judge and presenting their evidence on their asylum. If they lost, then they had the opportunity to see a judge briefly, for about 10-15 minutes, and explain their fear of returning. Most of the judges denied this. It was called a review on the credible fear. They were mainly denied by the judges, once denied that’s it. There’s really not much else to do. I would go back to the asylum office if it was denied, and I would try to impress upon a supervisor in the asylum office that actually both the initial asylum officer interview and that the court were wrong, and I wanted them to review it again. We were able to overturn some of them, but if at the end of the day all this was denied people were being deported back to their home country. There wasn’t any other review, no other legal thing that you could do for the immigrant refugee.
After that program, well like I said, after the people were placed in the hieleras and we were able to get some of the names, we were able to get those people out. Those that were not named were obviously removed. They had no recourse whatsoever, then after that came the MPP program, which is what Jorge was talking about. Of which we all know the conditions out there are horrible, especially now with a pandemic and stuff.
I fear that there might be some kind of infection out there and it’s going to go rampant because they live in such horrible conditions back to back with each other. Somebody was describing during the hurricane, how it went. There was just water running everywhere. Their tents were all ruined. Some of them have been replaced, but again, I mean that’s no place for a human to be living at. We do have several people, clients, some of which have come through Belinda’s and the organization, and then we continue to try to see what we can do for them. At the MPP level, as we all know that program is pretty much stopped, we have had several of our last hearings, or the emeritus as they’re called, the trial on their asylum cancelled and they seem to be cancelled every time it’s set up for a hearing and this is all due to the pandemic according to the government. I’ve got some cases of people who have been there a year and a half already, and some of these cases have been moved up to 2021, so that means that they continue to live under those same deplorable conditions and this is what Sister Pimentel was talking about because all these cases are taking forever because the conditions are so inhumane, people are starting to cross into the river, again.
Right now, I’ve got two families that crossed at about 2 o’clock in the morning. They used their rubber mattress to throw themselves into the river and try to float across. These two families, the adult female was pregnant, one of them has already given birth, and they are living at the shelter right now with sister Pimentel’s shelter. The other family is in Brownsville and they’re at a different shelter there. The shelter only allows the people a 30-day stay, so they have to look for lodging elsewhere. I have filed changes of venue for this family, so that they can go and travel to their final destination.
We don’t have anything yet from the courts. It was just filed recently, but I understand that most of the cases of people who were placed in MPP, and then crossed back in here, the changes of venue have been denied. In some cases, if they weren’t able to present themselves in court because they crossed the river, they’re being or they have orders of removal and it’s really difficult to reopen those cases. A few cases were venued, but I understand from other areas like maybe San Diego, but not from the Brownsville area. We haven’t had any success that I know of concerning those cases. Those cases are still ongoing and people are really having a hard time living and having to wait out, god knows, how many more months.
After that, immigration through the Trump Administration came up with some other programs. They called it the PACER program, and this particular PACER, people from Central America who came into the country, were given a credible fear interview, like within 2 or 3 days of their entry. They weren’t allowed to make any phone calls to the family members. Family members are usually the ones who try to get counsel to try to help them out. They would get the phone call after the final interview was done and after it was denied. If we were able to catch that on time, we would then ask to appeal that and then we would have a Judge review that. The judge that was reviewing all those cases down in this area were judges from Otay, New Mexico. All those cases were denied as well. After that, obviously, they were going to get deported. They also had a program called the HARP, which was mainly geared towards the Mexican who was asking for asylum, and that pretty much went by the same way as a fast removal. After that came the ACA, which is the one that has to do with the people traveling crossing into Mexico and asking for asylum in the US, and the US was sending them back to Guatemala, so that they could ask for Asylum there. Then they would have to ask for asylum in Mexico before they could ask for asylum in the US.
I don’t believe that those are being implemented anymore because now we have a new program and this program is of course based on Title 42, which was implemented, or drafted up, in 1944 and it’s got to do with a pandemic, that if the Surgeon General decides that there is a pandemic, and the government or the president agrees with this and that it’s going to infect people in our country, they don’t have to let people in and the president has a say as to how long this lasts, so at this point people that are coming into the country, even though they’re asking for asylum, they’re routed really quickly, maybe within 24 to 48 hours, and they’re sent back to their home country if they can get them on a plane to send them back. At the start of this, Guatemala was accepting and so was El Salvador, but my understanding now is that the US places them in like a 14-day quarantine, and when those are clear then they get put on a plane to get sent back to their home country. I believe this was about two weeks ago when we started to see that the Hampton Inn was being used as a detention center mainly for the unaccompanied minors, so that they could be removed. Again, the unaccompanied minor was not allowed to make a phone call to contact their family members. Obviously, they were then denied also the right to seek counsel and get representation. What they did with those children, they then moved them to a current city detention center. We thought that was going to stop the use of the Hampton Inn, I believe Hilton owns the Hampton Inn, and they came out with the statement that they were not going to allow their properties to be used as detention centers, but I got a call late yesterday about a family, a mother and the two minor children, that are at the Hampton Inn and they were told that they were going to get removed. I was able to speak to the mother yesterday and I told her that she needed to ask for an asylum, to ask for an interview. She asked for the interview and it seems like the day she got what they call the non-refoulement interview, which is also accessible to the people in the MPP program, meaning if you fear returning back to the country of Mexico and waiting for your asylum hearing in the US, you can speak to an asylum officer and if the asylum officer feels like you are in danger, then they should allow you to come into the country. They parole you in and you can continue your process in the US, but those grants are very far few and in between. They really haven’t granted too many of those. At this point, in this particular family that I’m speaking about, we don’t have a decision yet. Usually the decision is made within 24 hours and they’re advised. Obviously, because we’re not the attorneys of record we don’t get any of that kind of information.
The people don’t even have A-numbers. The A-number, generally throughout history, has been given to people who come into the country if they’re not citizens and they’re apprehended by immigration. Right now, they’re not being given A-numbers, so it’s very difficult to locate people within the system and it’s all by intent and designed by the Trump Administration so that people are not able to speak to anyone that can help them. We had several people, just like Jorge was explaining about people being attacked, being kidnapped, going through a lot of severe torture in Mexico, we’ve presented cases like this in the non-refoulement interviews with the asylum officers, and they’ve all been denied.
One particular case, that came through Jennifer, who’s done some wonderful work out there in the shelters in Reynosa where the state department says do not travel to Reynosa because it’s very dangerous, you will find Jennifer there helping out, and she brought this case to our attention. It was a young woman and her child who were on route to their interview, actually through the court under the MPP program, and on route they got kidnapped by the cartel. She gets abused by the cartel as well. We presented a motion to reopen with all our evidence and statements, and they denied the motion to reopen, and so now we’re having to appeal that as well.
We got another call, I think it was this morning or late evening also, of a family from Nicaragua, and we thought the MPP program had stopped, I’m not sure what kind of a program it is. I reached out to CBP and inquired about the family to see if they would release him here into the state, so that we could begin the process of either credible fear or just a removal process and this CBP attorney informed me and said that the people were being sent to Mexico. We’re not sure what’s going to happen there. It sounds like they may be placed in the MPP program, which we thought was no longer functioning other than the people that were already in MPP, but maybe they’re starting that up again.
I got another call from a young woman from Guatemala today and I spoke to her. She’s 7 months pregnant, and border patrol took her back into Mexico and had her turn herself in to the Mexican authorities. Immigration authorities refused her because she was 7 months pregnant, so she was sent back into the US and border patrol had to pick her up. At this point we don’t know what they’re going to do with her, she doesn’t know what they’re going to do with her. Maybe she’ll get sent back on the next plane to Guatemala. We’re not sure what’s happening. You never know what’s going to happen here. We never know when the policies change. You’re certainly not given any information concerning any of this, and the bottom line is: rights are being abused. They don’t have the right to counsel. They don’t have the right to contact their family members, and so what you guys are doing is great and we just need to keep passing the word on.
Belinda Hernandez Arriaga: Thank you, Thelma. Thank you for sharing the legal part of this, and I think another reminder that these families are not coming here just because they want to come. They’re coming here because of dangerous and very serious situations, fleeing trauma, fleeing violence, fleeing death. We’ve heard the stories, we’ve seen the families, we’ve seen the evidence, we’ve been able to help them translate some of the evidence for families and it’s heartbreaking to see what’s happening and that the US is turning our back on them at a time when we should be the guide for human rights.
With that, I want to introduce Jennifer Harbury. She’s an attorney, a human rights activist, and advocate for farm worker families in the Rio Grande Valley. She’s written a book, Bridge to Courage: Life Stories of the Guatemalan Compañeros and Compañeras, foreword by Noam Chomsky, photography by Sherrlyn Borkgren. Also, wrote Searching for Everardo, a story about love, war and the CIA in Guatemala, and Truth, Torture and the American Way. She received a Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights award in 1997. She shared the Cavallo Award for Moral Courage with Richard Nuccio. Jennifer as we welcome you to the panel, I also want to put out a very important question that someone has asked, as we hear just all the legal barriers, if you can mention if you know there’s going to be a quick process when Biden is elected. So, Jennifer, thank you for being with us today. Can you hear us, Jennifer? I think you’re on mute.[2]
Jennifer Harbury: Can you hear me now? Yeah, I started by saying thank you to everybody and how happy I am to be on any panel that has Sister Norma and Thelma and everybody else that I’m seeing the names listed for. I cannot speak to Mr. Biden’s immigration plan at this point just because I need to see what he actually does if and when he becomes president. Under President Obama, we had very, very serious problems with immigration changes. Some stuff, although nothing like what we’re seeing today under our fearless leader, President Trump.
What I’d like to do is give three short stories with what I’ve been seeing in Reynosa, since that gets left out of a lot of things. What I should say first is that almost anyone that comes up from Central America or Africa or whatever, they’ve been told very clearly that if they talk about what the cartels and gangs did to them or their family, or the fact that they burned their village down or whatever, that the next day someone will go either for them or for whoever got left behind. You get severely punished if you speak out against gang violence or army violence or security officer violence. The retribution of the immediate to somebody. One young man fled after he was told that they would kill his baby if he didn’t start working with them that night in Honduras, so he fled that afternoon with his wife and his baby, and when he got to Northern Mexico he called home for his mom and little brother and sister, and they’d all been bludgeoned to death. They were already gone, so that’s what people are dealing with and that’s why so many people will say, “oh I just want to come to this country and work hard and have my children lead a better life,” that’s not why they come here. That, of course, would be nice if it would happen, but they have to run and they cannot talk.
So, in Reynosa after four or five interviews with people and after they got to know me, I found that the reality is that half to 80% are being kidnapped by the cartel or by Mexican immigration or by Mexican military forces who hold them for ransom or sell them. It’s a very shocking level of violence, but it’s really happening and what we don’t hear much about. I want to give three anecdotes about what I’ve seen come out of Reynosa and during the different stages of the Trump Administration. One is a young woman who fled because she was going to be raped or killed if she didn’t become this cartel leader’s mistress. She fled with her eight-year-old daughter and their van was chased by the gangs into Reynosa and flipped over and smashed. The daughter was crushed to death. The young woman was left with a smashed pelvis and a huge gash around her neck, and was in the hospital for quite a while. When she recovered, she was on a walker. She hobbled across the bridge to enter legally, presented herself at the US Port of Entry according to the statutes, and said I’m in danger, I need to ask for asylum and they said, basically, we don’t do that here anymore and sent her back. She hobbled back across the bridge to the other side and re-entered Reynosa, and at the foot of the bridge she was kidnapped. She was gone for more than a month. Her dad was finally able to pay the ransom. We got her back across the bridge and into the United States, but she was detained even though she had a severe medical condition, had never committed a crime and had many US citizen relatives. The denial of parole skyrocketed under Trump immediately. As a result, she was in filthy conditions for more than a year. Her surgical site reopened and her leg was not given proper treatment so she nearly died of an infection. At that point, when she was in a wheelchair screaming, she was released to us. It took three major surgeries in another area to save her life and to save her leg.
Story number two, a young woman comes north as MPP just gets started and also fleeing the gangs in Honduras who told her they were coming for her because of a relative who was a police officer. They had just shot her mother-in-law to death by way of example. She fled all the way north almost got to the border near Reynosa, and their group was grabbed by gangs who hauled them off to a secret place, to a “safe house” and they were told they were going to be sold for their organs if they didn’t get the money immediately from relatives. The relatives paid really fast, but as they were about to leave another gang showed up and there was an enormous shoot out that was like blasting the walls to pieces in the building they were in, so they all laid down on top of their kids and waited till’ it was over, then ran to the river, got across, turned themselves in to border patrol and said, “Help us, help us. We just got across. We’re going to die over there and we’re going to die back home we need asylum,” and they were given a court date and said MPP’s the new program, go back. And, they begged and pleaded and left all of them explaining what had happened, she got sent back to Matamoros at the beginning of the tent city there, and she was kidnapped by gangs again with her three-year-old son and this time she was getting raped in front of the child. She was then in Reynosa at a shelter for a while where she did feel safe except during a Christmas break, for a party, a large group of church people came in with gifts and the group included one of her kidnappers who was posing as a church person. She’s now in a very small place with a friend that took her in. She’s quarantined because of corona. I made arrangements to try to get her to my friends in Costa Rica, but Corona hit so quickly and so fast, now we can’t get her out of Mexico into the United States or into Costa Rica, so she’s stuck there, and she told me yesterday she and her housemates are in grave danger. I hope she lives. This is what we are sowing, what the hell are we going to reap?
The third example is a young African pastor from Uganda, he did not fit into MPP. He also had done human rights and voting rights campaigns in Uganda, which resulted in a torture session where two of his fingers were cut off among other things. He also presented himself at the US Port of Entry and legally requested asylum and was put in Port Isabel. He’s never committed a crime and he had many offers of sponsorship and he’s a pastor. They denied him parole, nonetheless. Part of this ongoing program of denying everyone parole. He’s diabetic, but has kept it under control for a very long time. Once he was in Port Isabel, they stopped testing him every day and started testing once every three months, and also cut way back on his medications and changed that all around, and the diet that he gets, sometimes labeled special diet on a special diet different colored plate, is the white bread bologna sandwiches and mashed potatoes. By January his blood sugar shot past 550. He could have got into a coma. He had boils throughout his body because his immune system is down so far. He is blind just about, he has no vision in one eye and a little bit of vision left in the other due to diabetes cause cataracts, which they have not sent him to surgery for. We begged and pleaded and went to court to get him out during the covid pandemic because he could die of Covid. He apparently had Covid sometime during the last month, or so, while he was there. They just didn’t test him, so when they took a blood test they found out that he was negative, but that his white blood cell count is completely destroyed, its near zero. He has no immune system. If he gets a common cold, he could die of pneumonia. Then, he started getting massive pains through his sides, and apparently they told him upstairs well that could indicate kidney failure and they were going to send him for testing, but then they didn’t. They’re doing some in-house urine and blood samples and refuse to tell him what’s going on. He now has body-wide pain. We have a sign-on letter coming out of McGovern’s office right now. Jim McGovern’s office on the hill is making the rounds in Congress for signatures and we’re trying to get him out on medical parole. I’m a backup sponsor, but down here we’re killing people every day.
Belinda Hernandez Arriaga: Jennifer, thank you so much for your words, and you know what, I know that it’s really, when we hear these stories you know, sometimes it’s just painful, and at the same time what you’re doing today is being a witness to so many and telling us the stories that so many cannot speak for themselves to us. Thank you and we will, I’m sure, get back with you with another question.
Jennifer Harbury: Well, I’m going to go run and hide behind Thelma pretty soon. I need help from her later today, so I’m glad she’s on the panel, too. I may need to sign-off. I’m getting some emergency calls, but I’ll try to jump right back on.
Belinda Hernandez Arriaga: Thank you, Jennifer. And I just want to point out to everyone that there is a chat going on. I appreciate all of you that have attended today and that are listening in, and have questions. I’m sure we will not be able to get to everyone’s questions today, but I do have a couple questions that I’m going to start with, and Sister Norma, if we can start with you. I wanted to ask you Sister Norma because you’re definitely out there in the community. What do you think when you talk to the children and to the families, and when you feed them and you sit with them, what do they tell you, Sister Norma? What do you hear, like what is it that, you know, if you had to bring a message to this group, what is it that they tell you?
Sister Norma Pimentel: Well, thank you Belinda. Actually, just recently yesterday, I had a group of women and children came to meet with me because they really wanted to voice their cry to me, so that I can be that voice for them because they say, “enough is enough, you know, we don’t want donations. We don’t want you to make this camp better. We’re so unsafe, so fearful for our lives. This needs to stop,” if we really want to help them, they want us to hear them, and, “please, get us out of here. It’s not safe to be here and if I go back to my country, I know it’s a for sure death,” and the women were saying that, you know, and this camp is not safe. There are so many stories that we are even afraid to say them because of what can happen to us if people start to know that we’re speaking up, and I think that we have to stop trying to fix something that is broken and that is hurting these families. They are hurting, and so many people are hurting and and, I mean, one little boy, 15 year old, was raped by the river, you know, and this girl just had a miscarriage and she was bleeding off and we have to go see her because nobody’s caring for her in any way. So many women have lost their babies because they’re pregnant and they don’t have the right proper care. The list goes on and on, and when is enough, enough? When do we need to make it our problem and start to do something about it? This MPP must stop.
Belinda Hernandez Arriaga: Sister Norma, thank you. I also want to point out to the group, and I don’t know if you want to add to this Sister Norma, you know, when we think about it, the US created this MPP policy and they have put all of these families in Mexico, they’re at the border, and this was our policy. Mexico agreed to it, yes they did, however, one of the most important things I think about is the people that are on the ground helping the families, U.S. money is not coming in to support none of that, so there’s no U.S. money coming in, or you know. It’s Sister Norma’s group, team Brownsville group, tias and abuelo’s group, and you know RCM, they’re border relief. There’s just these amazing groups that are on the ground with sister Norma at the helm providing all the resources there, and I think about Sister Norma. I don’t know if you ever think about what happens if these resources weren’t there? What would happen if these groups weren’t there? I mean, we as the U.S., aren’t thinking about the human rights violations and then all of what it would take to get them these resources. I mean, is that something you’ve thought.
Sister Norma Pimentel: You know, Belinda, initially, I struggled with the idea of resolving the camp situation because I said if we resolve it the United States will feel, like, well it’s working, so why should I even change that policy? It’s actually a successful policy, but the truth of the matter is that when you see the suffering of the families and the children, you have no choice, but to act and to do something about it and to give them, like you said, the food, and the restrooms, and the showers that were non-existent, and the water, you know. Even to this day, as much water as we take them, is never enough, especially if somebody is ill, somebody’s diabetic, and other issues. We can never do enough for them to make it right, and it’s like trying to put a Band-Aid on a very serious problem, and so we will relieve some of the efforts of the needs, but truly, we’re not resolving anything with the help that we’re doing, and I know that the Mexican authorities there in Matamoras are doing some, of course with our initiative and the work of so many groups trying to do something, has really put them on the spot to also try to do something themselves, and so they are putting some effort, but definitely not enough to respond to the needs of these families the way they need to be cared for.
Belinda Hernandez Arriaga: Thank you, Sister. Thank you so much. Jorge, I want to ask you the same question? It’s been months since you’ve been out of the MPP camp, but he’s been in communication with them every day, not just one time a day, but all day long on WhatsApp talking to them, encouraging them just like many of us are. And my question is for Jorge, what is it that they tell him, and what is it that he would like to share with you all about their voice?
Jorge Sanchez: (Answer in Spanish and verbally translated by Belinda)
Belinda Hernandez Arriaga: Thelma, would you like to take two minutes. We’re coming to time and I want to leave a few minutes for questions and answers. Thelma, is there a message that you think that you would want to share, or what the people would want, to this group to know?
Thelma Garcia: Certainly. In spite of the fact that what we’ve done as a group for our brothers and sisters across in Matamoros, obviously, we all talked about more help being needed. Do we continue doing it? Yes or no. We don’t have a choice, but to help. Obviously, everything lies with Congress, so we have to push the harder. We have to get everyone out there to vote. Hopefully, the new Administration will be a better administration. I figure it can’t get any worse, so it’s going to be better. I don’t know if it’s going to come to the point that we will be satisfied with what they do, but they certainly have the power to change it, and so I will just say, make sure we all get out and take everyone out there to vote or mail-in, whatever needs to be done, but let’s not forget that we, and I know you guys are not going to forget, but let’s keep putting the word out that we need to continue helping the people one way or the other. Like Jorge was saying, there’s a lot of mental health issues. There’s obviously financial need as well. They need the food, they need to shelter because, otherwise, they’re there by themselves and the US is not going to come to their aid at this point, and Mexico’s not happy having them there either. I’ve been told by some of my clients that are out there that them when they run to Mexican police to ask for help, or to make reports, they make remarks to them that Central Americans, or people that are staying there with the MPP program, are not wanted, so we need to resolve this as soon as we can.
Belinda Hernandez Arriaga: Lilli, can I ask you if you had to speak for the children there, and I think that’s always what weighs heavily on my heart, but what do you think about what the children are experiencing, and I think it’s really important that sometimes we hear. I’ve heard comments like, “oh, well their parents shouldn’t have brought them,” but I have to tell you that the children have told us that they’re very scared back home, too. That they understand the danger that they’re fleeing from. That they’re in this as well, so what would you like to share in these next two minutes about the children?
Lilli Rey: One of the biggest issues that I have about the children is that people say they’re resilient, you know. That things don’t affect children, like they affect us and that’s just not true. How anybody can think that a child is living in a tent camp, doesn’t go to school, and maybe did go to school before they left. They hear gunshots. They hear violence. They’ve witnessed it, even Jennifer’s story about the three-year-old. These children are so affected and it may be irreversible at some point. For it to continue to go on for so long. A lot of people have said this. We provide teddy bears, we provide food, but that’s just not enough anymore. A child can hold onto a teddy bear for dear life, but that’s not going to change what’s happened to them emotionally, and we all have a responsibility because these are our neighbors. I urge people to send a note to the Hispanic Caucus, send a note to your Congress people, so many of our leaders that are on the right side of this issue all say there’s so little that can be done right now, so little that can be done right now because of Trump because it is an all-out disaster. There’s a special place in hell for a Stephen Miller. I’ll go on record right here to say that because he’s that awful human being who is basically writing, and I don’t even know how he comes up with this stuff, it’s like the worst of the worst Disney movies. Anyway, I digress. I’m sorry. But, we can all write to our Congress people, write to the Hispanic caucus, make a point to say this isn’t okay. We can’t keep waiting because best case we do win in November, and then January 20th we get a new president, it’s August, then January. For us in our homes and we’re eating and we’re doing, like we feel bad, but the reality is 6 months out of a 5 year olds life is a huge amount of time, so I just urge everyone to have these children in the back of your mind always. I go to sleep at night thinking about all of their beautiful brown eyes that I have stared at and dance with and played with being at the border, but again, that’s not getting them out of there, so vote, vote, vote and write an email to the Hispanic Caucus, write to your congressperson. We need to take a stance and not just say, oh look we’ve gotten them water. There’s not enough water, but even if you do get them a drink, they’re still there. Okay.
Belinda Hernandez Arriaga: Thank you, Lilli. Sister Norma, Tia and Abuelas if you’re on here, Team Brownsville, Bay Area Border Relief, there are a lot of immediate things happening in families, and Thelma, Jennifer, I think Jennifer had to jump off, but if you can type into the chat how folks can reach you, donate to your organization. We do have to understand that we have to stop and MPP. We have to move them out and we need you all, like Lilli said, to write to your representatives, write to the Hispanic Caucus. Get out there and move what you can, and at the same time, there are families that really need immediate help because of the conditions that are getting worse, and so, let’s work on both ends to make this happen. I have a question that says, my question is, is there any existing plan to help provide homes to families in MPP, awaiting their appointments, with better living conditions? Sister Norma, we also had that question coupled with another question that was sent earlier to me by El Tribuno, about the UN, and he asked if he had heard about the UN helping with housing? Sister, do we have any information on that? I know that people are asking, I would wish that MPP would end and that we didn’t have to worry about that, but it is a question people have. Is Sister Norma here? Did we lose her? I think that we might have lost sister Norma. Thelma, do you know about anything with the UN in terms of help right now.
Thelma Garcia: I really don’t. I have no idea.
Belinda Hernandez Arriaga: I think it’s important that, that is the reality, you and we have not seen the presence. Not the Red Cross. Not the UN. We hear that they’re on the peripheral somewhere, but I think that’s something else that we should put push for.
Joyce: I can speak to that if I’m on.
Belinda Hernandez Arriaga: Yes, Joyce.
Joyce: Hi, I am with Angry Tias and Abuelas. I think, possibly, Sister is either muted or not still on the panel. UNHCR has had a presence for about a year in the Matamoros encampment. Are you able to hear me? They’ve had a presence in the camp for approximately a year. They arrived soon after GRM. The medical facility took up residence there. Helen Perry, the director of GRM, sent a report to the UN describing the appalling conditions, and asking why they weren’t present, and very soon, thereafter, we had a large meeting in which about 5 UN representatives came from UNICEF and UNHCR, and gradually some efforts began to be present. They are not able to be present in the way that they are in many other countries because, as I understand it, Mexico has not really approved their presence in the camp, or Matamoros hasn’t, and I’m not positive about that inner working there. They are providing outreach for information about their integration program for immigrants in Monterey, and I think some of the people, maybe even made their way into Monterey to be involved, but most of the people do not want to leave the camp to go further inward to Mexico because their goal is to get across the border into the United States to have their asylum cases processed. So, they’re stuck where they are. Some have made that decision and have gone further in to be served by the UNHCR, and UNICEF did come into the camp before Covid. There was a presence of UNICEF and UNHCR trying to make some inroads, and doing some important things, including, now they’re in the process of bringing small building units to both Reynosa and Matamoros not for the people to live in, but to provide services, so there is some presence.
Belinda Hernandez Arriaga: Thank you so much for sharing that. We are at time. We have two more points to make. I want to give Jorge one minute. Jorge, one minute to say what’s in your heart and share today, and then Laura Garcia will be signing off for us. Jorge, who has truly been a gift to the community where he is living now, and also, his contribution to really being determined to keep the voices alive for his families. I would like for him to be able to share his last words with you all. Jorge, how would you like to finish off this meeting?
Jorge Sanchez: (Answer in Spanish and verbally translated by Belinda)
Belinda Hernandez Arriaga: Thank you, Jorge, for being here with us and being the present voice for your brothers and sisters on the other side. Thank you so much. With that, I will say thank you to everyone for being here. Thank you to Thelma. Thank you to Lilli, Jennifer, to Jorge, and to Sister Norma. I hope that you all can continue to really push this on the front lines as an issue that you take on, and we cannot afford to be silent. Every day that goes by families are suffering, and we need your help today, so with that thank you and Laura, I will pass it on to you. Laura, you’re on mute.
Laura Garcia: I was just saying thank you to you, Belinda, for doing such a wonderful job at moderating this panel, and thank you to all the panelists. They’ve done a wonderful job of letting us know what the situation is, and we are left with one thought, which is that we need a permanent solution to the problem. We need to help as much as we can, we need to stop MPP, we need to get out to vote, and we need to get Trump out. We got to keep the fight going for our brothers and sisters that are suffering right now at the border. I also wanted to let you guys know that we will publish a complete report once the series of panels are completed, and we intend to send the report to the United Nations later this year as part of the 72nd anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, so it’s everything that we are doing is making some change. Our next panel will be September 3rd. We’re going to be Zooming to El Paso, Texas and our host moderator will be Carlos Marentes from Sin Fronteras organizing project, and Executive Director of the Border Project, and that’s all. Thank you. Muchas Gracias. Hasta la proxima.
In this online panel discussion, activists in the Brownsville, Texas and Tamaulipas, Mexico area describe the impact of the Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP), which forces those seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border to wait in miserable and dangerous conditions in Mexico. This is the first of five US-Mexico Border Fact-Finding panels about the impact of US immigration policies on human rights along the border, part of the Zooming to the Border for Human Rights series sponsored by the People’s Tribune and El Tribuno del Pueblo.
Panelists in this video are Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley; Thelma Garcia, an immigration attorney in Texas; Lilli Rey, founder of Bay Area Border Relief; Jennifer Harbury, an attorney, human rights activist and advocate for farmworker families in the Rio Grande Valley; and Jorge Armando Sanchez Abreu, a Venezuelan national who migrated seeking asylum in the US. The moderator is Dr. Belinda Hernandez Arriaga, who is part of the Bay Area Border Relief team that has been working with asylum seeker families at the southern border since 2018.
