June 2021. Jessica Corley, Immigration Coordinator for ABQ FaithWorks, organized a 2-day trip to El Paso. A medical team, Family Liaisons, Board Members, and FaithWorks clergy participated, greeting MPP and Title 42 migrants as they crossed the border orderly and without detention, and guiding them to a shelter or to transportation on their journeys to sponsors. A team provided a medical clinic in a 3-story shelter in Juarez for a day, and observed what life was like for those waiting the many months for their appointment with Border Patrol to cross. They visited the Wall in 105-degree heat which covers over 130 miles in the El Paso sector. They were also fortunate to visit the operation and shelter warehouse of Annunciation House and hear the humanitarian perspective of (Saint) Ruben Garcia who has provided the blueprint for us for welcoming the stranger. In this time, they also demo'd an app for receiving and processing asylum seekers based on the 2019 experience, in case the day comes when the border opens again to the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free." There are more stories to come about this experience!
