It’s early afternoon on Thursday, January 23 and my wife and I are at the Respettrans migrant shelter in Ciudad Juárez just across the international bridge from El Paso.
Following instructions from Grecia Herrera, the founder and director, we take two young men – one from the state of Michoácan and the other from Guatemala – to the nearby Gonzalez grocery store and load our car with chicken, eggs, beans and rice for the shelter.
We’ve been doing this since 2021 and are a small part of a supply chain for Respettrans that begins in Placitas, New Mexico and is essential to the survival of this unique program.
The question now is what comes next in this new Trump era. There were sixty migrants in Respettrans; the numbers have been way down due to two factors. First, the Biden administration agreement with Mexico whereby Mexico would essentially close its southern border to migrants from countries further to the south. Second, Biden’s executive order of mid 2024 placing restrictions on asylum cases.
What next? Can Respettrans and other similar shelters expect a huge influx in the coming weeks? This seems inevitable due to the reinstatement of the Remain in Mexico program whereby those applying for asylum will have to wait in Mexico until they are given a hearing.
Respettrans was founded in November 2018 by Grecia Herrera and was initially intended to be a shelter for transgender migrants. By the end of 2021, it began receiving a huge influx of families and single individuals. Herrera is a nurse and has a day job. Therefore, the migrants essentially run the shelter on a day to day basis. There is one person in charge overall plus others who have responsibilities like the kitchen, the maintenance of the different floors, and general cleanliness. When there were more families there in recent years, several of the women migrants would run a school for the children, believing that it was essential that they learn some English. We brought a large map of the United States so that they could get a feel for where they were headed, assuming they cleared their first asylum test.
Management is complicated because there is constant turnover as some migrants leave and others arrive but it works as a community.
Respettrans does not have a formal fundraising mechanism like a website to which to you could donate and it is not supported by the Mexican government. Survival depends heavily on a non-profit in Placitas, New Mexico called Dignity Mission. Founded by Jack and Cheryl Ferrell in 2019, it has grown rapidly to the point where the Ferrells and their team of volunteers gather about three tons of supplies a month and drive them to El Paso. This includes food, blankets, clothing, medical supplies and what are called dignity kits. These are small individual packets that contain items like toothbrushes and other personal basics.
Since its inception in 2019, the Dignity Mission has made 40 missions to El Paso and delivered 201,000 pounds of goods and served 57,000 migrants. 80 volunteers have put together 47,341 dignity kits.
They also raise money for Respetttrans to help with the various costs like rent and utilities. Two hundred and fifty people from 24 states have donated.
These truckloads go to the garage of Dr. Eva Moya in El Paso. Moya is a Professor of Social Work at the University of Texas at El Paso and a key figure in migrant issues there. She then has volunteers like my wife and me also ferry those items across the border to Respettrans car load by car load.
It’s an important supply chain that involves dozens of volunteers in New Mexico, Texas and Mexico and a model for bi-national cooperation.
Most of the shelters along the border are either closed because of a lack of migrants or continuing with greatly reduced numbers like Respettrans. I’m talking about the Sacred Heart church in El Paso, Colores United in Deming, New Mexico, Punto Beta in Palomas and Tierra de Oro in El Modelo south of Palomas. Annunciation House in El Paso, led by the extraordinary Ruben Garcia, is tied up in the unfortunate lawsuit brought by the Texas Attorney General.
What these shelters share, however, is low cost but humane living conditions for migrants who have often traveled thousands of dangerous miles in order to exercise their legal right to claim asylum. These migrants are not attempting to enter the US illegally.
What will happen now that this legal right to apply for asylum is being curtailed? If there is a need for more shelter space, shelters like Respettrans should be supported. Leaders like Grecia Herrera should be called upon to help define new programs. The importance of volunteers should be recognized. There ought to be a Mexico-US working group to monitor and support these shelters. Individuals like Herrera, Ruben Garcia at Annunciation House, Ariana Saludares and Sandra Magallanes in Deming and Palomas are the experts.
Editor’s Note: The above guest column was penned by writer Morgan Smith. Smith travels to the border at least monthly to document conditions there and assist various humanitarian programs. He can be reached at Morgan-smith@comcast.net.
