December 2019
Special Report from Ann Iversen
(a member of “Team Awesome,” the group, mostly from St. John’s, that went to the border to help relieve struggling immigrants)
Here’s a note Max and I just received from the woman in Texas who had her church volunteers help prepare the black beans for our dinner. St. John’s sent them the $500 donation in thanks for their help.
Greetings and blessings for everyone. Hopefully you had a blessed Thanksgiving Holiday and now getting ready for Advent Worship. I personally want to thank you for the generous donation to our Primera Iglesia Presbiteriana Mexicana in Brownsville. The Church Session and the Women’s group also want you to know that we greatly appreciated your passion and compassion, for the beautiful gesture coming to help us in serving our community and the refugees in Matamorros. We hope and pray we can continue to join you in future events where together we are able to serve those most in need and carry Christ mission. Paz, Lety
— Leticia G. Martínez, Primera iglesia Presb. Mexicana, Brownsville Texas
Background of Team Awesome’s journey, from the minutes of the Mission and Justice Commission,
Solidarity and Accompaniment on the Border
Brownsville Team Awesome report: Ann Iverson reported on the trip of Team Awesome (Ann Iverson, Amanda Iverson, Elizabeth Patelke, Diana Brown, and Kaki Logan from All Souls Episcopal Church) to the border to volunteer with organization Team Brownsville in its service to people seeking asylum in the U.S. who are currently living in a tent camp at the foot of the international bridge in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Over the course of 3 nights, they served nearly 2,500 dinners with up to 1,100 being served on the busiest night!
This trip was funded by a very generous gift of $5,000 from anonymous donors, a $2,500 gift from the Mission and Justice Centennial Fund, and $1,150 from a special offering from our congregation in October. As there was substantial money left over, the team requested that these funds be sent to those continuing to work on the ground in Brownsville and Matamoros.
These donations are as follows:
• Team Brownsville … To support its work with asylum seekers in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico —$1,969
• Resource Center for Asylum Seekers in Mexico, information and legal services organized by Gaby Zavala — $1,969
• Good Neighbor Settlement House … Thank you for use of the facility by Team Brownsville volunteers —$200
• Primera Iglesia Presbiteriana Mexicana … Thank you for work at the border and in appreciation for meal preparation assistance for asylum seekers in Matamoros —$500
“Team Awesome”
Went to Brownsville, Texas on Oct. 28-29, 2019 to prepare and serve food for 600 refugees awaiting asylum hearings in Mexico. Many thanks to Ann and Amanda Iversen, Diana Brown, Feliciana Lynn, Elizabeth Patelke, Kaki Logan and Susan Swanson who helped the immigrants on the Mexican side. We look forwards to learning their experiences.
Report on trip to Humane Border in Tucson
– Ann & Leti Iversen, October 2019
“I can’t do a lot, but I can do a little bit, and this is my little bit.” That’s how our driver, Mike, described his decision to volunteer with Humane Borders to help with the problems related to the immigration crisis. Mike was one of the 4 people we met while we were in Tucson who have been trained up and down steep, rutted roads while hauling a heavy tank of water and other supplies on the back of the truck.
For three days earlier this month we tagged along with these drivers through the deserts of Tucson to check on multiple water stations that have been strategically situated along paths migrants frequent on their dangerous journey into the U.S.
We witnessed beautiful landscapes of cactus covered plains, ranch lands, and federal wilderness preserve with unusual ancient mountains ringing the valley to the east and west of us. It had rained the week before our visit turning the desert green and covered in wildflowers. It would be easy to feel like we are on a vacation- after all Tucson is a beautiful tourist and retirement location.
However we were reminded this was not a vacation. We were there to help people we would never see but who traveled nearby on foot through the beautiful, but deadly desert. Mike explained that even if migrants were nearby, we would never see them. They could not be sure of us so, dressed in camouflage provided by their coyotes, they would be invisible to our eyes. Mike said instead we might find “artifacts”, i.e. water bottles, clothes or other items which might be discarded along the trails or by the road when the travelers were picked up.
We stopped at multiple water stations each day. Most of the time, the water barrels were full. We tested the water to ensure the algae content was not too high, and tasted and smelled the water to check for tampering. Occasionally, water was missing from the barrel indicated that as many as 5 people may have used it since it was checked the prior week. These barrels were refilled. Unfortunately, we also found a water station that had been vandalized by vigilantes. The flagpole holding a flag to make the site visible from a distance had been thrown to the ground; the water barrel had multiple shotgun holes and was emptied of its water. We recognized the seriousness of the action. Our first day we had visited a site where the remains of a migrant had been found a prior year. His remains were less than 100 yards from a water station which had been vandalized. Perhaps if that had not occurred, the young traveler would not have died.
We are again reminded that no one makes this journey lightly. Flyers distributed along in the border in Mexico warn migrants not to attempt the journey. It is too dangerous and many people have died. But for many, there is no legal path of entry.They fear bigger dangers back home, and so, they take the risk. The people who have operated Humane Borders for the past 20 years believe that even those who enter the U.S. without papers, do not deserve to die an inhumane death in the desert. Operating with legal permits, they maintain water stations at 48 locations on private and public land relying on volunteers and donations for support.
For those who would like to hear more about this trip as well as our stop at Casa Alitas, the shelter in Tucson for migrants newly released by ICE, we will do an Adult Forum later in November.
DONATIONS FOR THE BORDER
October 2019
Ann and Leti Iversen are collecting items for their trip to Tucson, AZ to support migrants at the border. For Casa Alita, a shelter serving people recently released from immigration custody, they request travel sized toiletries, new underwear and socks, and gift cards. A special offering will be collected September 29 for Humane Borders which maintains water tanks in the Sonoran Desert along migration routes
September 2019
From Ann Iversen
The Humanitarian Crisis at our border continues to worsen. Last week, the NY Times reported that in February of this year, the number of migrants waiting to enter legally to claim asylum at the southern border was 4,900. Due to the government policy of “metering”, i.e. only processing a few applicants each day, that number had mushroomed to 26,000 by August. In addition, under the new “Migrant Protection Protocol” (remain in Mexico), once applicants are processed, they are no longer allowed to wait in the U. S. for their claim to be heard. Instead, another 32,000 migrants have been returned to Mexico to await their hearing. So at this time there are now a total of 58,000 individuals who are attempting to legally enter the U.S. who are now stranded at our southern border.
If you, like me, would like to know more ways that you can help during this crisis, here are some ideas:
+ Attend “Crisis at the Border: Local Faith Responses and Call to Action” event at First Presbyterian of Concord on Saturday, September 7, 1-4:00 pm. Sponsored by the Multi-Faith Immigration Coalition for Action in Contra Costa County, the Faith Alliance for a Moral Economy, and the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, they invite participants to learn about root causes of the border crisis and ways faith communities are getting engaged and providing support to immigrant families through accompaniment, advocacy, and public witness.
+ Donate Airline Miles: Miles4Migrants will accept your donation of airline miles to unite separated family members. In the past year they have flown over 1,000 individuals, uniting 448 families using 17 million miles.
+. Humanitarian Aid in the Desert: Founded in the year 2000, Humane Borders was the first of 3 non-profits founded in the Tucson, AZ area with the purpose of preventing deaths by leaving water for migrants in the surrounding desert area. Operating with legal permits and staffed entirely by volunteers, they maintain 48 water stains in the Sonoran Desert. Leti and I will be spending 3 days with them in early October and would be happy to discuss ways you can provide support as well.
+. Donations for Migrants at Shelters –While in Tucson we will visit Casa Alitas which is still receiving 20 or more migrants each day out of the detention centers. We are collecting donations through September of backpacks, travel sized toiletries, and new underwear which we will deliver to the shelter while there.
Looking to the future, we are considering a trip later in October to Texas where a group of volunteers dubbed “Team Brownsville” has been preparing breakfast and dinner and then transporting it across the Brownsville/Metamoras international bridge to asylum seekers every day for the last year. The numbers being served have recently jumped from 100 per day to 500 day with the new wait in Mexico protocols.
Please contact Ann if you would like to explore any of these ideas further.
Ann’s response to the question: where are all the huge protests, the kind of mass attendance that stopped the Vietnam War? There is so much awful stuff happening everywhere that it’s just difficult to keep up and people’s efforts are very dispersed. There was a group that “witnessed” outside the child detention center in Homestead Florida for over half a year. Every single day they climbed ladders and held up hearts and other words of encouragement for the 3,000 children inside. There have been protests each time a new detention center is opened. But frankly what I am reading is that there is about to be a massive increase in capacity that will allow unlimited amounts of detention. It’s heartbreaking.
In terms of a “million man march,” two women — yes, just 2 women — have launched a massive march for September in Washington DC. In the first week they got 10,000 signups. There are lots of buses coming from all over the country and solidarity marches in many other cities. There is one happening in the Mission in SF, but I haven’t seen anything in Oakland or Berkeley yet. This is another event to remind our government that they work for US! It doesn’t have any one focus, i.e.,guns, immigration, climate, but encompasses all of those things. I’d be happy to do this march with a group from St. John’s!!
Here is the link:
https://wethepeoplemarch.org/ We the People are marching to be seen and heard. We are marching to remind our elected officials that they work for us. We are marching because the current regime is a threat to our democracy and values. We are marching to demand action. Silence and inaction are complicity.
See also:
Crisis at the Border: Local Faith Responses and Call to Action
August 2019
Concerned about the humanitarian crisis at the Border?
Wondering what you can do to help? Bay Area Border Relief, a grass roots organization, is currently doing a drive to collect clothing and other supplies to deliver to the Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen TX. The Respite Center, operated by Catholic Charities, currently is serving 500-900 asylum seekers EACH DAY after they are released from ICE. The Respite Center provides shelter, food, and new clothing and arranges transportation and a bus ticket to family and/or sponsors located elsewhere in the country.
