He set the church bells just in time for the arrival of the migrants and played Santa Maria del Camino, a hymnal in honor of traveling pilgrims. But the bells rang too soon, so Father Snipes, often referred to as the “Cowboy Priest,” walked across the street to reset them, followed by his three rescue dogs.
“I tried to get them to call when the refugees got home,” he said.
In recent weeks, asylum-seeking families have walked to the Catholic Charities Procrastination Center near the bus station, where they receive food, supplies, and a night’s rest before heading to their next destination in the United States.
But as the number of families grows, the nonprofit organization has asked Father Snipes and his church, Our Lady of Guadalupe in the neighboring town of Mission, to open an overflow shelter and help new migrants arriving each night. It has been open for almost two weeks.
It is a feeling that is now being repeated again. “As we go, I think it will be a crisis,” Representative Henry Cuellar, a Democratic congressman from Laredo, Texas, said in a news conference this week.
“It’s a difficult journey”
While some families seeking asylum are currently being released in the US, unaccompanied minors must be legally held in government facilities until they can come into contact with a sponsor. These facilities were operating at limited capacity due to the pandemic, but the Department of Health and Human Services on Friday – faced with overwhelming numbers – informed the facilities that they could reopen to pre-Covid-19 levels, which is exactly below 14,000 beds.
There are currently approximately 7,700 unaccompanied children in the care of HHS.
The administration also recently reopened a large facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, to temporarily house children, a move that quickly drew criticism from progressives and activists who believe the administration can process minors more quickly so they don’t have to stay. in large detention-like centers.
“Those huge facilities at the border are not suitable for children,” said Lee Gelernt, a lawyer at the ACLU. “Biden’s administration should stop using it as soon as possible.”
Carlos, 32, was traveling with his four-year-old daughter and saw young teens on a network of buses running from Honduras through Mexico. Jose, 25, had a five-year-old daughter and said that along the way he often saw children begging for money or cleaning windows in the street to earn money to survive.
He said he fears not all children made the trip safe and some may have been kidnapped along the way. “It is a difficult journey. A journey with many dangerous risks.”
Biden administration absorbs heat
The growing number has become a focal point in the early days of the Biden administration as, after four years, it seeks a more restrictive approach to former President Donald Trump to develop its own policies.
“Border security is strictly a federal responsibility,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, said in a statement. “The federal government is solely responsible for testing, screening and quarantining illegal immigrants who cross our border who may have COVID.”
“We hope Governor Abbott will reconsider his decision to reject DHS’s agreement with Texan local authorities that would allow testing of migrant families that Governor Abbott says he wants,” the spokesman said.
Earlier this week, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas put back those who called the border situation a “crisis”.
“This is a challenge that the border communities, the nongovernmental organizations, the people who care for individuals seeking humanitarian aid, understand it is a necessity,” he said. “Everyone understands what happened before us, what to do now, and we get it done.”
The policy is still in effect for singles and families, with a few exceptions. The Biden government has said it will not subject unaccompanied children to the policy, leaving more minors in custody.
“If you go from scratch because the border is closed until people come in all of a sudden, it seems like a lot. But it’s really not that unprecedented,” she said.
Jackson also thinks the story of more migrants coming because of the new policies of the Biden administration is a myth. “If someone tries to kill you, you go anyway,” she said. “I think it has more to do with what is happening in the home countries than with what is happening here.”
“We don’t know what tomorrow will bring”
On Tuesday evening, Father Snipes welcomed dozens of families with fist bumps into the overflow shelter. Volunteers served donated meals of chicken salad, corn, and pineapple.
The parents, most of them from Central America, sat wearily on folding chairs while their children played on the playground and or took turns riding a donkey named Nico around a basketball court. The shelter turned classrooms into sleeping quarters with soft mats on the floor.
Snipes, in turn, welcomes the migrants with open arms. He physically shudders at the mention of the Trump-era policy of divorcing children and is grateful that it is no longer happening.
“We don’t want open borders,” he said. “But we do want to help people who are in danger … or just looking for a way to survive.”
Still, he is concerned about the “chaos” that will unfold as the numbers continue to rise and when communities, along with the government, fail to keep up.
“We are in mysterious, uncharted territory,” he said. “We don’t know what tomorrow will bring.”
CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this report.