36 Powerful Photos Showing Not Everyone Wants To Turn Away The Children At The Border
Much of the media coverage of the unaccompanied minors crisis at the border has focused on anti-immigration protests. But in Texas, California, and elsewhere, many are supporting the children.
1.Thousands of undocumented children and families have arrived at the U.S. border in recent months, sparking anti-immigration protests. But activists, churches, and ordinary people have also taken to the streets, showing their support for the migrants.
2.In California, Methodist Bishop Minerva Carcaño visited a detention facility in Ventura County in July, where over 500 unaccompanied children are being held.
In a recent video she shared her message for the children as a faith leader.
3."I'd say welcome, bienvenido, mijito, mijita, we love you," she said. "We're glad that you're here. We hate the fact that you're suffering, but we stand with you and we're going to struggle with you and we're going to make sure that you're alright."
4.Family-to-Family, a non-profit national poverty and hunger relief organization, is sending essentials like toothpaste and clothing, along with comfort items like Spanish-language books, blankets and stuffed animals to Texas humanitarian organizations.
5.Because needs are changing daily, monetary donations allow Family-to-Family flexibility in what it sends to organizations providing shelter to the children.
6.“Faced with more than 50 thousand children stranded on our southern border, we have the opportunity to respond as America has for centuries: by opening our hearts and showing compassion to those in need,” director and founder Pam Koner said in a release.
7.In Los Angeles, seven young people from the age of 15 to 22 took part in a week-long fast starting July 21 in support of the children.
8.“These are children we are talking about," said Edgar Gonzalez, 22, according to the SEIU release. "Someone needs to stand up for them.”
9.“When I see the children suffering and being mistreated at the border, I think about my mom who came here from Honduras when she was 20,” Janio Alvarado, a 15-year-old faster said.
10.The fasters only drank water during the week.
11.They slept at the nearby La Plaza United Methodist Church.
12.One of the fasters knew the plight of the some of the children because, after her father was killed by gang members, she fled Guatemala at the age of 7 with her sister.
13.In early July, members of United We Dream (UWD), a national immigrant rights organization, visited the Sacred Heart migrant shelter in McAllen, Texas.
14.The shelter is affiliated with Catholic Charities. While the children are not part of the current crop of unaccompanied minors, UWD felt it was necessary to visit children in similar circumstances.
15.At the Sacred Heart, volunteers help children and families find their way to their relatives.
16.The shelter provides clothes for the children...
17....diapers and toiletries...
18....as well as toys, school supplies, and encouragement,
19."The fact is that these women and children come from the same part of the world and are fleeing the same violence that unaccompanied minors are as well," UWD spokesman Mario Carrillo told BuzzFeed.
20."United We Dream went to McAllen to show these refugees love, to humanize their story and to let them know that they are not alone," Carillo said.
21.The organization also staged a rally at McAllen's Central Bus Station, where children and families head to their destination.
22.Actress America Ferrera went to McAllen on July 27 along with Hispanic Heritage Foundation (HHF) president Antonio Tijerino to bring comfort to the children and families.
23.“This effort is focused on helping these refugee children cope and provide hope with their situation through reading, playing, and praying,” Tijerino said.
24.The Refugee Enrichment And Development Project (READ) is providing free access to interactive eBooks in Spanish for volunteers to read to and with the children, and the HHF is donating tablets for volunteers to use with them.
25.In direct response to the protests against the children, community members came out in support for the unaccompanied minors.
26.On July 9, a coalition of immigrant rights and faith-based organizations from Inland Empire region held a vigil outside City Hall in Murrieta, Cal., to collect donations for immigrant families that were transported to southern California from Texas.
27.Around 200 supporters attended the vigil, during which religious leaders of different denominations denounced anti-immigrant protests in Murrieta and called for a more compassionate response by the community.
28.Catholic Charities and the Diocese of San Bernardino have taken the lead on housing the immigrants, using parishes and other facilities as "transitional housing centers," Luis Nolasco, an organizer with the Inland Empire Immigrant Youth Coalition, said.
29.That same week, Georgia Johnson drove to a site outside the Border Patrol station in Murrieta where protestors who blocked three buses carrying immigrant families had been camping out for a week.
30.Johnson, a resident of nearby Winchester, told BuzzFeed she was inspired by media reports to go to the site and stand with groups rallying in support of the immigrants. But when she arrived, there were no protesters on her side.
31.Undeterred, she got out of her car with a sign that read "As ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me," a biblical verse.
32.Frank Pierson of Oracle, an Arizona town that was set to receive children, admitted frustration with how the Obama administration has communicated during this time, but believes the children should be supported.
33.He and his wife, Mary Ellen Kazda, launched the Oracle Have A Heart campaign to get people to think with compassion.
34.Pierson showed up with a large group to support the children, complete with mariachi band, after protesters came to stop a bus that was set to bring some to Oracle.
35."The notion of welcoming the stranger actually is a nonnegotiable and it is taught relentlessly by our bishop. Pope Francis has been aggressive and public over and over again," Pierson said in a video entitled Oracle, Arizona is not Murrieta, California.
36."I don’t support the disposition that you should terrorize children who have travelled 1,500 miles," he told BuzzFeed on July 15. "People screaming at you, I don’t think that’s humane or Christian."
