Day 4: Intake

99% of the people that pass through the shelter where I'll be this summer are released from ICE detention centers. Our job here is to move them on to better places—homes with family members or friends who will care for them. 

Megan, the manager of Casa del Refugiado, explained that we are simply a blip on their journey of thousands of miles. This summer, we will be helping people who have been kidnapped, raped, threatened, and abused. Because of the sheer volume of people we take in every day—close to 100 guests—Megan warned us that we will likely become numb to their stories and pain. 

Many of the guests come in the blue shirt and sweatshirt that they were given to wear at the detention center. Most have had all of their belongings taken away. 

We watched a group of about 30 arrive, and the volunteer on shift went around asking them how long they had been detained for. Their answers ranged from a few months to multiple years. 

The people that have been released from detention centers are those that qualify to do so under governmental policy. 

Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP or "Remain in Mexico), was started by Trump in 2019 and made it more difficult for asylum seekers to receive fair and meaningful reviews of their claims. Since Biden ended MPP in January of this year, thousands of migrants have been processed and their cases transferred to U.S. immigration courts. 

We receive and help many of those who have recently qualified for entry into the United States due to the end of MPP. Only certain countries qualify, however. Our guests mainly come from Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras, Cuba, Brazil and Guatemala. 

ICE sends people back who come from elsewhere. 

There are some undocumented migrants (not released by ICE) who pass through our doors as well. We're supposed to warn them that there are border patrol officers at most every checkpoint 90km away from El Paso. We're also supposed to to take away their phones, because we don't want the shelter to inadvertently become a safe-house for coyotes. What awaits these migrants is a terrifying life of running and then hiding. 

To those that are released from detention, we tell them that their first priority should be attaining an immigration lawyer. Yes, they're free from detention facilities, but the U.S. government is still doing everything in its power to deport them. 

One of my fellow volunteers told me that before dinner, she sat down with a family who had just arrived. She told them that she wasn't part of ICE and that she, unlike the officers they were used to interacting with, wasn't there to hurt them. The mother of the family started crying. 

I copied down a sign I saw in the office of the shelter that I thought was appropriate: When shit is just shit, everything is everything. Let us just be kind. 

(Casa del Refugiado is a drab warehouse off the highway, but its walls are covered with vivid murals. See below.)