McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — Inside the Humanitarian Respite Center, a short distance from the border with Mexico, red bows and green holly are tied on the walls, candy canes adorn the front, red flowers border a portrait of the Virgen de Guadalupe, and a giant decorated tree stands in the entrance to welcome migrants.
Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities Rio Grande Valley, which runs the facility, says the holidays especially are a time when migrants who come to this country should be welcomed with open arms.
She says many leave their families thousands of miles away to come to America, and the holidays can be a time of sorrow for them.
Flowers adorn a portrait of the Virgen de Guadalupe, and a decorated tree and Christmas gifts greet migrants at the Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, Texas. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report Photos)
“Christmas becomes a very sad time,” Pimentel told Border Report as she gave a tour of the facility this week. “The immigrant also, they’ve left everybody. Many of their families are still apart. They uprooted themselves and left everything behind — everything that is who they are, you know, their culture, their food, their friends, their everything. And it’s not an easy thing.”
That’s why she said the Humanitarian Respite Center goes out of its way to welcome migrant families during the holidays.
Teddy bears and dolls are given to every child as they leave the facility.
“So they leave with this big smile,” she said.
Churches, nonprofits and universities donate many of the gifts and also send groups to volunteer at the center over the holidays.
Special lunches and dinners are held where the Rio Grande Valley community is invited.
She said a Christmas Mass is planned, and they are currently celebrating Las Posadas, which commemorate Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter for the birth of Jesus.
The Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, Texas, is decorated for Christmas as it welcomes asylum seekers who cross the border and are legally released by federal officials. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)
Pimentel said posadas are the perfect way to symbolize what these asylum-seekers have been through, adding that these migrants have come from country to country looking for a safe place to live.
“This is the first welcoming; this is the first time. We can provide them a safe space,” Pimentel said.
She says children especially need to remember their first Christmas in America as a special time.
“I love the children, I think children fill my heart and they’re the hope for tomorrow for all of us,” she said.
A giant cake is donated to the center every year, she said “and everyone gets a slice, maybe a tiny slice, but we all get a slice,” she said with a smile.
This year, the asylum-seeking migrants might get a larger slice, however, as there is only an average of about 300 migrants per day at the facility, she said.
There have been times it has been packed with 1,500 people.
Anabel Marina, 42, of Venezuela was among them on Tuesday afternoon as she stopped at the center for some help before heading to Indiana.
The Catholic grandmother said she was overwhelmed by the kindness, clothing and meals she received at the Humanitarian Respite Center.
She said it helped to lift her spirits after she and her 23-year-old daughter and 1-year-old granddaughter trekked through the dangerous Darrien Gap en route to the border.
She says she is missing her two daughters — ages 4 and 15 — who she left behind in Venezuela.
“Si muy emocionante porque a pesar de que hemos venido pasando por cosas muy duras, muy fuertes,” she said in Spanish. (“This is really exciting because we’ve been going through rough times and hard times.”)
On Tuesday, a facility staffer gave Pimentel a gift they had just been delivered from the U.S. consul general across the border in Matamoros. Atop the silver box was a red arch and a plaque that read, “In honor of our continued collaboration.”
Sister Norma Pimentel is the executive director of Catholic Charities RGV, which operates the Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, Texas. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report Photos)
Pimentel has been helping migrants since the first Humanitarian Respite Center opened down the block in 2014. The facility has moved several locations, but she says the suffering of asylum seekers seeking a new life has remained a constant.
“They’ve been through so much and you hear their stories,” Pimentel said as she walked around the facility kissing babies and holding hands with mothers.
“But then being in a country where there’s people that receives them and gives them that dignity and respect that we rightfully deserve to have because we’re children of God,” she said. “It’s almost giving back what’s rightfully theirs: a sense of value and we are and so I think that’s the best gift we can give them this Christmas.”
All asylum-seekers at the center have been legally released by the Department of Homeland Security and are allowed to temporarily be in the United States as they await their immigration proceedings.
Pimentel says many are crossing in other parts of the border and being shipped to the Rio Grande Valley for processing. She said many at the center crossed in Lukeville, Arizona, and Eagle Pass, Texas.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
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