Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Compassion Has No Boundaries at US – Mexico Border

May 17, 2022

~ by Peter Tran and Lisa Elmaleh, Global Sisters Report

AGUA PRIETA, MEXICO – At 1 a.m. on a later October day, Sr. Judy Bourg’s alarm goes off in the School Sisters of Notre Dame house in Douglas, Arizona. She marshals her three guests, who want to know about her ministry, to get ready for the 10-minute drive through the U.S. Border checkpoint and on to Agua Prieta, Mexico.

They arrive at the Centro de Recursos para Migrantes, or Migrant Resource Center, a two-story building just outside the gate of the border wall there, and set to work to ready sandwiches, hot coffee and warm clothes. She shows her guests volunteers the ropes.

Why do she and others perform this daily ritual in the dark of night? Because the center needs to be ready for the fresh group of deportees who will arrive in the acute hours of the day, classified as “returned or expelled.” In the middle of the night, the U.S. Border officials picked them up from holding centers, put them on a bus, transported them and subsequently left them off at the border gate outside Agua Prieta. All had been refused asylum and sent back. Back to the hunger, poverty, threats and violence they fled.

As Sr. Bourg walks out to the border gate at 2:30 a.m., a U.S. Border Patrol bus drops off some 30 returnees on the U.S. side. They step over into Mexico and Bourg moves in to welcome them.

She invites them to the center for food and a warm place to rest. The migrants, all men in their 20s and 30s, shiver in the declining temperatures. A volunteer doles out socks, a blanket or clothing to the men, who wait patiently in line for coffee and food. Later in the day, other groups of expelled migrants, some of whom are women, arrive. The center receives 100 – 200 expelled migrants each day.

Sr. Bourg says she is deeply moved as she greets the migrants at the gate and offers comfort. “It is dark and cold, and they have no idea where they are. To be able to look them in the yes and tell them that they are welcome into a safe place where they can rest, fills my heart,” she says.

Several hours later, as the sun rises, the migrants shed their blankets. Two Missionary Sisters of the Eucharist walk in smiling. Sr. Maribel Lara Hernandez cleans and can offer first aid. Sr. Emma Rias Flores heads to the kitchen.

Sr. Hernandez sets up a makeshift clinic. One man hobbles over to take a seat, presenting his wounded foot to Hernandez. She washes the blisters, applies medication and wraps it with gauze pad. Another migrant takes his turn and then another.

As the day progresses, the center becomes busy with activities. Volunteers work in the vegetable garden on the center’s grounds. Some deportees rush to help till the soil. As a migrant center is a short-term shelter, expelled migrants will leave it soon. A small number will return to their home country, while others will attempt to cross the border again.

Under the Trump and Biden administrations, more than 1.7 million expulsions have been carried out since the pandemic began, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

The Migration Protection Protocols, known as the “Remain in Mexico” program, were suspended in January 2019, but were reinstated in December 2021 by order of a federal judge in Texas They remain in effect despite human rights activists’ warnings about the high risk of violence to those forced to wait in dangerous border areas. To read the entire article please click here

Cabrini Immigrant Services-NYC relocates to St. F.X. Cabrini Shrine

May 5, 2022

Cabrini Immigrant Services of NYC has finally moved to our new location!

We opened our doors on the St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Shrine property on Monday, May 2nd.

After almost 23 years at 139 Henry Street, we saw the need to move our offices to the upper side of Manhattan. We believe the services we offer are also needed by the community of Inwood and the surrounding neighborhoods. The big difference is that our food pantry needed to be relocated at 207 Street at the Good Shepherd Parish to share the space with their food pantry however, it will continue to be under our care.
The legal services are now offered at our new location.

As we opened our doors we welcomed our clients with joy and a sense of newness since the place is brand new to all of us. In our new surroundings, sometimes we get lost searching for someone’s office – but, we just laugh about it.

Now we are able to offer to our clients a better space in which to visit and to receive the services they need.

All of us are happy for having a place where we feel at home.

Cabrini Immigrant Services NYC is on the move!

April 7, 2022

After months of deliberation, we have decided to relocate our office to another part of the city to continue the mission of bringing God’s love to vulnerable communities. On May 2nd, our office will officially open at the St. Frances Cabrini Shrine in Washington Heights (701 Fort Washington Ave, New York, NY 10040). Our Food Pantry will also be located nearby at the Church of the Good Shepherd (608 Isham Street, New York, NY 10034). We will be forever grateful to the Lower East Side/Chinatown community for welcoming us and allowing us to be of service. We will not forget the gestures, both big and small, that made us feel welcomed and at home in this neighborhood.

We are looking forward to continuing our work, strengthening existing relationships, and building new relationships in our new neighborhood. All of our programs will continue to operate and serve clients from all over New York City, as they have for many years. This new, larger space will provide more opportunities for growth for our organization, and the possibility of exciting new projects as we continue to expand.

Thank you for supporting us through many transitions, moments of growth, and challenges over the past two decades. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us more than ever the importance of community, and we are grateful to have you as part of ours.

Should you have any questions about our move or need additional support, please feel free to reach out to us! Thank you again for your support through this transition.

Chaos in Shelters for Ukrainian Refugees Increases the Risk of Human Trafficking

March 31, 2022

~ Elisabeth Auvillain for Global Sisters Report (GSR)

Sr. Imelda Poole has been fighting human trafficking for years and now is increasingly worried about the situation in Ukraine.

“There has been an explosion of child trafficking in the world in recent years because of increasing poverty,” she told GSR. “And now, the risks are enormous in Ukraine because war situations make it easier for international and local gangs to find prey.”

Poole is a member of the Loreto Sisters and President of Religious in Europe Networking Against Trafficking and Exploitation (RENATE), a non-governmental organization that combats human trafficking in 31 European countries.

Millions of Ukrainians have left their homes, fleeing bombings and destruction. After a month of fighting, about 3 million of them have crossed the borders, mostly into Poland. About as many have been displaced within their country, going west where the fighting has been less intense. Thousands are waiting in underground shelters, hoping for a ride to safety as soon as possible.

“The situation is dire in shelters. Food is scarce. Hygiene is very bad. Such chaos is welcomed by gangs of traffickers, who prey on the most vulnerable: isolated children or young people,” said Poole.

It did not take long for gangs, local as well as international, to mingle in the crowd and offer false promises of help. Traffickers know refugees are desperate to go to a safer place. They are quick to offer a ride over the border to people who are desperate to leave. This is where the danger lies.

Soon after the war broke out, humanitarian aid agencies started to distribute leaflets to refugees gathered in shelters to warn them of human trafficking. The paper tells refugees what to do before agreeing to a ride to the border with Poland or Romania, the two main countries where Ukrainians seek refuge, along with Hungary and
Slovakia.

“Never hand out your passport to someone who promises you a ride. Take a picture of the license plate of the van you get on and tell someone that you are going in it and where you are going” are some of the tips printed on the leaflets. If offered accommodations, make sure to tell someone you know, where you are. Aid workers also watch out for people acting in a suspicious manner and report them to the police.

“Drug trafficking doesn’t bring as much money as it used to. Arms trafficking is also not so lucrative anymore, so traffickers are now focusing on human trafficking,” said Sr. Poole.

“Children are bought online,” she added, “they become sex slaves or are forced to work for free.”

“The world is demanding cheap labor, cheap sex. Traffickers know that wars give them opportunities. Their only aim is greed; they have absolutely no ethics. And criminals often get away with it,” she said.

Caritas Internationalis and other humanitarian groups present in Ukraine have joined forces to help refugees. The situation in Ukraine is chaotic, and UNICEF, the United Nations Children Fund, is also warning about people eager to help, saying that rules have to be followed to protect children.

“There is real chaos in humanitarian refugee centers with volunteers who are not under the auspices of any qualified agency. They just wear a badge and a yellow vest and they are seen as volunteers. This is irresponsible,” said Alice Barbe, a spokeswoman for Corridor Citoyen, to ensure safe passage to France. To read the complete account please click here To access the MSC Corporate Stance and information on Trafficking please click here and here

Nuns in Ukraine Rescue, Escort, Stranded Foreign Students

March 10, 2022

~ Thomas Scaria, Global Sisters Report

An Indian Catholic nun and her associates are working round-the-clock to help stranded students and others fleeing war-torn Ukraine.

“God is using me to save people from death in Ukraine,” said Sr. Ligi Payyappilly, the 48-year-old superior of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Saint-Marc in Mukachevo, Ukraine.

Payyappilly, and 17 sisters of her congregation are giving shelter and food to the distressed students besides helping them cross the Ukrainian border to escape to countries including Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.

“Being in Ukraine for over 20 years, I have a lot of contacts and networks that helped me carry out this mission so far,” Payyappilly told Global Sisters Report, just before her scheduled two-hour sleep. Her convent in Mukachevo in western Ukraine is some 480 miles southwest of the national capital of Kiev.

People helped by Payyappilly’s team profusely thanked the nuns.

“We never thought we would be alive now,” said Vignesh Suresh, a third-year student of medicine who hails Payyappilly as “God’s angel who came to help us when we were totally lost.”

Suresh said he and 45 other Indian students were stranded at the Polish border for 15 hours when Payyappilly’ and Sr. Christine Tymurzhina, a Ukrainian, came to helpo them.

“The sisters took us to their convent in their vehicles, hugged each of us with their love and warmth, gave us food, a warm hall to sleep in and escorted us in the morning to cross the Romania border,” Suresh said as his friends slept on the train.

Payyappilly said Suresh was among about 1,000 foreign students her convent has helped so far.

She said most students reached them in a desperate state. “They had not bathed for many days or eaten food. They were mentally shocked and physically weak. So our first priority was to give them a comfortable stay before taking them to the border,” Payyappilly said.

Payyappilly said the sisters are flood with phone calls from panicked parents after a Catholic website in Kerala published information about their services.

Payyappilly said once the people cross the border safely, they consider the mission accomplished and look for other lost ones in Ukraine.
To read the complete account please click here

Supreme Court to Hear Arguments on ‘Remain in Mexico’ Policy

February 23, 2022

A demonstrator outside a U.S. Customs and Border Protection building in Brownsville, Texas, wears a necklace that reads “END MPP,” to protest against Migrant Protection Protocols Jan. 12, 2020. (CNS photo/Go Nakamura, Reuters)

~ by Rhina Guidos, Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — The justices on the country’s highest court have agreed to hear a case that could decide the fate of a Trump-era immigration policy that Biden administration officials have been trying to end. On February 18, the U.S. Supreme Court said it would hear arguments on whether the Biden administration can put an end to the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP, a policy that demands asylum-seekers to the U.S. to stay in Mexico until their cases can be heard in the U.S. immigration courts.

The policy has been a headache for the administration as President Joe Biden promised to end it, but, it proved much more difficult to do so once he took office. As soon as he became president in January 2021, Biden paused the policy, the formally sought to end it a few months later in June.
But in August of that year, a judge with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas told administration officials that they had to continue complying with the policy, saying they had not ended it properly.

The Supreme Court refused a Biden administration request to block that District Court ruling while the government pursued an appeal with the New Orleans-based 5th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In December, the appeals court upheld the lower court ruling.

Subsequent attempts at ending the policy have failed and it looks as if the high court will be the ultimate arbiter when it hears oral arguments of the case Biden v. Texas, in April.

Immigration supporters, including many Catholic organizations, have railed against the Biden administration for not keeping its word on ending the policy, also called “Remain in Mexico.”
In December, just before Biden administration officials restarted the program, a large group of women religious and their supporters demonstrated outside the White House, shouting just a few feet away from the president’s residence to end the policy.

MPP was put in place in earnest in 2019 under the Trump administration. Opponents of the policy say migrants have been put in danger or killed by being forced to stay in dangerous border towns, as well as in unsafe living conditions as they wait for hearing. Biden administration officials said they had made some improvements to MPP, but many advocates for immigrants weren’t convinced.

The head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ migration committee, Auxiliary Bishop Mario Dorsonville of Washington, said in December that the better way forward was to end it altogether.

The justices could hand down a decision sometime in June or July before summer recess.
To read the entire article please click here

Migrants at U.S. Border are often Traumatized

February 16, 2022

~ J.D. Long-Garcia, AMERICA Magazine

Sometimes accompanying migrants means serving them even after death.

Jesuit Refugee Service’s (JRS) Caminar Contigo, launched in 2021, helps refugees, asylum seekers and displaced persons at the U.S. Mexico border. Before beginning Caminar Contigo, JRS team members had consulted with service providers working on the border, looking for gaps in care that needed filling. “What really stuck out to us,” said Kate Mullins, Caminar Contigo’s psychological support specialist, “was the mental health and psycho-social needs” of migrants.

The limbo experienced by asylum seekers waiting to be admitted to the United States and the traumatic experiences that forced them to leave their home country in the first place take a profound psychological toll.

“Legal teams felt like they did not have the [psychological] skills or capacity to be asking the kinds of probing questions required in asylum claims,” Ms. Mullins said. As part of that process, asylum seekers often have to recount horrific details of their experiences to justify their claims, she explained. Caminar Contigo hopes to address mental health needs that might emerge during that application process or because of other experiences migrant people may have had at or traveling to the border.

“Many of the people who come to the shelters have been through or have experienced significant loss,” said Joan Rosenhauer, the Executive Director of Jesuit Refugee Service USA. “They may have lost loved ones on the way. They may have lost loved ones back in their home country while they were gone, and they never were able to go through the grieving process.”

“The people who are in Mexico have endured a lot of really difficult experiences but are also incredibly resilient to have made it that far,” Ms. Mullins said. “Sometimes helping that person look back at how far they’ve come and reminding them of those strengths helps when they are feeling disempowered.”
To read the entire article, please click here

Jesuit Network with Migrants (RJM)

February 10, 2022

Jesuit Network with Migrants (RJM)
~ An account by Sr. Sonnia Margarita Osorio, MSC *

I have lived a very intense month, accompanying the caravan of Honduran migrants at the Aguas Calientes border between Honduras and Guatemala, accompanying a family in the process of [identifying] the body of their son, who was in the truck that crashed in Chiapas on December 19, 2021. The truck was carrying more than 150 migrants [as they were observing] the first anniversary of the 19 migrants killed in Tamaulipas on January 22, 2021. Of those 19, 14 were from Comitancillo San Marcos. On January 20 and 21 in San Marcos we had a Eucharist and inaugurated a mural in honor of the victims and their families, the mural represents the process of mourning and hope.

“I have seen the oppression of my people in Egypt and I have heard the cries of pain, I have seen the oppression of my people in Egypt and heard the cries of their oppressors; I know their sufferings…” Exodus 3, 7

With this text of the Exodus begins the prologue of the book “The Flight of the Hummingbird” which contains the review of each of the migrants killed and burned in Camargo Tamaulipas. It also narrates the process of accompaniment of mourning with their families made by the Network. I have had the grace of accompanying these families for some months in group processes. We have also taken the opportunity to visit each family, listen to them and encourage them. Further on, the same text says:
“I have come down to deliver you from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring you up from this land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey…”.

This experience of celebrating the first anniversary of these victims of Tamaulipas, has a double reality and feeling, on the one hand, the joy that gives “the lowering of God to free his people” and the certainty that they come from the Gospel, where it is not the full and satisfied who enjoy the banquet of the Kingdom, but the strangers, those of the squares, the roads, the discarded, those who, like the Master, have nowhere to lay their heads.

The other reality is the indignation of seeing how the bodies of the victims of the “accident” in Chiapas continue to arrive, in which so many migrants, mostly Guatemalans, were traveling, and where we see that the blood of our brothers and sisters continues to cry out for justice. We are all brothers and sisters and we must eat at the same table because the earth belongs to all and produces for all.

“Hope multiplies strength a hundredfold,” says Mother Cabrini and I believe that this is a reality of the RJM team extended to our families and communities where lay and religious men and women live with joy the encounter with our brothers, Haitians, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, Hondurans, and Guatemalans who with their courage challenge us to leave the comfort and always look for something better.

Cabrini Health Outreach Wins Award

December 15, 2021

We are thrilled to announce the Cabrini Asylum Seeker and Refugee Hub in Malvern, Australia has won the Victorian Multicultural Commission Awards for Excellence in the Health category.

The judges noted the Hub addresses a “pressing unfunded gap in primary healthcare and specialist mental health services for people of all cultures, faiths and ethnicities seeking asylum”.

They also made mention that our services were free, and included culturally and linguistically sensitive primary nurse-led care, specialized mental health support and engagement to access welfare and supports.

Pope Francis Pained at Migrant Deaths

December 2, 2021

Pope Francis Pained at Migrant Deaths
~ by the Associated Press via National Catholic Reporter

Vatican City – This past Sunday, Pope Francis expressed pain and sorrow at the deaths and suffering of migrants crossing the English Channel, at the border between Poland and Belarus and the Mediterranean Sea.

The Pope asked the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the traditional Sunday blessing to pray “for migrants and their suffering.”

“How many migrants, let’s think about this, how many migrants are exposed to very serious dangers in recent days? How many lose their lives at our borders?” the pontiff said.

“I feel pain at the news of the situation in which many find themselves. Of those who died in the English Channel, of those at the border of Belarus, many of whom are children. Those who drown in the Mediterranean. How much sorrow, thinking of them.”

The deaths of the 27 migrants in the English Channel have shocked both Britain and France. Still, shipwrecks of that scale are not uncommon further south in the Mediterranean Sea as migrants flee poverty, natural disasters and authoritarian regimes for a better life in Europe. UN officials estimate that as many as 1,600 people have died or are missing in the Mediterranean this year alone.

Overnight on Sunday, the Italian Coast Guard rescued 244 migrants off the coast of Calabria, the toe of the Italian boot, in difficult sea conditions. Those rescued included 41 minors, among them an infant born on the packed wooden fishing boat.

The pontiff also remembered migrants who are sent from Europe back to northern Africa, “where they are captured by traffickers and enslaved. They sell the women and torture the men.

Francis expressed closeness to the migrants and called on civil and military institutions to find solutions to help those who undertake dangerous journeys “that respect the humanity of these people.”