From February 10th to 14th, I visited the Mexican-American border near Brownsville, Texas, as part of meetings of the Jesuit Migration Network of Canada and the United States. We learned about the walls that are being put in place to prevent people fleeing persecution and misery from seeking refuge. We also learned about the many Good Samaritans who continue to welcome their persecuted neighbors in a context where migrants and those who help them are demonized. In this increasingly hostile context, we pledged, as a network, to work together more closely to raise awareness of what’s really going on in the lives of migrants trying to remake their lives, and to persevere in our advocacy.

One of the new US administration’s executive orders cancelled all appointments for people wishing to apply for asylum at the US border. These people had been waiting for months in shelters where they live in tents. One Venezuelan, who was there with his family, testified how he was persecuted by a cartel demanding large sums of money.

What’s more, since he was a nurse, they wanted to force him to serve the cartel by treating the wounded.  It was then that he and his wife decided to flee with their children to seek refuge in the United States. They had an appointment for February 9 at the U.S. border with a border service agent. But because of the decree issued by the new American administration, the appointment was cancelled. Now they don’t know what to do. If they go home, the persecution starts all over again. And they can’t go on living without status in Mexico forever.

It’s just one story among many that shows the human drama unfolding because of policies that turn their backs on people in need of refuge. We’re a long way from Emma Lazarus’s poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty: “…Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” 

But Good Samaritans are also there at the border.

I attended a mass presided over by a Jesuit who danced with the migrant children. The next day, to celebrate Valentine’s Day, the nuns organized games for the children, which ended with a cake. There were lots of smiles. I also listened to the testimony of Sister Norma, who spoke of the importance of always respecting the humanity of one’s neighbor, even when that neighbor is a border service agent. She told us the story of a little migrant girl who was inconsolable because a border agent had taken away her dog.The sister contacted the head of the agents. He arrived the next day with the dog.The sister reminded us that these agents are also human beings with families.

Finally, a wise Jesuit told me that sometimes there’s only one thing left to do when faced with a wall: just dance.

Norbert Piché,
National Director
for JRS Canada