Dominican Sister of Peace Leads Student Trip to Border
By Sister Margie Davis, OP
McAllen, TX – Over the week of March 8-14, I had the privilege of being part of the Ohio Dominican University Spring Mission Trip volunteering at the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, TX. The Center provides a place for the countless men, women, children, and infant refugees to rest, have a warm meal, a shower, and change into clean clothing as well as receive medicine and other supplies before continuing on their journey.
Current government policy mandates that those seeking asylum in the U.S. must stay in Mexico until their court date and hearing. Those families can wait more than a year for their hearing, and even then almost all of the cases are denied. These asylum seekers, many of whom are facing violence or worse, can appeal, but it’s a lengthy process. If asylum is ultimately denied, the asylum seekers are taken to the airport in shackles and deported back to the dangerous situation that they fled in the first place.