Every month since March 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has encountered more than 150,000 undocumented immigrants at the southern border, according to its data, and as reported by Crux. In fact, from October 2021 until September 2022, border agents encountered a record 2,378,944 undocumented immigrants.
The migrants who find themselves at the border in search of a better life need services, and Hope Border Institute (HOPE), a faith-based organization, meets that need. It just launched a medical clinic across the U.S.-Mexico border in Ciudad Juárez to provide medical support to migrants in need. According to KFOX14:
Clinica Hope will also serve as a training space for medical professionals from El Paso and Ciudad Juárez to learn how to perform forensic evaluations of asylum seekers, used to identify physical and psychological torture or abuse and support asylum seekers’ accounts in the U.S. immigration courts.
Along with HOPE staff, El Paso’s Bishop Mark Seitz — the USCCB incoming migration chair — was just in Ciudad Juarez visiting with 2,000 migrants who were recently expelled by the US government and are now living in a tent city on the banks of the Rio Grande:
“We need a fundamentally new approach to migration and borders,” said Dylan Corbett, Executive Director of HOPE. “Title 42, walls, mass expulsions and exposing people to the elements can’t be the solution.”
HOPE brings the perspective of Catholic social teaching to bear on the realities unique to our US-Mexico border region. Its web site explains that it is committed to a “robust program of research and policy work, leadership development and action.”
The organization “brings together local leaders, communities of faith, advocates and policymakers to create transformational change and build solidarity across borders.”
And today we celebrate...