He rang the church bells just in time for the arrival of the migrants and played ‘Santa Maria del Camino’, a hymn book honoring traveling pilgrims. But the bells went off too soon, so Father Snipes, often called the ‘Cowboy Priest’, walked across the street again to repair it, followed by his three rescue dogs.
“I tried to get them ready for the time when the refugees came home,” he said.
For the past few weeks, families seeking asylum have walked to the Catholic Charity Delivery Center near the bus station where they get food, supplies, and a night’s sleep before heading to their next destination in the United States.
But with the increase in the number of families, the nonprofit group Father Snipes and his church, Our Lady of Guadalupe in the neighboring city of Mission, asked to open an overflow shelter and help new migrants arrive every night. . It’s been open for almost two weeks.
This is a sentiment that is now echoing again. “As we go, I think it’s going to be a crisis,” Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democratic congressman from Laredo, Texas, told a news conference this week.
“It’s a difficult journey”
While some families currently seeking asylum are being released within the U.S., illegal minors are required by law to be detained in government facilities until they can be linked to a sponsor. These facilities were operating at limited capacity due to the pandemic, but the Department of Health and Human Services announced on Friday – with overwhelming numbers – the facilities that they could reopen before the Covid-19 levels, which only under 14,000 beds.
There are currently approximately 7,700 unaccompanied children in HHS care.
The administration also recently reopened a large facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, to temporarily house children, a move that has quickly drawn criticism from progressives and activists who believe the government can process minors faster so they do not have to do not stay in large detention centers.
“The huge facilities at the border are not suitable for children,” said Lee Gelernt, a lawyer for the ACLU. “The government of Biden must stop using it as soon as possible.”
Carlos, 32, traveled with his four-year-old daughter and saw young teens traveling through a network of buses from Honduras through Mexico. Jose, 25, had a five-year-old daughter and said he regularly saw children begging for money along the way or cleaning windows on the street to earn money to survive.
He said he was afraid that not all the children had undertaken the journey safely, and that some might have been abducted on the way. “It’s a difficult journey. A journey with many dangerous risks.”
Biden administration absorbs heat
The growing numbers became a focal point in the early days of Biden’s government, as he sought to develop his own policies after four years of a more restrictive approach by former President Donald Trump.
“Border security is strictly federal responsibility,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said in a statement. “The federal government alone has the responsibility to test, investigate and quarantine illegal immigrants crossing our border, who may have COVID.”
“We hope Governor Abbott will reconsider his decision to reject DHS’s agreement with local authorities in Texas, which seeks to reconsider the testing of migrant families that Governor Abbott says,” the spokesman said.
Earlier this week, DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas pushed back on those calling the border situation a ‘crisis’.
“It is a challenge that the border communities, the non-governmental organizations, the people who care for individuals seeking humanitarian relief understand that is essential,” he said. “Everyone understands what happened before us, what we need to do now, and we get it done.”
The policy still applies to single adults and families, with a few exceptions. The Biden administration has said they will not subject accompanied children to the policy, which will lead to more minors being detained.
“If you go from zero because the border is closed, it looks a lot like everyone coming in suddenly, but it really is not that unprecedented,” she said.
Jackson also feels that the narrative that more migrants are coming because of the new Biden administration policy is a myth. “If someone tries to kill you, you go, no matter what,” she said. “I think it has more to do with what’s happening in the homelands than what’s happening here.”
“We do not know what tomorrow will bring”
Tuesday night at the overflow shelter, Father Snipes welcomed dozens of families with fists. Volunteers donated their meals of chicken salad, corn and pineapples.
The parents, mostly from Central America, sat wearily on folded chairs while their children played on the playground and took turns riding a donkey named Nico around a basketball court. The shelter turned classrooms into dormitories with soft rugs on the floor.
In turn, Snipes welcomes the migrants with open arms. He physically shudders at the mention of the Trump-era policy of divorcing children and feels grateful that it will not happen again.
“We do not want open borders,” he said. “But we want to help people who are in danger … or just looking for a way to survive.”
Yet he is concerned about ‘chaos’ that unfolds as numbers continue to rise and if communities, along with the government, do not keep up.
“We’re in a mysterious, unknown area,” he said. “We do not know what tomorrow will bring.”
CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this report.