EL PASO, Texas (AP) 鈥 As changing policies, rampant misinformation and exasperated, fearful crowds converge in this desert city, faith leaders are striving to provide shelter and uplift.
Along with prayers, they are counseling migrants about the daunting challenges that await them on U.S. soil, with enormous backlogs in asylum hearings and the Biden administration鈥檚 newly announced measures that many consider stricter than the existing ones known as
During Thursday morning Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, a few blocks from the border with Mexico, the Rev. Daniel Mora prayed for goodwill in welcoming the crowds of migrants expected to arrive in the city and at the church鈥檚 gym-turned-shelter when overnight.
鈥淢ay the asylum promises of this country be renewed,鈥 Mora noted in the Mass intentions. In an office next to the historic sanctuary, one of his fellow Jesuits prepared to visit a shelter at a different El Paso parish to counsel migrants who already had crossed illegally and were detained.
鈥淥ne knows that that this is but one part, that we鈥檙e halfway on our way,鈥 said Tatiana Gamez, a Colombian mother who was released by immigration authorities to a small shelter run by the Catholic parish of St. Francis Xavier, just across from one of El Paso鈥檚 three international bridges.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 know what鈥檚 going to happen with asylum. But already to be here safe, it鈥檚 a relief,鈥 she added. She had been listening intently to one of the several daily legal talks that the Rev. Mike Gallagher, who鈥檚 also an attorney with Jesuit Refugee Service/USA, gives newly released migrants.
Gallagher visits multiple shelters to explain to migrants who have been apprehended for crossing illegally the conditions of their release 鈥 including the 鈥渘otice to appear鈥 in front of migration authorities and later before a judge to make their asylum case
Gamez and more than half a dozen family members, including a pregnant niece and the niece鈥檚 2-year-old daughter, decided to flee Colombia after being threatened over a piece of land they owned there.
They crossed illegally through a hole in the concertina wire that Texas 好色tv Guard soldiers laid out for 17 miles along the dusty Rio Grande riverbanks to prevent mass crossings when in December.
鈥淲e wanted to do things well,鈥 Gamez added in tears. But they saw more than 1,000 migrants lined up under the merciless sun and strong winds for a chance to be let in by U.S. officials, as has been happening for months.
Hearing that some migrants had slept out there for days under the constant threat of being kidnapped for ransom by Mexican cartels, and fearing a wave of rapid deportations starting Friday, they decided to slip through the hole and spent six days in detention before being released to the shelter.
Faith leaders said one reason for the big surge of migrants earlier this week was the widespread belief that the end of Title 42 restrictions would usher in more deportations of illegal migrants, who will now face a potential five-year ban from coming back to the U.S.
鈥淭rying to get in is their main priority,鈥 said Maria Sajquim de Torres, the domestic program director for Jesuit Refugee Service/USA, which also provides counselors in shelters so that migrants can begin to process
On Friday, after the expiration of Title 42 and the implementation of more asylum restrictions, several faith leaders said they feared migrants who have no option to return to their countries would still seek to enter the United States on more dangerous paths.
鈥淚 believe people will sit back and watch for a while. Once they realize only a small percentage will be able to enter legally, they鈥檒l search out more desperate, difficult, dangerous ways to cross,鈥 said Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso.
鈥淥nce again, we鈥檙e playing into the hands of organized crime,鈥 added Seitz, who has a shelter in his backyard at the diocesan office near the border wall section where migrants congregated in recent days, hoping to surrender to U.S. authorities after crossing the Rio Grande.
Seitz, who is chairman of the U.S. Conference of , said he鈥檚 concerned about growing numbers of injuries and deaths if migrants try to cross away from where the border is heavily guarded -- both for migrants and the agents and volunteers who conduct search and rescue operations, especially as summer looms with deadly heat.
Seitz said he also worries that images of chaos at the border might scare Americans away from helping the newcomers. He ran a public service announcement earlier this week, 鈥渢rying to reassure people that we鈥檙e on this and we鈥檙e capable of dealing with these situations.鈥
鈥淭he church doesn鈥檛 want chaos,鈥 he added. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been calling for an orderly process by which those with great needs may have passage to our country."
More than 1,000 migrants gathered outside the Sacred Heart shelter alone earlier this week. Authorities closed off the street in front of it last Sunday, fearing another deadly incident like the one where , Mora said.
Some migrants have dates scheduled within a month of arrival in the cities where they鈥檙e hoping to go. Others have court appearances not scheduled until 2026 or beyond, since the asylum system is straining under historic backlogs.
Wearing a rosary like a necklace, Juaniela Castillo, a Venezuelan, listened intently as Gallagher deciphered her court date 鈥 in June 2025 in Orlando, Florida, where she hopes to reach a family member.
She will need to find legal help to file an asylum application well before then 鈥 within a year 鈥 or she鈥檒l lose this temporary relief she鈥檚 been granted from deportation, Gallagher told her.
With her three children, ages 8, 7 and 3, she traveled through the notoriously dangerous Darien jungle in Panama. After two months on the road, she also passed through a gap in the wall near El Paso and was detained for six days before being released to the St. Francis Xavier shelter.
鈥淚 still don鈥檛 believe it,鈥 she said as her children smiled at the pigeons cooing in the shelter鈥檚 small, shaded patio. 鈥淚 never lost the faith, never, but one is like adrift, dependent on God.鈥
In a hall set up with cots and tables, Susie Roman, a volunteer at shelter, said she noticed how confused migrants have been by changing policies, and feared the consequences of the latest switch.
鈥淚鈥檓 scared they鈥檙e all going to be out there, and we can鈥檛 help them,鈥 she said.
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