Bulletin 5: Campaign updates and more good news

Bulletin Issue 5: Bridging the Border

A U.S.-Mexico collaboration bringing factual news and critical resources for families on the border. Click here to view our past bulletins and learn more about our work!

Migrant shelter educators and asylum-seeking students build community in the midst of crisis

In September of 2020, Casa de la Misericordia, a shelter for asylum-seeking individuals and families in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, launched an educational program for children of migrants and asylum-seekers. According to one of the program’s educators, María Guadalupe Moreno Ruiz, “A large majority of the children had not attended school for more than one or two years, and others had never attended due to their circumstances.” In one case, a 13-year-old student did not know how to count without using his fingers. He has made significant progress since joining the program.

In addition to providing safe shelter, Casa de la Misericordia’s educators, María Guadalupe Moreno Ruiz and Yesi Armando Urquidez Escalante, provide in-person instruction and tutoring for the children staying at the shelter. The curriculum includes Spanish, mathematics, natural sciences, geography, physical education, and Sign Language.

Above: Migrant children at Casa de la Misericordia work together to transport play materials. Masks are not required for the children who reside at the Casa de la Misericordia.

Integral to the program is the multicultural knowledge students and teachers alike gain through structured activities as well as social interaction. The families are from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, among other countries. The rich cultural exchange in this community of teachers and students transforms all into learners. Three of Ruiz’s students are of Mixtec origin, and spoke minimal Spanish at the start of the program. Through humorous exchanges and with patience, they have been able to communicate more effectively in Spanish.

Due to budget cuts, the shelter was unable to continue the classes in Winter of 2020. Thanks to FESAC’s donors, Casa de la Misericordia has resumed the educational program with funding for the educators for at least six months. Escalante, one of the educators, describes the program as the best thing that has happened to the students and their families since leaving their home countries.

“The joy with which they live every day, their willingness to learn and succeed in life and achieve their dreams, with all this and much more, these young students are developing themselves in these classes. Nothing made them happier than to hear this wonderful news, that they will continue to receive classes! For their sake, I urge you to please not allow education to be taken away from those who most need it. Remember that these students are part of our society, and we must turn towards them.”

FESAC’s Teachers and Tablets campaign was launched in January, and has raised over $3,000 to date for children’s education. We thank you for your generosity and support, which has allowed FESAC Nogales to fund both teachers in this educational program. We urge you to continue raising awareness about migrant children’s educational needs in this critical time. Please contact us (fesacmedia@gmail.com) or visit our website if you would like to learn more about FESAC Nogales.

Nancy Lopez-Alvarez

FESAC intern awarded grant for study on the health care needs of migrants and asylum-seeking families in Nogales, Sonora

Kerry McCulloch, FESAC intern and MPH student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, was recently awarded a grant provided by her university to conduct a study assessing the health needs of migrants in Nogales. The study, “Assessing the health needs of migrants residing in Nogales, Mexico” will begin in August. Kerry will be joined by Nancy Lopez-Alvarez, FESAC intern and senior psychology student at Stanford University. The project will be assisted by FESAC Executive Director, Alma Cota de Yanez.

The study will assess the health care issues in this border city that affect the health of migrants who have been recently deported from the United States, as well as those who are in Nogales seeking asylum in the US. The Nogales community is struggling to meet migrants’ health needs, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mexican border cities have seen a recent influx of asylum seekers due to changes in immigration policies in the United States.

Allegedly to avoid the spread of COVID-19, under public health order, Title 42, U.S. Customs and Border Protection continues deporting immigrants who are crossing the border. Consequently, both migrant populations, returnees and asylum seekers, stay in migrant shelters that FESAC supports, including the Juan Bosco Shelter and Casa de la Misericordia. These shelters experience many migrants’ health care issues and need quantifiable data to determine how to allocate their resources most effectively.

Specifically, the study will examine the relationship between key groups of migrants and asylum seekers and their access to health care while sheltering at the border; disseminate findings to our Nogales-based partner NGOs to inform public health interventions; and provide a factual foundation for public policy on both sides of the border.

FESAC anticipates that we will reach up to 144 local non-profits, as well as universities and programs concerned with the health impact of immigration, through our data sharing and NGO communications network. This research has the potential to make an important impact on critical migrant services as migrant needs are a growing and pressing concern not only in the border regions, but throughout the rest of the world. For an ongoing report on this first-of-its-kind study, subscribe to the FESAC bulletin here.

The Pandemic at the Border series highlights the impacts of Covid-19 at the border. Our reporter Kerry McCulloch–MPH student and FESAC volunteer– provides updated information and personal stories about the pandemic at the border. To read past articles, visit our blog page on the website here.

The Pandemic at the Border: Modulo de Cruz Roja (Red Cross Station) Updates

Alma (center), with Modulo de Cruz Roja volunteers in Nogales, Sonora. The wheelchair was made by ARSOBO and donated to the Red Cross Station by Sonoran Migrant Project.

A Guatemalan mother with her four-month old son after only making it to the US for a few hours before being returned to Mexico. Many migrants, given the option, would rather be deported to Mexico rather than their home countries so they can reattempt the crossing.

Three Guatemalans who were recently deported from the US. Like the mother in the photo above, these three were offered a return ticket to Guatemala by Mexican authorities, but declined the offer.

During Biden’s campaign, he pledged to halt deportations of people living in the United States illegally during his first 100 days in office. However, this clearly isn’t what’s happening. Information from immigrant rights organizations, news reports, and federal data estimates that in Biden’s first 29 days in office there were 26, 248 deporations (US immigration does not publicly release the number of daily deportations) (Valverde, 2021). The US Customs and Border Protection says it's still operating under the public health order, known as Title 42, which was enacted by the Trump Administration in March of 2020. Title 42 allows for the removal of immigrants crossing the border to avoid the spread of Covid-19 and migrant parents traveling with children are not exempt from the restrictions, regardless of the child's age (Gustavo Valdes and Catherine E. Shoichet, 2021).

At a more local level, Nogales has had little information about deportation numbers until recently when FESAC began receiving updates from the Red Cross, which has a small medical tent sent up at the border. Individuals being sent back to Mexico by the US Customs and Border Protection under the Migrant Protection Protocols (aka “returnees”) through Nogales are required to check in at the Red Cross tent as they return into Mexico. The Red Cross tent provides returnees with basic services: informs them of their rights, gives them the opportunity to make free phone calls, and issues medical services and a COVID-symptom screening. The requirement that returnees check-in with the Red Cross has provided some useful information, although still somewhat limited. Demographic data is being collected (i.e, nationality, age (child or adult), and gender) during one eight-hour morning to midday shift, meaning only about 30 percent of the day. Deportations through the Nogales border during this eight-hour window averaged 128 migrants per day during the month of March, however the Red Cross estimates that the number is close to twice as many in a 24-hour period (Red Cross Data¹). As the US continues to send migrants back across the border into Mexico, organizations supporting this vulnerable group-- the Red Cross, Deijuven, Casa de la Misericorida, and the Juan Bosco Shelter-- are becoming increasingly important for the health of the migrants and the border region.

Kerry McCulloch

¹The Red Cross. (2021). Repatriatdos [Demographic information of repatriated migrants coming through the Red Cross tent in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.] [Unpublished raw data].

Sonoran Migrant Project donates food and supplies to the San Juan Bosco Shelter and Red Cross Station

Polo, San Juan Bosco Shelter volunteer, unloads boxes of donated food supplies.

Gallery link

The Sonoran Migrant Project provided groceries, gas, and related food supplies to the San Juan Bosco shelter. They have also committed to supporting the shelter and Red Cross station in Nogales, Sonora in response to the situation at the border.

FESAC assists with the coordination of providing resources to partner organizations such as the San Juan Bosco Shelter. Partnerships such as these, between Mexican and US-based organizations allow for real positive impact on the lives of community members at the border. Look through our gallery or visit our website to see more good work being done in the Nogales community.

How To Support

Given that this crisis will go on for months, a regular monthly contribution will give FESAC a predictable income stream. If you know people who may be interested in this cause, send them to the FESAC contact on this bulletin or direct them to FESAC Sr Advisor Bob Phillips at rtp1844@gmail.com for further information. Your contribution is tax deductible. It will make the families at the border know that they are not forgotten and that their lives matter!

BCA and FESAC Nogales have launched a GoFundMe campaign, “Teachers and Tablets for Children at the Border”, focused on providing educational opportunities to migrant and asylum seeker families’ children. To support our current campaign, please click the button below. You will be directed to our GoFundMe webpage and find more detailed information on Teachers and Tablets for Children at the Border. We work closely with Border Community Alliance (BCA), a US Nonprofit based in Tubac, Arizona, to bring resources, education and hope to the Nogales community. Help us provide quality education to children in border communities so that they can recapture their future!

Take Action

FESAC Nogales | fesacmedia@gmail.com | Website