Thread: Jesuit-run shelter now aids deportees in Sonora

Jesuit-run shelter now aids deportees in Sonora

By Carmen Duarte
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.15.2009

Three hundred years have passed since 17th-century Jesuit Padre Eusebio Francisco Kino preached about the Catholic faith to people of this region.

As groups work to educate the public about Kino and promote his sainthood by March 15, 2011 — the 300th anniversary of his death — the California Province of the Society of Jesus has taken up a topic that probably would be close to Kino's heart: immigration. It is working with deported people in Nogales, Sonora.

The Jesuits run a shelter that feeds and gives medical aid to migrants deported from the United States via Nogales, said the Rev. Sean Carroll, executive director of the Kino Border Initiative.

Carroll and the Rev. Peter Neeley, both of the California Jesuit group, are assigned to the ministry, which is supported by a coalition of religious orders, social service groups and Catholic dioceses.

The shelter is staffed by four Jesuits, three Missionary Sisters of the Eucharist and volunteers.

The initiative is a binational effort to work with migrants, and to study the effects of migration and immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border. The Jesuits are housed in Nogales, Ariz.

The ministry also will support scholars in residence to come study and write on the subject. Immigration workshops will be offered to parishes, university and high school students on both sides of the border who then will return to their communities to share what they have learned, Carroll said.

Carroll did not release the border ministry's annual budget.
The shelter, Aid Center for Deported Migrants or Centro de Apoyo al Migrante Deportado, was built by the city of Nogales, Sonora, and is about 500 yards south of the Mariposa Port of Entry.

A sign on a fence lets the traveler know about the shelter. An average of 200 deported migrants — mostly men — are fed and given medical aid daily. Most of those who seek medical aid suffer from foot and leg injuries from prolonged walking in the desert.

Apprehensions in the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector — the busiest on the Southwest border — have dropped 19 percent over the past two full fiscal years to nearly 318,000 in fiscal 2008 from 392,000 in fiscal 2006, agency figures show.

"The facility can accommodate up to 72 people at one time, and we allow people to come and eat at the shelter for up to 15 days until they decide what their next step will be," said Carroll.

Some people decide to return to their homes in Mexico; some decide to stay in Nogales; and others decide to try and return to the United States, Carroll said.

"We are seeing quite a number of people being deported who have lived in the United States for a long period of time," Carroll said. "They are coming to our facility looking for support."

Carroll said the Jesuits eventually will train and prepare volunteers of Nogales to take over the center and operate it as a ministry of the church.

The Jesuits were the early missionaries — Kino being the most prominent — who came by horseback and brought Christian faith to this area, said Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson.

"It is a blessing that more Jesuits are coming to our diocese, and they have the task to educate people about the challenges of the border, and help those who are deported and who are not sure where to turn," Kicanas said.

The Jesuit order is providing the bulk of the funding for the shelter and ministry work, said Kicanas. In time, the other religious groups backing this effort, including the Diocese of Tucson, will give monetary support as it becomes available, Kicanas said.
He said the diocese is assisting in obtaining grants and support from outside services for the border ministry.

"Immigration is a worldwide phenomenon, and we hope young people from all over the United States and elsewhere will want to come and look at immigration as we experience it," said Kicanas.

Contact Carmen Duarte at 573-4104 or cduarte@azstarnet.com.

http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/284434

The ministry also will support scholars in residence to come study and write on the subject. Immigration workshops will be offered to parishes, university and high school students on both sides of the border who then will return to their communities to share what they have learned, Carroll said.

I think the translation of this is. Where American msm goes to learn to write their slanted little sob stories?

Again where are the stories from the American citizens who have in one way or another had their lives ruined by an illegal alien?
Many by these very same "residents" of this very mission.

It seems to me that the message here should be that you are not wanted or welcome in the Unites States?..............
Take that message home or wherever and spread it.

Mehico is apparently suffering from over-population, and are horrified that those they got rid of by sending them north are being returned. Yes, the Jesuits are doing a wonderful thing by teaching these people how to cross our border illegally again and not get caught the next time.