An inside look at a local Catholic Charities Testing Vaccination Resource Center for migrants
HOLTVILLE — While asylum seekers and refugees are in contact with their sponsors in the United States, they may attend the Catholic Charities Testing Vaccination Resource Center, where they receive temporary housing, clothing, hygiene supplies, food, snacks, phones or chargers to continue to reach their final destinations in other parts of the U.S.
Ralph Enriquez, Director of Refugee and Immigrant Services at Catholic Charities, said in an interview on Monday, January 23 that the name defines the components of the operation and includes temporary respite, explaining what a explain a Testing Vaccination Resource Center (TVRC) is and does.
Enriquez said that migrants are informed while at the Catholic Charities TVRC that they are not in custody and that the TVRC is a resource for them to continue on their path, passing through Imperial County merely as a stepping stone to their final destinations.
Enriquez said “it is a misnomer” that immigrants who travel from Mexico through Calexico’s Ports of Entry stay in Imperial County, with most, he said, moving on to connect with family in other U.S. states.
Enriquez said the majority TVRC migrants are asylum seekers that come to the United States ‘for fear of persecution in their countries or are already persecuted.’
“They’re coming here to seek refuge from their persecutors,” Enriquez said.
Enriquez said helping the migrants aligns with the Catholic Charities mission statement. According to the Catholic Charities Diocese of San Diego website, since the establishment of the Diocese of San Diego in 1936, the role of Catholic Charities has been “to provide social welfare programs, witness to the scriptural values of mercy and justice, and advocate for the poor and vulnerable within the diocese.”
“Catholic Charities, while evolving over the past 100-plus years, has remained faithful to its original mandate: assist the child, the family, the immigrant, and the marginalized,” per the website. “In this new millennium and beyond, our role as the caretakers of the Catholic Charities tradition and creators of new opportunities and service in the community will be judged not by the size of the budget, or the number of programs, but by fidelity to the mission,” per the site.
Catholic Charities started with TVRC operations in the Imperial Valley in 2021. Enriquez said that they expanded their work at TVRCs as they noticed that migrants were taking around 10 days to move on through border operations.
“We have reduced that number to a little bit closer, at least over here, typically around 48 hours to within three days,” Enriquez said.
According to a Migrant Shelter infographic, from April 4, 2021 to December 31, 2022, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of San Diego (CCDSD) has aided 42,478 individuals pass through Imperial County, including 9,594 children and 32,884 adults. In that time frame, most were from Cuba, Brazil and Peru, according to the infographic. Of the 42,478 individuals, their top three destinations were Florida, other parts
of California, and New York, per the information.
Regarding neighboring San Diego County, from May 25, 2021 to December 31, 2022, CCDSD has assisted 108,544 migrant individuals, inclusive of 26,212 children and 82,332 adults, per the infographic. In that time frame, in San Diego County most migrants were from Brazil, Cuba, and Columbia. In addition, the 108,544’s top
U.S. state destinations were also Florida, California, and New York.
Enriquez explained the logistics when someone arrives at a TVRC. He said they would first be tested for COVID and have an opportunity to get vaccinated, then meet with a doctor to assess their base medical needs. If necessary, they are provided prescribed medication to be stable in their traveling.
Members that reach the Imperial TVRC site, have been previously released at the port of entry by
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, who works with
CCDSD.
Enriquez said TVRC’s operations are 24 hours a day. In December 2022, the Imperial Valley location at Ramada Hotel in Holtville assisted over 9,000 individuals. No specific numbers were reported for the Travelodge in Imperial.
When asked about the importance of providing these services to migrants in the United States, he mentioned an example of someone being a type one diabetic and didn’t arrive with their insulin.
“That would help them be stabilized so that when they arrived, they’d be ready to be able to have the onset of what it is to be an American society,” Enriquez said.
“The fact that maybe you need to charge your phone when you are released out of custody, or you don’t have any shoelaces; there’s a lot of different resources that would be just easy to overlook but are very necessary for somebody to start their path in the U.S.” Enriquez said.
When asked ‘why should the American taxpayer aid this program’ Enriquez said that one of the main values he sees in this operation as it relates to social services is that “often a dollar spent upfront can help defer a $10 outlay on the backend.”
“When people are looking at it from purely from a fiscal perspective they should see that these potential issues are exacerbated by not assisting somebody when the humanitarian need is very present in front of you,” he said. “To help somebody right there to give them a hand up is very much within our mission, is to serve the stranger.”
“For me, the humanitarian need is substantial,” Enriquez said.
Enriquez said TVRC is funded by the state, and by the federal government through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), respectively.
When asked about the importance of these funds being distributed to the migrant community, Enriquez deferred back to the upfront cost versus a deferred cost.
“If you let an issue become a greater issue, it becomes a higher cost,” Enriquez said.
“We also have rights internationally and in the United States to be able to seek protection and asylum, for many of these people that are coming,” Enriquez, who also used to lead the CCDSD legal team, said. “We have this availability of a law, an international right. We would be negating somebody’s right to be able to follow through and after they’ve come from all parts of the world to arrive here; we would be putting our hands up and saying, ‘You can’t enter,’ or ‘We cannot assist.’ First of all, that’s not within our mission. Second of all, it doesn’t even make sense from a legal or a fiscal perspective.”
In addition to the aforementioned top three nationalities of asylum seekers, the CCDSD TVRCs also serve Cubans, Colombian, Russian, and Indians. The most common final destinations other than the aforementioned top three are New Jersey, Texas, and Washington.
“We have language lines that allow us to assist the various populations that come through our shelters throughout the entire border operations,” Enriquez said. “There have been over 119 countries represented.”
In terms of preparedness when Title 42 lifts, Enriquez said while capacity issues are always a concern, Catholic Charities is ready should there be an influx of more immigrants.
“Catholic Charities operation is the most substantial of the sheltering operations on the border in the sense of capacity,” Enriquez said.
For safety concerns, CCDSD state and federal partners would not allow for photographs of the hotel residents themselves.