S.D. COMMUNITY CONVERGING TO ASSIST ASYLUM SEEKERS
Organizations across county mobilizing migrant resources
Community organizations across the county are assembling volunteers and donations to aid the thousands of asylum seekers hoping to request protection at the San Diego-Tijuana border as a pandemic-era U.S. border policy ends.
Title 42, which blocked asylum seekers and other migrants from entering ports of entry and expelled them back to Mexico if they crossed the border without permission, expired with the federal public health emergency order Thursday night.
Ahead of the anticipated increase of border crossings as Title 42 goes away, community groups are working quickly to mobilize resources and prepare however possible.
Shane Harris, president of the People’s Association of Justice Advocates, and other community leaders announced Thursday a drop-off site where San Diegans can donate basic necessities for migrants, such as water, sleeping bags, blankets and feminine-care products. Often hundreds of migrants at a time have been waiting between the two layers of border fence, exposed to the elements sometime for days, for Border Patrol agents to process them.
“If we’re saying it’s our responsibility to welcome them, then why isn’t it our responsibility to help them while they wait to get here?” he said.
In partnership with the WorldBeat Cultural Center and Madres y Familias Deportadas en Acción, the association will work with federal agencies, including the Border Patrol, and the Mexican government to get donations to migrants at the border fence holding area in the coming days.
Madres y Familias Deportadas en Acción runs a drop-in information center in Tijuana that typically provides deportees with food and basic necessities and teaches them English.
However, the center has seen a dramatic increase in migrants seeking assistance in recent weeks, according to founder and director Maria Galletas.
Galletas told the UnionTribune they’re in desperate need of volunteers and donations, such as emergency food, water, diapers and clothing. “I don’t have storage so I need to pick up (donations) day by day,” she said. “I don’t have anybody to help me.”
She says migrants will also need gift cards to sustain themselves during their travels.
The donation drop-off site is located at the National Black Contractors Association’s San Diego office at 6125 Imperial Ave. Donations will be accepted between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays and between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturdays. Harris asked the public to call his organization at (619) 354-8051 to schedule drop-offs ahead of time, if possible.
Interfaith Community Services, a North County nonprofit that provides wraparound services to people in need, has started gathering backpacks full of donations received during the holiday season — when hundreds of migrants were left at bus stations across the county — to hand out to those waiting at the border fence.
“All their personal possessions were put into Ziploc bags and dumped in a pile, so they’re apparently arriving without much,” Interfaith’s faith liaison Mary Ferro said.
Ferro says more volunteers will be needed to make additional donation drops at the border in the coming weeks.
She, too, says gift card donations of Visa or Mastercard are vital for travelers, as well as phone chargers and clipboards for those trying to fill out paperwork. Those interested in helping can contact her at communications@interfaithservices.org.
The collective Friends of Friendship Park was the first group to begin helping migrants being kept between the border walls at the park near where the wall goes into the ocean last month. Activists have been taking food and blankets to the migrants and started a wish list on Amazon to help respond to the ongoing situation.
This month alone, Catholic Charities has provided shelter to nearly 4,500 asylum seekers as they work to help them travel on to their final destinations around the country. These migrants have been processed and are either dropped off by Border Patrol or the Department of Homeland Security.
It is one of two shelters in San Diego County that receive government funds to temporarily house migrants once they’re released from the border, which CEO Vino Pajanor said allowed the shelter to hire more staff and increase capacity.
He says donations of lightly used clothing and shoes are most needed, as well as additional volunteers.
Arcela Nunez, co-director of Universidad Popular, a community education initiative, says the December migrant crisis readied them. The group joined other local organizations in creating a network of resources.
A team from Universidad Popular is at the border and will remain there to track and monitor supply provisions.
Nunez directed those wanting to donate or volunteer to the San Diego Rapid Response Network, a coalition of service organizations dedicated to aiding immigrants and their families at the border operated by Jewish Family Service of San Diego.