Community strains to help new exiles
HIALEAH, FLORIDA >> A few days after selling all she had to flee Cuba with her three children on a crowded boat, Daneilis Tamayo raised her hand in praise and sang the rousing opening hymn at Sunday worship in this Miami suburb.
“The only thing that gave me strength is the Lord. I'm not going to lose my faith, whatever I might go through,” she said. The family has been sleeping in Iglesia Rescate's improvised shelter since the promises of help made by her contact in the United States turned out to be “all lies.”
In the past 18 months, an estimated 250,000 migrants and asylum-seekers like Tamayo have arrived in the Miami area after being granted only precarious legal status that often doesn't include permission to work, essential to building new lives in the U.S.
This influx is maxing out the migrant social safety net in Miami's faith communities, long accustomed to integrating those escaping political persecution, a lack of freedoms and a dearth of basic necessities. Cubans were the first to arrive during the island's communist revolution 60 years ago, and they're still fleeing here alongside Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.
“The Lord says to welcome the stranger. It's the saddest thing, the quantity of people who come and we can't help them,” said the Rev. David Monduy, Iglesia Rescate's pastor.
Miami's faith leaders and their congregations remain steadfast in their mission to help settle new migrants. But they're sounding the alarm that the need is growing unmanageable.
“We can get a call on a Saturday that 30 migrants were dropped off, and two hours later all have been picked up,” said Peter Routsis-Arroyo, CEO of Catholic Charities in Miami. “But the challenge is at what point you reach saturation.”
The number of arrivals, by sea directly to Florida and from those heading here from the US-Mexico border, surged earlier this winter. For most newcomers, the best hope to settle in the U.S. is to win asylum, but immigration courts are so backlogged migrants can be in limbo for years, ineligible to get a job legally.
Advocates say that makes them vulnerable to criminals, puts an impossible financial burden on existing migrant communities that try to help, and slows down integration into U.S. society.
“It's completely irrational that they're not giving out work permits,” said Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski, whose Catholic archdiocese has long helped welcome migrants. “Because of that, the government can make a situation that's not too bad yet, become worse.”
Many migrants are already homeless due to soaring rent and motel rates.
“Every day, people knock on the doors of our parishes, saying they have no place to sleep,” said the Rev. Marcos Somarriba, rector at St. Agatha Catholic Church on Miami's outskirts.
In addition to providing food, clothes and some housing relief, churches are helping educate migrants about their legal options.
St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church put together a migration forum with Catholic Legal Services in mid-February about a new humanitarian parole program that allows 30,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans into the U.S. each month if they have a sponsor who assumes financial responsibility for them for two years.
Parishioner Dalia Marrero attended to learn about sponsoring an uncle in Nicaragua, where many are fleeing President Daniel Ortega's crackdown on opponents.
“I don't want to fail him or U.S. law,” she said, worried about how long she'd be required to support her relative.
Miami's established diaspora communities know all too well the hardships that migrating entails, and that motivates many to help. But there also is mistrust among some oldtimers who remain active in opposition to autocratic regimes such as Cuba's