As the border crisis continues, the feds are still releasing large number of Covid- infected illegal border crossers in to the U.S. That leaves local communities and charities scrambling to act. One charity group is playing a bigger role than any other. Catholic Charities takes in many families with children after Border Patrol releases them in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. It is the busiest place in the nation for illegal immigration. Sister Norma Pimentel shows us the giant facility she runs by bus station in McAllen.
The following is a transcript of a report from “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.” Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.
Norma Pimentel: The buses arrive from seven in the morning all the way to midnight. What you see here in this room, which is the main room that we have is in this area right here is for the newly arrivals. They sit in the blue chairs and they wait to be called so that they can come talk to their family and start to make arrangements for their travel with their family members. What happens back there, they have everything from milk and baby bottles, shampoo, pampers, anything and everything the family might need.
Sharyl: They spend an average of one night here?
Pimentel: For the most part, everybody will not go beyond 24 hours.
Sharyl: Do most of the people already have family here?
Norma Pimentel: I would say 99% of the time with the exception of almost one in 1000, but for the most part, we don’t see somebody that does not have family here.
Sister Norma Pimental says at first her group was putting up Covid-infected families at local hotels. But so many arrived over the summer, local organizers faced an emergency and had to devise a new plan.
Pimentel: They set up a site here within the city and then following day I think they relooked at the situation and saw that this could definitely grow to a larger amount that needed definitely a better space. So by the second day, the setup was then at Anzalduas Park, which is a place in Mission. So the whole operation just moved there. Everybody was dropped there, they were tested, if they were positive they would remain there. If they were negative, it was brought over here.
Sharyl: People are hearing that people are crossing in with COVID and it kind of frightens them. If people say “Why should we, when we’re trying to be so careful, be bringing other people in that, have it.”
Pimentel: I agree I can understand the concern of our community being worried about the fact that some of these families have COVID. I would be alarmed if I thought that they were walking around our community, exposing everybody. Precisely why I took the proper measures to make sure that that wasn’t going to happen, that we would responsibly make sure these families who were arriving, they were released to us that they would be isolated and they would be in a place where they could be cared for, and at the same time, not exposing our community to the virus. They’re people just like us they’re families, mothers and fathers struggling to take care of their children. And that side is not related when you just labeled them as “illegals” entering our country and spreading the virus. If they’re here, if they’re in our community already, I think these families need to be properly cared for correctly and not just simply discarded or put aside as if they were not humans, they are people and it breaks my heart and anyone that comes and sees them, they see that child, that mother, and that’s how they’re struggling it only moves us to want to help.
Sharyl: You have a system here, but there was no system set up by border patrol, to test and control. And I wonder what’s happening in other places or what happened prior to someone like you being able to set up a system?
Pimentel: My hope is that other locations like ours that are receiving immigrants from the Border Patrol are also responsibly responding to handle and process and help the families correctly for the good of the refugees and for the good of the community. That’s my hope that they are also doing what I’m doing.
Sharyl (on-camera): Catholic Charities is funded by donations and government funds. They figure they’ve helped somewhere on the order of a quarter of a million immigrants who crossed illegally from Mexico since 2014.
Watch Full Measure segment here
