The Encuentro Project welcomed 12 groups from January to May, 2024
El Paso Updates
Badin High School on Encuentro
These past months have been challenging for us, the migrant shelter volunteers and community. The closure of many shelters and the loss of migrants seeking asylum due the closure of the southern border for them. There is sadness in our hearts because the object of what we love to do was robbed from us.
We participated in peaceful protests, and have been active in emailing our political representatives to advocate for migrants rights. We are hopeful that there is something positive happening all over the world: boycotts are taking place, several federal courts are doing what is right, and we, as children of God, are working against hate and bigotry and fighting for social justice and to preserve our democracy. As El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz said, “El Paso is a proud and beautiful border community that stands as a testament to how welcoming others fosters a safe, prosperous, and vibrant environment for all.” He also said, “Community is an exchange of gifts, where we gift our lives to one another for the benefit of one another; we grow together and we bear one another’s burdens.”
Read the full article in our Newsletter.Border Policy and Asylum
by Heidi CernekaIn the last ten years, government policies have focused on keeping people on the move outside of the U.S., often in Mexico without a place to stay or means to survive. Two past policies were the Migrant Protection Protocol (Remain in Mexico) and Title 42. MPP kept migrants with asylum cases in Mexico, only permitting them in for the few hours of their court date before sending them back to Mexico to await their next court date, which could be months away. Title 42 permitted the U.S. government to use the COVID pandemic to rapidly expel most migrants who crossed the U.S. southern border with no consideration of their asylum claims.
With legal entry into the U.S. so curtailed, the cartels and organized criminal groups began to smuggle migrants across the Border more than they had in the past
All these policies cruelly and effectively kept migrants outside the door, asking for asylum but denied any protection and safety they would have been afforded in the U.S. This also creates a much greater risk of expensive and dangerous smuggling, human trafficking, and kidnapping and extortion of vulnerable people.
As of January 20, 2025, all immigration policies are designed to deport migrants or prevent migrants from entering, independent of their rights, their lawful status, and the danger they may face. Border cities are deeply affected by this. Shelters are empty on both sides of the border, and Mexican border cities, like Juarez, are seeing large numbers of migrants being deported and dropped in border towns, and to a smaller extent, a bottleneck of migrants who still needed to flee persecution and violence, but now cannot ask for asylum.
Read the full article in our Newsletter.