“Esto es para Usted, señor.” 

The young boy reached out to offer me a wrapped piece of candy. Members of the Green Valley-Sahuarita Samaritans had traveled south, across the Arizona-Mexico border, to Kino Border Initiative (KBI) to help in its cafeteria, el comedor. We served a hearty breakfast to about a hundred asylum seekers and gave treats to the children, two candies apiece. After we had introduced ourselves – “me llamo David / me llamo Heraldo” – the six-year-old insisted on sharing his good fortune.  

Heraldo’s parents and two-year-old brother had arrived at KBI in Nogales, Sonora, a few days earlier, two months after fleeing their village in Venezuela. Government soldiers were raiding homes and abducting anyone they suspected of supporting the opposition, and the family feared they would be next. Crossing Colombia by foot and bus, they had to make their way on foot through the dense tropical forests of the Darien Gap to Panama. CNN reporters have called this a “minefield of lethal snakes, slimy rock, and erratic riverbeds,” where travelers are beset by “masked robbers and rapists.”

The Venezuelans paid steep fees to a guide for protection from predators, both human and animal, and directions to overnight shelters in the jungle. Carrying the children most of the time, the parents picked their way through dense undergrowth and across swollen streams for a week. On a smartphone they showed me photos of their broad smiles when they emerged at last into an inhabited area of Panama. But their journey of several thousand miles had only begun. Coyotes helped them cross Panama and enter Costa Rica, then Nicaragua, then Honduras, then Guatemala, and finally Mexico, evading border guards each time by crossing at night far from roads and settlements.  

The hopes of these and tens of thousands more were lifted in early 2022 by a streamlined asylum application process: using the CBP One smartphone app, they could schedule an appointment for an initial interview at a US port of entry. If they could then convince the interviewer that their fear of death or violence at home was credible, they would be eligible for temporary residency while they apply for permanent asylum.   

The smartphone app – I can testify to this from my own observations, having assisted asylum seekers at the border over the past two years – soon turned the chaotic scene at US ports of entry, with dozens if not hundreds pressing up to the gates in hope that an official would motion them in, into an orderly and controlled process.  Border agents as well as asylum seekers and their sponsors applauded the change.  

We Samaritans have been meeting the travelers who pass their preliminary interview as they are released, helping them reach the church or family that has agreed to sponsor them, somewhere in the US.  Most already have bus or plane tickets in hand, and we help them find transport to the right bus station or airport. With occasional exceptions, Border Patrol officers cooperate with us, letting us know when to expect more travelers needing assistance. Several have told us they appreciate our volunteer efforts, picking up where their responsibilities end. 

But my visit to KBI was just one day into the administration of a new president. Within minutes after he took the oath of office, the CBP One application page was closed. Worse yet, all appointments already scheduled were summarily cancelled. Residents who had been waiting at KBI for interviews were turned away at the port of entry. 

All along the southern US border, tens of thousands of asylum seekers, many of whom had waited in Mexico for half a year or longer until their appointment date came, were summarily sent away, victims of the whims and paranoid delusions of a new chief executive. The “disastrous invasion” he cited in his inaugural address does not exist. Undocumented immigrants are half as likely to commit violent crime, one-fourth as likely to commit property crime, as lifelong citizens. Moreover, border crossing numbers have declined steadily as the situation on the border stabilized under President Biden. But the incoming president found he could win votes by scapegoating immigrants, without evidence, and he is sticking to that story.

KBI is a binational nonprofit providing short-term housing, clothing, legal advice, and medical assistance to refugees from wars and civil conflicts around the world. (In 2022 I wrote in this blog about a Lenten procession that began at KBI. )  Founded in 2008 by a coalition of Catholic groups, including dioceses in Arizona and Sonora and the Jesuit Province of California, KBI draws support today mostly from individual donors in both countries.  Its website lists about 30 full- and part-time staff, who are assisted by long-term volunteers from Mexico, Colombia, and the US and by short-term volunteers such as our Samaritan group. As our group was preparing to depart, two other Americans arrived: a dentist and his assistant from Wisconsin who will staff a dental clinic for a month.  

With doors now closed tight against asylum applicants – and also against UN-designated refugees, an even more egregious violation of international law – all of the victims of government and gang violence who were waiting in Mexico for an asylum hearing now realize how foolish they were to expect the US government to honor its promises and its obligations. 

A tragic but predictable result will be to redirect migrants to illegal crossing points in the most remote and inhospitable regions of the Southwestern deserts. The numbers of those who cross between ports of entry, far lower today than before the launch of the CPB One option, will probably soon reach the levels last seen in the late Trump and early Biden years. The number who perish in the attempt will rise, too. More than 4,200 bodies have been found in the desert, and thousands more have never been found.  

On the day of my visit to Nogales, I tried to set aside all the alarming news reports emanating from Washington – renunciation of climate goals, sustainable energy, international alliances, and integrity in governance – and simply look closely and with compassion at what was around me. What I saw at KBI were men and women young and old, including families of three generations, who had traveled vast distances and endured unimaginable hardships seeking a better life. Many have siblings or parents or children already in the US from whom they have been separated for years, if not decades. All had put their trust in our nation’s commitment to liberty and justice for all.The message today is: not for all, only for some.  

The conversations in the comedor as we circulated with food and drink were lively and wide-ranging, despite language barriers. Volunteers, staffers and travelers from a dozen countries exchanged stories, hopes, and – especially – fears. Overlooking our fellowship, from a large mural on the wall, were Jesus and his disciples, sharing another meal where love was tempered by fear. At this Last Supper, the Savior sits beside migrantes and campesinos.  

The staff and volunteers at KBI will continue to offer assistance and encouragement to those who come to them, enacting the prophets’ call to act justly, show mercy, and walk humbly before God. We who know their plight, and who recognize our duties both as Christians and as Americans, need to speak on their behalf to friends and neighbors and political leaders, urging that doors be reopened.

The travelers fleeing from death squads and cartel wars will build new lives in northern Mexico, or return home and risk arrest or execution, or find their way to a country that honors its responsibility to offer asylum.  But they, and we, will be the poorer for our new president’s campaign of cruelty and exclusion on its southern border.