Straddling the U.S-Mexico border, the Diocese of Brownsville is the southernmost diocese in Texas. It has long been at the epicentre of the church's response to migration, especially as the crisis has ballooned in recent years.

"Thank you for your communication, with which you express your closeness to me and the work being done in the Diocese of Brownsville, especially in favour of those who, for various circumstances, are far from their homeland," Francis said in the letter. Continue reading

"But there's actually a bunch of things you can do, even from here. We need not feel powerless," says Thalia Kehoe Rowden writing in The Spinoff.

"Here are some concrete actions you can take today to add your voice of outrage and pledge what aid you can to these children who are being tortured by a despot who likes to think of himself as the ‘leader of the free world".

Here are some of her suggestions

• Donate money to those who are helping directly
• Help your American friends and family to exert their influence
• Call on our government to protest
• Protest to the US ambassador here in Aotearoa
• Add your voice to international human rights protests
• Channel your outrage and energy closer to home

A New Zealand presence

A New Zealand priest, Father Tony O'Connor, is working in a parish in Brownsville Texas which is right on the border between the United States and Mexico,

He says there are so many good Christian people on both sides, but more on the Mexican side, "who out of their own pockets are feeding and caring for these people as best they can."

The "migrants who have nothing but empty tummies and sweaty, snotty clothes, rely solely on these self-sacrificing compassionate activists who daily clothe the naked, feed the hungry and give solace to downtrodden dehumanized brothers and sisters from the south".

• Click here to read his Blog.
• Click here to follow him on Facebook
• Click here to send a message to Tony

Make a Donation

If you would like to make a donation please send it to:

The Marist Messenger
78 Hobson St
Wellington 6011

Mark the donation: For the Children on the border

All money would go directly to the support of the migrant children. Donors would be informed about how the money was used.

Source

• thespinoff.co.nz
• Image: breitbart.com

27 years in Peru; 5 years in Venezuela; a stint in Australia: 5 years here in the Rio Grande Valley on the border the USA with Mexico.

Now when I go home to "Aotearoa" it is as though I'm somewhat of a migrant.

A migrant is

• very conscious of not being from the place;
• feeling not to have the same rights;
• conscious of and having to come to understand the differences, and
• even learning to not understand even some of these and never of course judging.

In all the places I've been in, getting the correct documents takes time, the authorities and local community has always shown respect.

In the United States, the paper chase is way more detailed and takes much longer time.

However, being a priest and caucasian I it is easiy get the ongoing visas to stay here, and once again there is always respect.

The world has become much smaller and we are often made very aware of the plight of refugees from Asia, Africa, the Middle East crossing into Europe, and creeping down the Pacific.

The plight of these people is 'crude' to say the least, almost unbearable to learn about.

Solutions to issues that migrants face are likely to be far from any possible reality we can imagine.

It may also be true that excessive migration "risks upsetting the way of life".

I might have been be a migrant in various cultural settings, but my plight is nothing compared to the migrants I live among in Brownsville.

Maybe my life experience helps me understand and feel great empathy for migrants, but here on the border of this country whose leaders say is the greatest and the most powerful in the world, the situation for so many has its own type of fear, suffering and hopelessness.

Here there are

• thousands of central American minors escaping the violence and poverty and housed in refuge centers;
• mothers with their little ones some of who are separated from their children;
• mothers deported while the state assumes responsibility for their kids;
• adults: mexican and central americans (Guatamala, Salvador, Honduras and now Nicaragua) seeking refuge and a better life;
• others from these countries who have crossed and outstayed their visas;
• others who have managed to pass the stringent tests for residence;
• kids who have come with their parents at an early age and now have no future to citizenship;
• people who simply have come over the river without documents many of whom live in penury and constant fear.

With so many being deported, so many families being split apart that for many people, anxiety is their lot in life.

The situation is a bit like but far worse than the "overstayer times " in New Zealand in the 70's.

To top it off they are now sending the "National Guard" to the border.

• Tony O'Connor is a New Zealand Marist priest working in the Rio Grande Valley on the border the USA with Mexico. He is a third generation kiwi; his first ancestor families traveled from Ireland and 1867 arrived in New Zealand. Like most poor migrants they came looking for a better life.
• This is the first of 6 pieces on his experience of life on the border between Mexico and the USA.