"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

The National Guard exists for the protection of the nation.

They assist in times of natural disasters or respond to an armed threat from a foreign military force.

None of that is happening at the moment on the border.

Maybe what elicited it was news of a group of Central Americans from their country controlled by narco-trafficking gangs with money from the US sale of their illegal drugs who were making their way to the US border to seek refuge.

There does not seem to be any need for the National Guard to serve down here: there are no invading armies nor hurricanes.

The border has all sorts of different police forces, local, state and federal which are more aggressively than usual seeking out the illegal alien, the drug trafficker and his drugs, the coyote and or human trafficker /smuggler.

This has always been so in modern times.

The Rio Grande Valley was once part of Mexico.

In those days the people crossed the river as need be trying to eke out their existence in this fertile but desert land. The people were all Hispanic, the same genes, the same culture and the same everything.

But since 1848 a line was drawn in the sand.

At first there was no policing other than to keep people in, namely the escaped slaves,(Fugitive Slave Act 1848) the latter to keep people out meaning Chinese immigrants.(Chinese exclusion Act of 1882)

However from 1924 onwards the border patrolling began, sometimes strictly enforced other times more laissez faire, allowing immigrant workers to serve agricultural and enter the labor force to do what north Americans didn't want to do.

And the locals?

Some families have always been here, some arrived 100 years ago, others later on and many, about 13% " wetbacks" (those who metaphorically swam across the river.)

Life goes on as usual maybe not quite as usual as before the Spanish conquest, or the US annexation, but as usual as can be.

Some moments have been with much border restrictions, others more laissez faire, always having to struggle to survive economically but life goes on come what may.

Maybe there is a spirituality of the border, much dysfunctionality , much stress, but in many ways a spirituality of "primero a Dios " "first God" which means He is in charge come what may.

There are too many brave valley people who struggle as is a democratic right to call out the authorities, over injustice and corruption and bring from the darkness to the light of day things that are happening that should not be.

Many groups come together and speak out at risk.

One of these people I know is a brave, resistant and persistent lady who last year after a visit of her group to Washington D.C., pleaded the cause of the simple folk on the border saying:

"Daily life is changing for the worse in my border community.

"My neighbors live in fear that a traffic infraction may turn into a deportation.

"Local police are being asked to enforce immigration laws and that violates the trust with the community.

"Now the president is proposing spending our taxpayer dollars on expensive and unnecessary walls.

"We already have walls.

"I live right next to one that divides our community.

"Our community is poor. More walls will not alleviate our poverty, pave our streets, or provide the public services we need.

"Walls are not the answer to anything."

• Fr 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 second of 6 pieces on his experience of life on the border between Mexico and the USA.

Father Tony O'Connor relates the story of one the Dreamers he knows. She is Mexican but came to Brownsville with her mother Rosita, and older sister when she was a small child:

Like the Central American kids who pass through the Valley Carmen is full of life and promise.

As a volunteer in the parish, she has participated in Summer Youth Programmes as a leader, has been a catechist's assistant and as well has worked with her mother in the parish food kitchen and food bank.

When she turned 18 she applied for DACA and answered convincingly the many and difficult questions presented to her.

With her E.A.D (Employment Authorization Document) she began working long hours at a restaurant while she was finishing high school.

She now works at a bank and will be starting College soon. She wants to get some sort of law diploma so as to work for the government But she won't be able to do that because she isn't a US citizen. What a girl!

Source

Read the whole blog

Image: Catholic Herald/Getty Images

Fr Tony is an expatriate New Zealand priest working in the parish of San Filipe de Jesus in a town on the border between Texas and Mexico.

"This distracts from what is actually going on the border, especially with unaccompanied child refugees from the central American countries of Guatemala, Salvador and Honduras, boys and girls," says Fr Tony.

In recent years more than a hundred thousand unaccompanied child refugees have been received and housed in refugee centers in the United States.

The children arrive at the border escaping violence and poverty in their own countries.

"Here in the Rio Grande Valley there are some 14 refuge centers run by non-governmental non profit organizations," says Fr Tony.

The centres are not detention centres. The children are well cared for.

Fr Tony says that some years ago president of one political party decreed that unaccompanied child refugees, all in high physical and moral risk, must be received when they present themselves at the US border after having traversed Mexico and other border to get there.

"Today it is the president of the other political party who quietly supports the continuance of this policy."

The children stay in the refugee centres while family members living in the US are contacted. Their situation is processed before they are allowed to travel to these approved family members throughout the USA.

After this, their process continues and few are deported.

"For this the USA can be proud," Fr Tony says.

"I visit six of the centres for religious services: masses and confession. Confession is a great moment for the youth to commit themselves to life, repent of their past and commit to the future."

"They are truly great kids. They have been through much but are humbly strong and in their simplicity boldly resolute."

Kids from three refuge centers come to San Filipe de Jesus for Sunday mass.

"People love them,"

"Lat year some 120 came for Christmas cheer, pizza, games and intermingling with our youth."

Recently they stayed after mass for a Central American meal which the parish mums prepared after swatting up Central American recipes.

"They were so excited and had double helpings many of them."

The bishop, Daniel Flores, a very socially conscious man came to celebrate the mass and joined in the fun and fare.

Source

• Supplied