Photo by Greg Bulla on Unsplash.
For the churches of tiny Rio Grande Presbytery, the migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border isn’t abstract; it’s in their backyard.
New City Fellowship (formerly Las Tierras) and Christ the King PCA in El Paso, Texas, are just 20 minutes from the border. The 11 churches in New Mexico and West Texas have combined their resources to help migrants find shelter and a sense of dignity amid the chaos there.
Of the 25 migrant shelters in Ciudad Juárez, one is a Presbyterian church, Frontera de Gracia. The church was planted by Samuel Lopez, a graduate of San Pablo Seminary, which was started by Moises and Aaron Zapata, graduates of Reformed Theological Seminary and missionaries with MTW and MNA.
When Cuban migrants were stuck at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2018, Lopez offered them lodging at the church and received assistance from a few churches, including New City Fellowship.
Communities in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala are so racked with violence, terrorized by gangs, and infiltrated by drug cartels, residents had no choice but to leave.
In April 2021, New City Fellowship and Christ the King started the El Paso-Juárez Border Initiative in partnership with the Rio Grande Presbytery. “We saw they needed help — legal, medical, and psychological,” says Max Rodriguez, director of the Border Initiative. “We focus on physical and spiritual needs.”
Frontera de Gracia wasn’t equipped to house migrant families. The church’s two rooms — a kitchen and sanctuary — needed repairs; the structure wasn’t safe and migrants needed basic privacy. At any time, as many as six migrant families are staying at the church.
Lopez made a list of the church’s needs, and the churches of Rio Grande Presbytery got to work on it. For construction and repair projects, the Border Initiative tried to hire Juárez locals or migrants. The Border Initiative helped install a tile floor throughout the church so migrants don’t have to sleep on a dirt floor. They expanded the church’s kitchen with new counters, poured sidewalk around Frontera de Gracia, and planted trees around the church.
They’ve also secured bunk beds, a washing machine, stove, heater, and water dispenser along with supplies such as shoes and medicine.
Experts estimate that for every migrant in a shelter at the U.S.-Mexico border, two more are sleeping on the street. The chance to stay in a shelter protects migrants from violence or exploitation on the streets of Juárez.
Honoring Migrants’ Dignity
Migrants know how they’re portrayed in the media, said Clara Duffy, a member of New City Church who assists migrants through the border ministry Abara. “They read and hear what is being said about them but are voiceless to respond.” In the summer 2022, the news highlighted the vulnerable situations in which migrants find themselves. In June 2022, more than 50 migrants died in the back of a tractor-trailer in San Antonio. Later that summer, the governors of Texas and Florida began busing or flying migrants to Washington, D.C. and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.
Duffy said Christians need to honor the dignity of each migrant, providing them with not just physical safety, but accurate information about their options and a safe space to process the trauma they have experienced. Each month a team from New City and Christ the King visits Frontera de Gracia to eat pizza and watch a movie with the migrants staying. The presbytery also sends financial and material support such as hygiene kits.
Rodriguez wants believers to understand that many of these migrants are escaping desperate situation. It’s life-or-death for many of them, he said. He hopes Christians will pray for migrants and offer them mercy, as Jesus describes in Matthew 25.
“We have the need on our front door,” Rodriguez said. “How can we help?”