Borderlands

At the end of June 2021, the Migrant Resource Center (CRM for its acronym in Spanish) celebrated 15 years of support to migrants travelling in both directions on the border between Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico, and Douglas, Arizona, USA.  The CRM—a collaboration of several faith-based organizations—offers food, first aid, phone calls, and information to people whom US Border Patrol has repatriated to Mexico.  Additionally, in the last 15 years, the CRM has helped Mexican citizens locate relatives who might be in detention in the US and has provided support to asylum seekers. 

It is difficult to be optimistic about the still-closed US/Mexican border in Douglas, Arizona/Agua Prieta, Sonora.  Sure, the work of organizations and volunteers meeting the needs of migrants has been heroic.  But the plight of the migrants themselves—whether those returned to Mexico with blistered feet and inadequate clothing or those who have been waiting at the shelter for over a year to request asylum at the US Port of Entry—offers little to celebrate.

In March 2021 CAME (Centro de Atención al Migrante Exodus), the migrant shelter in Agua Prieta Sonora, moved from its home of 20 years in the Sagrada Familia Catholic Church to a new location on another property belonging to the church. The new facility more than doubles the number of people who can be served.

Our prayers in these days are not only that the border wall come down, but also the walls within our hearts and minds that make such horrific, lethal architecture possible.

Pray that the power of fear that causes us to build walls will lose its grip.

Pray for the people who are still at the migrant shelter CAME (Centro de Atención al Migrante Exodus) in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico across the border from Douglas, Arizona, U.S.A.  They are losing hope that they will ever be able to request asylum in the U.S.; they are trapped in the shelter, and now they are becoming ill.  Pray that they may know God’s mercies in their lives.