8 a.m.: I helped in the kitchen, preparing food for the many immigrants who will visit today.
9 - 10 a.m.: I served meals in an outside room to about 400 people. The people are immigrants that are not staying at the Kino shelter. They bring their own containers and we fill them with rice, beans, some kind of toppings, salad, macaroni salad, bread, water and juice. These are the people who have been caught crossing the border and deported or people waiting to see if the border opens or if asylum is granted.
An additional 80 women and children who stay at the Kino shelter eat in the comedor.
11 a.m. – noon: I received training to do in-taking. This will be my main ministry from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily.
The first case I had was a man who came from Chiapas, Mexico. He hoped to get to the U.S. to work and send money to his family. He was detained at 1 a.m. by the immigration patrol. He was already on U.S. soil but was sent back to Nogales, Mexico. Kino gave him food, clothes and information about a local shelter for men. An appointment was made with a Kino person who will help him to find a job and get money to return to his family. When asked if he will try again the passage through the desert he said it was too dangerous to try again. To see him crying is beyond words. The border patrol kept him in custody for several hours. They left him in the street with no money and only the clothes on his back.
The second case was a woman with her 14-year-old son and 19-year-old daughter. They were from the south of Mexico. Both the mother and daughter cried the entire time. The drug cartel was looking for her son whose choice was either to join the cartel or be killed. She took her two children and went to Nogales with the intention of telling the border patrol her story and hoping that asylum would be granted. We had to inform her that asylum is a very difficult process right now. Kino offered them food, clothes and shelter for 10 days. Kino also has an immigration lawyer, social worker, psychologist and a person who will help her to find a job. She cannot go back home and the possibility of asylum is minimum. The details of her anguish about leaving home, the way north to Nogales, bringing nothing but what they had on, was something that really broke my heart. I cannot even imagine her anguish. She had a home, family, and friends and now she has nothing. Her hopes for going to the U.S. have been dashed.