YOU MAY SAY I'M A DREAMER IN 2019

Something shifts inside the heart after absorbing a view of thousands of people living in tents beside the muddy waters of the Rio Grande in Mexico. Babies and little children playing just outside the open canvas doors of the tent while a mother watches silently add to an unforgettable image burned into your brain. Under different circumstances, that mother and those children could be my daughter and my precious grandbabies. In paraphrasing a Bible verse as he watched prisoners being led to their executions in the mid-sixteen century, John Bradford said, "There but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford."

I traveled to Matamoros last weekend after receiving monetary donations from family and friends to help an organization called "Angry Tias y Abuelas of RGV." I became acquainted with them in 2018 when I made a trip to McAllen/Reynosa as part of another organization named "Grannies Respond." We joined forces to assist immigrant families who had been granted asylum in this country and were sent on buses to their sponsors in the United States. I was overcome with emotion as I watched hundreds of families boarding buses, often with infants in their arms. Most families fled their homes in Central America after drug gangs had made their lives unbearable, often killing family members who refused to join the gangs. Angry Tias and Abuelas ensured they weren't sent on buses without backpacks filled with essentials, like water and diapers, and a small amount of money. Before my trip to the border in August 2018, friends had donated to help in the effort.

Asylum seekers are no longer allowed to step foot in this country automatically. A new policy, named Migration Protection Protocols, was enacted in May 2019. Since then, immigrants seeking asylum have had to remain in Mexico until they have a hearing, which might be months or years. Mexico was promised $5 billion by our government to allow immigrants to stay in Mexico while awaiting a hearing. However, Mexico is providing very little protection and services. I did not witness any Mexican security forces in the tent city while I was present. Less than 1% of the refugees have been granted asylum in the past 18 months. The Matamoros tent city is filled with over 2000 people, most of whom are families. Gangs prowl at night throughout the makeshift community, sometimes raping women and kidnapping children. A recent survey found three in seven tent residents felt safe during the day, while only one in seven felt safe at night. The State Department's Overseas Security Advisory Council has warned Americans not to travel to Matamoros because "violent crime, such as murder, armed robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, extortion, and sexual assault, is common." We did not experience violence while in Matamoros, and I never felt threatened, but that didn't mean it wasn't happening right under our noses.

Various groups from the United States are working tirelessly to assist with the growing tragedy at the border. Lawyers, doctors, and aid workers are doing all they can. Dr. Dairon Rojas, a Cuban doctor seeking asylum and living in a tent city, is the only full-time doctor in the camp. Angry Tias y Abuelas buy $3000 to $7000 worth of supplies for the tent residents weekly. Generous donors from the United States have recently purchased two large water filtration systems that provide clean water from the Rio Grande. Team Brownsville serves the refugees breakfast and dinner. When a group of physicians and nurses recently attempted to cross the border to offer flu vaccines, they were prevented from inoculating the asylum seekers. Death often comes to the Tent City of Matamoros. Babies and older people are most vulnerable to succumbing to illnesses that most of us would easily survive.

While in the area, two volunteers from Valley Haven, Inc, an emergency children's shelter, carried a baby from the camp to cross the border because unaccompanied children seeking asylum are allowed into our country. Desperate parents relinquish their children when all hope is lost to be permitted asylum as a family.

Another group, named "Witness: Tornillo," has been protesting silently at two detention centers for immigrant children in the United States. When the protest began this past Sunday, officers from Homeland Security and Border Patrol agents gathered in masse, taking pictures and instructing the protestors on where they were allowed. They are now witnessing in a small park at the Brownsville/Matamoros border. They plan to be there until the MPP policy has been lifted and families seeking asylum are allowed into our country.

I am reminded of the song by John Lennon: "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one/I hope someday you will join us/And the world will be as one."