Aaron's journey: part 2

TEXAS, U.S. — 21 November - Socorro, TX

I flew into El Paso on Tuesday morning and was received by Sr Liliane Alam, FMM, who I would spend the next day with. We went to her home and were joined by Fr Frank Probst, OFM, who works at the Socorro mission (in an outlying area from El Paso) which ministers to the largely Hispanic population of the area.

After sharing lunch with them, I went with Fr Frank to visit Annunciation House and Casa Vides, two immigrant safe houses in the city where he and other Franciscans volunteer. We also stopped at the Mexican border so I could take some photographs. We hadn't been there for more than two minutes when a Border Patrol officer pulled up in his SUV and asked us what we were doing. “Sight-seeing,” we answered and were told that our view of the river wasn't very good from where we had chosen to stop. Apparently determining we weren't threats, he drove off and left us alone. American tax dollars at work…

In the afternoon we went to the Ysleta Mission, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, where I met with Br Charles McCarthy, OFM Conv. He showed me around their church and explained the history of many of the statues and artwork inside. The side chapel was still decorated from Dia de los Muertos which gave me another small glimpse into the local culture.

We next went to the Socorro Mission, La Purisima Catholic Church, where we were joined by Fr Frank's co-administrator, Fr Joe Nelson, OFM. They showed me around the church which is an historic site and recently underwent a major renovation. I stayed at the friary that evening and attended a mass in Spanish Wednesday morning presided over by Fr Frank. Though I haven't taken any Spanish since high school (some six years ago), I was able to follow along reasonably well.

22 November - El Paso, TX

The rest of Wednesday was spent visiting Sr Liliane and the Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center which provides free legal services for detainees in the city who can't afford lawyers. El Paso is a border town—its Mexican sister city being Juarez—and I was told approximately 70 per cent of the population is now Hispanic. It was really disheartening to me to see all the wasted government spending on border fences, patrol cars and guards and video monitoring towers.

We visited a child detention centre where Sr Liliane and I met with a fifteen-year-old Iraqi boy whose family now lives in Greece. His family had sent him to the States but he was detained and now wants to return to them. His family, however, doesn't want him to return. Since he doesn't speak English or Spanish, Sr Liliane (originally from Lebanon) was able to connect with him in Arabic and decipher more of his story than the centre's employees. The kids in the centre are typically there up to four months before they can get a court date.

While it is a nice, inviting facility with good services for the children, it's still depressing to think that they're basically trapped there. Las Americas aims to make this confusing and sometimes terrifying situation easier in simple ways such as requesting that judges refrain from wearing their black robes and having the kids just visit one judge instead of three different people.

Sr Liliane Alam, FMM

Sr Liliane has now been in El Paso over six years after working in diverse locations such as Morocco, Dublin, Egypt and New York City. Her efforts at Las Americas have turned an organisation of the brink of closing its doors to a thriving beacon of hope in a place where others would turn a blind eye. As she said, “The lepers of our time in the USA are the immigrants. People look at me like I am doing dirty stuff—‘you are helping immigrants?'—but there is no other choice.”

The work is attracting more people all the time, such as two new lawyers who recently joined the team. Las Americas also hosts groups looking for border experiences and hopes that students from more Franciscan schools will take part in the future.

With the growth of staff and the establishment of an endowment, Sr Liliane has invested in a new office with space much more conducive to the centre's goals. She showed me this site before it was again time to head to the airport. Though it was the eve of America's Thanksgiving holiday, El Paso's airport was calm and I soon found myself boarding a plane to head out to San Francisco, California.

**All photographs by Aaron Maurer

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