Local Volunteers Aid Asylees

Volunteers travel to border bringing needed supplies
By Sue Hoadley, Volunteer assisting asylum seekers

A volunteer group of Albuquerque concerned citizens travel to El Paso/Juarez every month to take needed basic supplies to the asylum seekers (asylees) who cross over the border and legally petition for asylum. The asylees come from Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, and Honduras primarily, but also from Haiti and Brazil.

Currently needed items are baby formula, baby bottles, and sports bras (which are often taken from women by Customs and Border Patrol).

The volunteer group is formed into three teams who depend on donations of cash and requested supplies to fill their cars for the long trip down and back. Each trip involves deliveries of supplies to the shelters and discussing with the shelter staff the current changing immigration situation and supply needs.

Between each trip, the team members work locally to build awareness and gather the donations of requested supplies.
The teams work with Ruben Garcia who, in 1973, founded Annunciation House, a major shelter of three facilities that receives asylees and feeds, clothes, and nurtures them to help them on their journey to their US sponsors.

The journeys are often long bus trips, up to three days, to US cities where asylees are united with their sponsors—often family members or friends, a church organization, or an unrelated compassionate individual.

Read about the Biden administration’s change in policy for pregnant, nursing, and postpartum women here.
To learn more, contact Sue Hoadley at suehoadley@comcast.net or Mike Hanna of Sandoval Indivisible at mike112447@outlook.com.