Beneficiary Spotlight: Refugees from the Americas

by Brigid Rowlings, LHI Communications Director

Images from shelters on the southern border of the United States that LHI supports.

Refugees crossing the southern border of the United States has long been a prominent issue in the American media. It has gained more attention recently as the number of asylum seekers and refugees arriving in the United States has increased, and as officials grapple with repealing the Covid-era Title 42, which has allowed the U.S. government to quickly turn refugees back to prevent the spread of Covid 19.

While differences of opinion about immigration are real, and conversations about immigration vital, the facts remain: People are being forced to flee their homes. They come with very little. When they arrive, conditions for refugees on both sides of the border are harsh. Many of those hoping to enter the United States wait along the border in makeshift encampments with little access to food, water, and sanitation. Once refugees and asylum seekers arrive in the United States, border shelters and charitable organizations are able to offer some assistance, but the sheer number of arrivals puts a strain on their resources.

Why do refugees from countries like El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela risk such danger and hardship? The answer can only be that conditions in their home countries are so bad that anything else seems better.

What is compelling people to leave their home countries? We could write extensive pieces on countries like El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, and Nicaragua. And, in fact we did publish an entire blog post on the factors pushing people to leave Venezuela. But, to give you an overview of the major issues, we will confine ourselves to outlining the major issues and providing you with just a few specific examples.

Political Instability and Oppressive Regimes

Many people seeking asylum in the United States are fleeing oppressive governments. For example, since 2007, Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega has ruled the country with an increasingly authoritarian hand. Freedoms of individual people and the press have become more and more limited, and Ortega has even jailed his political opponents. 

As we detailed in an earlier blog post, Venezuela president Nicolas Maduro ensured his own re-election by barring opponents from running. Since then, Venezuelans report continued persecution of those who oppose Maduro, including protestors. 

The political situation is arguably worse in Haiti. The 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse created a power vacuum that has paved the way for gangs. 

Eduardo shows some of the scars that remain after he was attacked by local gang members with machetes for not agreeing to sell drugs through his family’s fruit stand in Honduras. Photo provided by Their Story is Our Story.

Gang Violence

In the absence of any strong central government in Haiti, around 200 gangs have established influence across Haiti, including controlling an estimated 60% of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. These gangs have committed acts of physical and sexual violence. They have forced people out of their homes and blocked access to safe drinking water, food and health care. 

Gang violence is also endemic in places like El Salvador and Honduras. In 2019, in partnership with Their Story Is Our Story, we told you about Eduardo, who was attacked by gang members after he refused to sell drugs from his family’s fruit stand in Honduras. Fleeing often seems like the only option for people like Eduardo who are threatened, attacked, and even killed if they refuse to pay, join, or do the bidding of local gangs.

Economic Instability

Unsurprisingly, in places where governments are not stable, neither are economies. In Nicaragua and Venezuela, inflation, declining wages, and rampant unemployment have left people unable to support themselves and their families. Essentials like food, clothing, and medication are often in short supply.

An estimated 60% of Guatemalans live in poverty. This is partly due to a decade of “land grabs”. Small farmers in Guatemala have been driven off their land by more powerful people who want to develop their land into larger, industrial farms. Indigenous Mayan people living in the Guatemalan highlands have been particularly susceptible to these government-sanctioned “land grabs”. When targeted communities protest the seizure of their ancestral lands, leaders can be arrested or assassinated. 

Natural Disasters

Farmers in Guatemala have not only suffered from land grabs, but also from droughts, floods, hurricanes and cold snaps. Guatemala is not alone. According to this Washington Post article, Latin America and the Caribbean experienced 175 natural disasters between 2020 and 2022. These events have led to loss of life, damage to housing and infrastructure, crop damage and food shortages, and lack of access to clean water.

Pallets of aid on their way from the LHI Aid Warehouse in Utah to Team Brownsville in Texas.

How LHI Helps

LHI works in partnership with several shelters in places like Texas and Arizona to provide aid to refugees and asylum seekers. One partner, Team Brownsville, told us in December: “We are receiving up to 600 people every day and the need is so great…Our greatest need is for blankets,warm clothing and shoes. We quickly and gratefully gave out all the jackets, hoodies, winter kits, socks, underwear and shoes that you sent. We tried to hold back some for when it got even colder, but as the numbers grew, that became impossible.” Thanks to our donors and volunteers at the LHI Aid Warehouse in Utah, we were able to send more aid to Team Brownsville.

To learn more about LHI’s Border Aid program, click here.

My Home is Your Home

Contributor: Twila Bird, TSOS
Photographer: Kristi Burton, TSOS

The next story from our partnership with Their Story is Our Story highlights the kindness and generosity of a family who decided to open their home to hundreds of Central American asylum seekers.

The welcome sign on the front pillar of Israel and Marta’s home isn’t just for show. They exemplify the saying “Mi Casa Es Su Casa” (My Home is Your Home). During the last nine months they have welcomed over 500 asylum seekers into their home.

When Marta was asked how she decided to get involved with helping asylum seekers, she replied:

Well, last December, it was all over the news. We have moms from Central America needing clothing — needing this, needing that. And my daughter said, “Mom, let’s go!” So we went to this address. We went to a church where asylum seekers were being dropped off by the busloads and it was chaos. My daughter, who brought some donations, unloaded them and said, “I’m leaving.” And I said, “Take my car, because I’m not leaving. I’m going to help here.” I think we arrived at like 10 a.m. on a Saturday, and at 10 p.m., I was still there.

Now I’m working regularly at a church here. We receive people there every Thursday. We also pick up people at the bus station [where ICE sometimes drop them off]. When the buses arrive, we all line up on each side of the walkway. And then we clap and say, “Bienvenidos! Bienvenidos!” That’s when freedom really begins to set in for them.

We put them in the sanctuary at the church. We explain what the process is at that point. We feed them. We get one of them to pray. And then we start making calls — making connections with their U.S. sponsors. And then we get clothes for them and put them through the showers. Once they’ve been clothed, fed, and showered, then we just wait for the confirmations and when arrangements are firm, we take them to either the bus or the airport for them to continue their journey. Some of them leave the same day.

Sometimes the church says we can only be there for 24 or 48 hours, so we look for host families. Once we received a hundred people who came late and needed host families right away. We ended up with four families at our house, each from a different country — a Guatemalan family, a Honduran family, a Salvadoran family, and a Nicaraguan family.

Israel [Marta’s husband] brought them home — I was still at the church helping out — and he told them, “We’re not going to be here. You’re more than welcome to do whatever you want. Our house is your house.” And then he left. When we came back, one of the ladies said, “Look! I made soup!” And I said, “What kind of soup?” She said, “Chicken soup!” I said, “Did Israel go and buy chicken?” She said, “No, one of the chickens from over there [pointing to a section of our yard].” So that was one of our pet chickens in the soup. I didn’t want to disappoint the lady. I mean, oh my gosh she ate my pet, but I didn’t want to make her feel bad so I ate the chicken. But now when the families come, I say, “You can eat whatever you want, just don’t mess with the chickens!”

We’ve been doing this for the last nine months and during that time we’ve had over 500 in our home.

Seeking Asylum is a Legal Right

Contributor: Twila Bird, TSOS
Photographer: Kristi Burton, TSOS

This information comes from our continued partnership with Their Story is Our Story, and explains how Central Americans coming to the US have the legal right to seek asylum here.

Asylum seekers freshly released from border detention centers wait for travel arrangements to be made for continued journeys to scattered U.S. destinations.

These families, escaping gang violence and persecution in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, have undertaken a dangerous journey to seek safety in the United States. They are shown here in a church in Arizona where a Homeland Security bus dropped them off after being processed in border detention centers. The families are on their way to destinations scattered around the country where sponsors are waiting to receive them. Each individual will have future opportunity to make their cases for asylum before an administrative judge.

Seeking asylum is a legal right. Asylum is a form of protection granted to individuals who can demonstrate that they are unable or unwilling to return to their country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, or membership in a particular social group. The right to seek asylum was incorporated into international law following the atrocities of World War II. Congress adopted key provisions of the Geneva Refugee Convention into U.S. immigration law when it passed the Refugee Act of 1980. (For more information, see the International Rescue Committee’s website: Rescue.org.)

Elizabeth

Contributor: Megan Carson
Photographer: Kristi Burton

The third story from our partnership with Their Story is Our Story comes from Elizabeth, whose home in Central America was shot at by local gangs because her daughter would not join them.

“I had to go and confront them... and I was able to get my daughter back, but they killed the two other girls. To think of the danger it was to leave my country, to come here, is less than to know that my daughter could have died that day.”

My name is Elizabeth. I am a single mother. I have four children. I worked. In my country, jobs at my age—I am 36 years old—are difficult. I didn’t have the opportunity to study. In my country, childhood is short. We have to start working at an early age. In my case, I worked from the time I was twelve. None of my children have worked at the same age that I did. I have been the head of the household, the breadwinner.

But, work is scarce and then there are the gangs.

When my daughter was growing up, they started to harass her. On one occasion, they followed her and took her out of school and told her that they wanted her to be part of their gang. I was working and the teacher called me to tell me that she was pulled out with two other female classmates. I had to go and confront them... and I was able to get my daughter back, but they killed the two other girls. To think of the danger it was to leave my country, to come here, is less than to know that my daughter could have died that day.

The circumstances of things is what made us have to leave the country without looking back, not because we want to. I told you that I confronted them. That same night, they came to attack me. They shot at my house. I had to leave as if I were the criminal, not them. I left with my children. I went to a town with my family, leaning on other people. I spoke with my family and told them, “I can’t. I can’t. I have to take my daughter out of here.”

Editorial Note: Violent, competing gangs recruit youth in Central American countries and often, if they choose not to join, they kill them. The homicide rate there is among the highest in the world. Most murders are never punished. In recent years, only 4% have ended in a conviction. In the past, Central American youth traveled north in search of the American Dream; today they leave to escape violence and crime.

Partner Spotlight: Their Story is Our Story

We are thrilled to announce our partnership with Their Story is Our Story, an organization that is giving a voice to asylum seekers and refugees by collecting and sharing their stories and images, revealing the individuals behind the labels. 

TSOS helps refugees tell their stories in a way that is intimate and emotionally authentic. The first story from our partnership tells about the arrival of a young mother and her son at one of the border shelters where asylum seekers are dropped off after being released from detention centers.

A Single Backpack

Contributor: Kelsey Royer, TSOS
Photographer: Kristi Burton, TSOS

A single backpack contains all the belongings this Guatemalan mother possesses after her arrival at an Arizona church the day of her release from a border detention center. She and her son were among fifty asylum seekers from Central American countries processed by ICE, fitted with ankle monitors, and released to await their asylum claims in court.

The manner of their release was abrupt. After exiting the detention center, which some called the “icebox” because it was kept so cold, they were placed on a Homeland Security bus, driven for several hours to the church, and dropped off. They did not have money or phones and had not showered in weeks.

Unlike this young mother with her backpack, others arrived with their meager belongings inside plastic “homeland security” bags. When asked, many were unaware of where they were or how far it was to where they were going. They each had sponsors (usually extended family members) located in various cities around the country but they had not had the opportunity or means to communicate with them or form travel plans.

Remarkably, this woman and her companions were welcomed by church and community volunteers who greeted them with warm smiles as well as access to mobile shower facilities, food, and clothing. They also connected them with their sponsors by phone and made travel arrangements. Most of the asylum seekers were on their way to their ultimate destinations within 48 hours.

This Homeland Security bus drop-off scenario is repeated multiple times every week in locations near the U.S. southern border. Though their detention center experience is often horrific and inhumane for asylum seekers, countless church congregations, NGOs, and community volunteers rise to administer to their needs and assist in their continuing journeys. 

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Aid supplies donated to LHI are shipped to partner shelters like the one in the story above, where generous nonprofit organizations and churches provide additional services including warm meals, showers, and a place to stay for a short time.

Will you help by donating aid supplies for delivery to these shelters?

CLICK HERE TO DONATE TODAY.