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Last June, Christy Jones was prepped to lead a student mission group of a dozen area high school students 900 miles south to the United States-Mexico border. It would have been the fourth such trip in as many years.

But it never happened. Only two students signed up, Jones said. That was highly unusual because considerable excitement usually surrounds these mission trips.

When she asked the students why they werent participating in the 2019 St. Peters mission trip, she learned their parents were nervous about the security situation at the border, with talk in the news at the time concerning massive immigration caravans, Mexican cartel meddling and overwhelmed U.S. officials and Border Patrol personnel.

A veteran of multiple trips to the region, Jones knew she had to counter those fears and false claims about whats going on at the southern U.S. border.

The situation down there is not scary, Jones said, a parent and volunteer who serves as team leader for the St. Peters group. Youre safe down there. Its really a loving, warm environment. The kids need to see that. The kids need to see what that community is doing down there, how tight-knit they are, how much they help each other and how we can (positively) impact that.

And the best way to do that?

Get the parent educated, Jones said.

Trip to the southern U.S. border

Last month, 11 Joplin area adults Christy and Todd Jones: the Rev. J. Friedel; Ellen Broglio; Stephanie and Donald Clarke; Kathy and Gene McCain; Christine and Mary Vu; and Diane Langford arrived at the southern Texas border on Saturday, Oct. 19.

During a stay that ran through Wednesday, Oct. 23, group members visited three areas. Each of these locations had been visited by Joplin student groups in the past.

The first stop was a soup kitchen, named Loaves and Fishes, located in San Benito, Texas.

The second was a San Benito-based long-term care center, La Posada Providencia. Operated by the Sisters of Divine Providence, the facility offers a safe and welcoming home to immigrants seeking legal refuge in the U.S.

There, we just taught (them) English, life skills and we worked on their garden, Jones said. We (also) took care of the babies; a lot of moms and dads have little ones, and while theyre in class learning English, we play and babysit the kids.

But it was at the groups third and final location a short-term respite center in McAllen, Texas that made a lasting impact on Jones. And not a positive one, she said.

Ugly border crossing

They visited the Catholic Charities-operated Humanitarian Respite Center twice, Jones said.

It had changed dramatically in the last year, she said of the respite center, because of the policies in the United States.

Prior to the 2019 trip, Jones said the facility served as a key way station for individuals and families whod crossed the U.S. border, were picked up by Border Patrol and processed through a detention center. After their release, the center allows asylum seekers a chance to grab a shower, new clothes, toiletries, food and other comforts before moving on and connecting with relatives already living in the country to await their immigration court date.

During past trips, Jones said, asylum seekers would drive up (to the center) in droves, 200 people a day, an amazing amount of people. They would come off the bus, 40 at a time, and wed say Welcome to the United States because this was really their first time on American soil without being detained.

Thats not the case now, she said. In what Jones called an unprecedented situation, refugees awaiting their asylum court hearings are now being sent back across the border into Matamoros, which lies directly opposite Brownsville, Texas. There, a tent city now sits on the banks of the Rio Grande river. Mexican authorities had provided portable toilets just two weeks before the Joplin group arrived at the border.

The center, Jones said, has the capacity to serve up to 1,000 migrants at a time, but on the days they visited no more than a dozen migrants were present.

Twice, the Joplin group, on behalf of Catholic Charities, pulled wheeled carts full of food and toiletries across the bridge into Mexico. There, they handed out 20 gallons of milk and 400 sandwiches to the migrants that number anywhere between 1,000 to 2,000 people. Everything was gone within minutes, Jones said. Later, toothbrushes, toothpaste and eye drops were distributed, the latter because so many migrants have infections from bathing in the filthy Rio Grande water.

As soon as you take your foot off the bridge you can see just this sea of tents and tarps hanging from trees, she said. There is no grass to be found. Every inch of ground is taken. Thousands of people are there. And theyve been there for who knows how long.

The worst experience occurred, Jones said, when they had to choose which lucky migrant parent received a rare bottle of rehydrating Pedialyte, which Jones said is like gold down there because drinking the filthy river water causes widespread illnesses among infants and children.

There were just these eyes looking at you, pleading their case My mom is back there with my brother who is 3 months old and all these stories and we have to figure out who to give the Pedialyte to, Jones said with a shake of her head. Its just heartbreaking.

It shouldnt be this way, I remember thinking, she said.

Emotions running high

When Jones returned home she felt shellshocked for the first two days, before the emotions from the trip finally hit her. She particularly remembers one night, lying safe in bed as a south Texas storm pounded the border area, spawning tornado warnings all around them.

When the (tornado) sirens were going off, and our phones were going off, I remember lying there thinking, How is it right that Im in here (safe) and theyre out there (in tents), just because of where they were born?

Future trips

As of now, Jones is planning a fourth student trip in the spring of 2020 and, because of the success of last months trip, a second adult trip for the fall of 2020.

For details about the 2019 trips to the 2020 trips, contact Jones at kccajones@gmail.com.

Read more from the original source:
Area residents receive first-hand account of border crisis - Joplin Globe