New Asylum Shelter Location in Matamoros
For many months, various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from both Texas and Mexico have diligently coordinated together, and this past week, worked with asylum seeking families to relocate them from the outdoors asylum encampment near the riverbank in Matamoros to a more secure place.
The riverbank asylum encampment lacked running water, it was difficult for NGOs to track whether families received necessities such as food, and as such, it was reported that many went with no meals or only one meal a day. This was also the encampment that migrants reported, that late into the hours of the night, Texas DPS shined a bright light onto the encampment with blaring sirens, and blasted a recording telling migrants to not cross the river. These inhumane actions kept people awake at night and scared children.
As for the new asylum shelter location, Andrea Rudnik from Team Brownsville says, “It is an outdoor encampment surrounding the old Pumarejo public hospital. It’s safer, more secure, but also more confining, more restrictive.” The space serving as the shelter is the outside area of an old hospital further away from the port of entry bridge. Although it is still outdoors, the shelter now has shower areas, washing facilities, and a lot more portable toilets. The new set up is also more helpful for NGOs to keep an organized distribution of drinking water, food, and other necessities for asylum seekers who continue to wait for a CBP One appointment as current policy dictates.
Call to Action: Support the New Shelter via Team Brownsville
Now is the perfect time to put faith into action. Team Brownsville continues to provide support to the asylum seekers stuck in Matamoros as well as welcoming asylum seekers who have been processed into the US. Team Brownsville coordinates with other NGOs to help purchase and distribute food and other necessities in Matamoros.
Team Brownsville can always use volunteers, if you are not able to volunteer in person, a monetary donation can be made on their website to help Team Brownsville continue to provide welcoming to asylum seekers or support and share their Amazon wish list here:
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3T96CDK6G1TG5/ref=nav_wishlist_lists_2
Most current needs are:
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- Cases of water
- Food
- Fans
Join Courts & Ports with Texas Impact
If you are interested in learning about other ways to get involved while witnessing and getting a big picture understanding of immigration policy and their implications at the border, join our Courts & Ports events. For further questions, please contact me at fabi@texasimpact.org.
“They have placed canopies over the tent area to block the sun”- Andrea Rudnik
‘“There are also many portapotties, shower areas, clothes washing area” -Andrea Rudnik
“Small area where a church put up a swing set” -Andrea Rudnik