We are pleased to welcome Mary Bull, a house coordinator at Annunciation House in El Paso, TX. Annunciation House was founded in the 1970s to accompany the migrant, refugee, and economically vulnerable peoples of the border region through hospitality, advocacy, and education. They operate several houses of hospitality for migrants in El Paso. Mary talks about what first brought her from Michigan down to the border, and what has inspired her to continue her work there for the past ten years. We share examples of faithfulness in mission that we’ve encountered, including the two Mexican Jesuits who were killed earlier this year in the Tarahumara mountains, Fr. Javier Campos, SJ, and Fr. Joaquin Mora, SJ. We also talk about a local example of faithfulness, Sr. Edith Garrido, a Daughter of Charity working at Casa del Migrante in Reynosa. She has been rightly described as the beating heart of the shelter, and we get a laugh speculating widely about her age.

We are happy to welcome Fr. Matt Kuczora, CSC, a Holy Cross priest in law school at the University of Notre Dame. He spent the summer in Brownsville working with Project Dignity Legal Team, where he helped to set up a system for assisting migrants with “particular vulnerabilities” who are eligible to be paroled into the United States. We share our own experience helping submit cases for migrants with particular vulnerabilities, in particular, pregnant women. We talk about a couple of techniques we use to try to avoid getting overwhelmed with requests for legal aid, which have been met with mixed results, to say the least. Since Fr. Matt also lived in our community during the summer, we end the episode trying to get him to pick his favorite person to live with between the two of us. Who will he choose?!?

We are excited to welcome Astrid Dominguez, the Executive Director of Good Neighbor Settlement House. Good Neighbor is a nonprofit serving the unhoused in Brownsville, TX with meals, clothing, showers and support services. They also coordinate the migrant Welcome Center by the local bus station with other partner organizations. Astrid shares from her experience as a first generation immigrant and as a mother, and how those facets of her life inform her work for justice.

We reflect on the graces that have come from keeping in touch with migrants after they’ve entered the U.S. and dispersed around the country to be with family. We caught up with our good friend Claudia at our province ordinations in St. Louis in June and took some requisite selfies with her. And we’ve hosted a couple of Zoom Masses with migrants from the Catholic community in the Reynosa plaza, despite the challenges of trying to explain time zones!

For our first episode of Season 3, we are humbled to welcome Bishop Mark Seitz of the Diocese of El Paso, TX. Known for his advocacy for the poor and vulnerable, Bishop Seitz offers a unique perspective as a leader of the Church in a border community. In this episode, he calls for a deeper conversation about migration, one that is not solely dominated by socio-political concerns, but shaped by a theological perspective that identifies the migrant experience as essential for understanding the Church. He also talks about celebrating Mass at the border wall on an altar which straddled both sides; a reminder of the unifying force of the Eucharist even amidst division. We offer our own reflection on experiences of breaking bread with migrants through our Sacramental ministry; including a 12-year-old altar server named Vincent who just can’t quite seem to figure out when to ring the bells.

Louie Hotop, SJ, and Brian Strassburger, SJ, are two Jesuit priests working on the US-Mexico border in the diocese of Brownsville, TX. This podcast explores the humanitarian response along the U.S.-Mexico border from a Catholic perspective.

Season 3 will expand the scope beyond the Rio Grande Valley and include interviews with people working on other points along the border as well. The first episode of Season 3 will be released on Tuesday, October 18th. You can find the podcast in this feed and on our website (www.TheJesuitPost.org)

This podcast is edited and produced by the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the U.S. and hosted by The Jesuit Post.

In this bonus episode, Louie and Brian share updates about their ministry this past summer. They talk about their new routine for visiting shelters in Reynosa, Mexico, including celebrating Mass at Casa del Migrante, and bringing donations to the newest shelter, Senda 2. They share the story of a migrant couple who staffed the bodega at Senda 2 and surprised them by wearing some Jesuit swag! They also reflect on a visit to a Jesuit project on the southern border of Mexico in Frontera Comalapa, including a birthday party for a 10-year-old Nicaraguan girl that gave Louie the opportunity to showcase his dance moves!

In this bonus episode, Louie and Brian offer updates on their ministry and the migrant reality in Reynosa, Mexico. They reflect on the experience of celebrating Holy Week with migrants in the plaza, as the incense masked the smell of nearby port-o-potties and the sprinkling of holy water helped cool the oppressive heat. They also talk about how the plaza was cleared out in the middle of the night. Most of the migrants were relocated to local shelters, which have become the new focus of their ministry in Reynosa. There has also been an increase in Haitians on the border, so tune in to hear Brian’s best attempt at getting the names right for three teenage girls he has befriended at Casa del Migrante.

This week we are very grateful to be joined by Jennifer Harbury, co-founder of Angry Tías and Abuelas, a grassroots organization that fights for the protection of migrants on both sides of the border and works tirelessly to secure much needed supplies for shelters, including the new shelter that is being built in Reynosa, Mexico. Jennifer has decades of experience working in Guatemala and along the US-Mexico border for the rights of vulnerable people. In this interview, she speaks in stark detail about the humanitarian crisis on the US-Mexico border, a direct result of both current US policy and decades of meddling in Central America. We share about our distribution of tents and tarps in the plaza, and argue over which one of us is Sherlyn’s favorite, a 7-year-old girl we’ve befriended in Reynosa.

This week we are grateful to be joined by Hermi Forshage who is the volunteer coordinator at the Humanitarian Respite Center (HRC) in McAllen, TX and the chairperson for the Catholic Charities RGV advisory board. Hermi has been instrumental in helping us to get involved at the HRC and has been a huge supporter of our work in Reynosa. In this episode, Hermi shares stories from her years of experience working with migrant families and encourages listeners to think beyond politics and see the dignity of each person. We also share about the fiasco we created by trying to bring used clothing across the border - let’s just say we learned our lesson pretty quickly!

This week we are very pleased to release our interview with Trey Martinez, an attorney from Brownsville and a very good friend of ours. In this episode, Trey tells the story about how, through the influence of Sr. Norma Pimentel, he chose to use his legal expertise to help migrants with their asylum cases and co-found Project Dignity Legal Team. Trey also speaks openly about the topic of immigration and humanitarian aid from his perspective as a lawyer and as a person of strong faith. We also share about our own struggles of getting involved with the migrant detention system and how difficult it can be to navigate - especially when you’re trying to track down a loved one!