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Above: The Rev. Joel Hortiales (left) prays with Carlos Ivan Baran Hidalgo; his wife, Danelly Mazariegos Morales; and their 3-year-old daughter, Scarlett Juliette, at the Camino de Salvación shelter in Tijuana, Mexico. The family fled violence in Guatemala and is hoping to pursue a claim for asylum in the U.S. Hortiales is a United Methodist missionary and serves as director of Hispanic/Latino ministries and border concerns for the California-Pacific Conference.

"I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you gave me clothes to wear. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me." Matthew 25:35-36

Each day is a waiting game at encampments along the U.S.-Mexico border. Hoping for a chance to have their asylum cases heard in the U.S., migrants wait for food and water provided by faith groups. They wait in lines for showers, toilets and clothing. They wait to receive medical care and their children wait for any diversion from the maze of tents, tarps and concrete that has become their playground.

A UM News team accompanied faith leaders from The United Methodist Church and the Methodist Church of Mexico in September 2021 on visits to growing migrant communities in multiple border towns. While policymakers in Washington struggle to find solutions, the response from faith leaders has been simple: They are welcoming the strangers, as Jesus instructed.

A section of the border fence between the U.S. and Mexico stretches across a valley in the Sonoran Desert near La Rumorosa, Mexico.
Steel plates stand atop the posts of the border fence that marks the boundary between Mexico and the U.S. at El Faro Park in Tijuana, Mexico. The graffiti atop the center section is Spanish for "We are all migrants." Names painted on the vertical fenceposts call attention to deported U.S. military veterans.
Children make their way along the edge of a migrant camp housing some 1,500 people at the El Chaparral border crossing between Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego, Calif.
People line up to fill their buckets with water from taps installed at a camp for migrants near the El Chaparral border crossing in Tijuana. Portable toilets help meet the sanitary needs of the families living at the camp while hoping to pursue asylum claims in the U.S.
Eight-month-old Kelani, whose mother fled gang violence in Honduras, has her bath in a plastic bucket at a camp for migrants at the El Chaparral border crossing in Tijuana.
Children walk through a camp for migrants at the El Chaparral border crossing in Tijuana.
A pedestrian crossing sign stands amid a web of ropes that support tarps and tents where migrant families are living outside the El Chaparral border crossing in Tijuana. The makeshift camp is steps away from the San Ysidro Port of Entry into the U.S., one of the busiest land border crossings in the world.
A furled U.S. flag is attached to the edge of a tarp sheltering a migrant family in a camp at the El Chaparral border crossing in Tijuana.
Manuel Aldana describes his journey from Honduras to a migrant camp at the El Chaparral border crossing in Tijuana.
Migrants living in a makeshift camp near the El Chaparral border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico, receive food and other relief supplies from Nuevo Pacto Methodist Church and San Pablo Evangelical Church in Tijuana.
Esther Gonzales (left) offers disposable face masks and helps direct migrant families living in a camp near the El Chaparral border crossing in Tijuana as they receive food and relief supplies from Nuevo Pacto Methodist Church and San Pablo Evangelical Church in Tijuana. Gonzales is married to the Rev. Arturo González Sandoval, a district superintendent in the Methodist Church of Mexico.
United Methodist Deaconess Cindy Johnson and her husband, Mike (wearing red shirt), cross the U.S. - Mexico border into Matamoros, Mexico, carrying relief supplies for asylum seekers waiting there for a chance to have their asylum claims heard by U.S. immigration authorities.
Arturo Nelson Villatoro (left) visits with United Methodist Deaconess Cindy Johnson at a camp for migrants in the Plaza de la República in Reynosa, Mexico. Villatoro, from Honduras, serves as an informal leader for the camp, which houses about 2,000 migrants.
United Methodist Deaconess Cindy Johnson (right) visits with Wendy Carolina Argueta Mantamares (left) from Honduras and Celia Isabel Chavez from Guatemala at a camp for migrants in the Plaza de la República in Reynosa, Mexico. Chavez said her journey from Guatemala to Reynosa, just across the border from McAllen, Texas, took 22 days.
Migrants crowd under a pavilion at a makeshift camp in the Plaza de la República in Reynosa, Mexico. About 2,000 migrants, many from Central America, have taken up residence in the plaza, just yards away from the McAllen - Hidalgo International Bridge into the U.S.
Children play at a camp in the Plaza de la República in Reynosa.
Children play outside a camp in the Plaza de la República in Reynosa. About 2,000 migrants, many from Central America, have taken up residence in the plaza, just yards away from the McAllen - Hidalgo International Bridge into the U.S.
United Methodist Deaconess Cindy Johnson visits with children at a camp for migrants in the Plaza de la República in Reynosa, Mexico. About 2,000 migrants, many from Central America, have taken up residence in the plaza, just yards away from the McAllen - Hidalgo International Bridge into the U.S. Many of those living in the camp were deported from the U.S. under Title 42, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention order that allows the U.S. to rapidly expel migrants for public health reasons during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A new section of fence rises along the U.S.-Mexico border near Mission, Texas.
Fishermen and swimmers spend an evening on the bank of the Rio Grande in Ciudad Miguel Alemán, Mexico, across the border from Roma, Texas. This area of the border is not fenced.
Clockwise from top, left: A discarded wristband lies on the ground in Roma, Texas, just across the Rio Grande from Ciudad Miguel Alemán, Mexico. It is of the type used by smugglers to keep track of migrants they are smuggling into the U.S. illegally. Psychiatrist Christian Romero displays a depiction of a migrant’s journey from Central America to the United States at Centro 32 in Tijuana, Mexico. Centro 32 is part of the Families Belong Together advocacy campaign devoted to reuniting immigrant families that were separated at the US-Mexico border. Migrants sketch out their journeys as a form of art therapy at the center. A section of the border fence between the U.S. and Mexico snakes across hilly terrain outside San Diego.
Ronald Fildor speaks about the journey that led him from Haiti to the United Methodist Christ Ministry Center in San Diego.
Haitian migrants tell of the journeys that led them to the United Methodist Christ Ministry Center in San Diego. From left are: Willio Bernard Zephyr, Ronald Fildor, Natrice Decius and Beauvil Millande.
Hortencia Medina (center) helps Emma Elena Quintero (right) open the gate to her home in the Frontera III community near Donna, Texas. Medina and coworker Lupita Mendoza work with ARISE Adelante, a nonprofit community development program that helps people like Quintero who live in the informal border settlements known as colonias in the area around McAllen, Texas.
Emma Elena Quintero talks about her role as a community leader and longtime resident of the Frontera III colonia near Donna, Texas. Colonias are informal, unincorporated settlements along the Texas – Mexico border with little access to government services and infrastructure.
Migrants waiting to catch buses at the bus station in Brownsville, Texas, charge their cell phones with equipment provided by Team Brownsville, a humanitarian assistance program that helps asylum seekers during their journeys through the area.
Migrant families rest at the Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, Texas, while waiting for buses that will take them to sponsors across the United States.
Anthony Pineda and his family, migrants from Honduras, pass time at the Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, Texas, while waiting for a bus.
Anzalduas Park in Mission, Texas, is serving as a temporary COVID-19 quarantine camp for migrants who have crossed into the U.S. from Mexico. Those who test positive for the virus must remain at the camp until they receive a negative test result.
Danelly Mazariegos Morales (front) joins other migrants in prayer at the Camino de Salvación shelter in Tijuana, Mexico. Morales fled violence in Guatemala with her husband and 3-year-old daughter, hoping to pursue a claim for asylum in the United States.
Bishop Felipe Ruiz Aguilar of the Methodist Church of Mexico (left) prays with migrants at the Camino de Salvación shelter in Tijuana.
The Rev. Joel Hortiales leads a game for migrant children at the Camino de Salvación shelter in Tijuana, Mexico. Hortiales is a United Methodist missionary and serves as director of Hispanic/Latino ministries and border concerns for the California-Pacific Conference.
Parents watch as their children sing and dance during worship at the Camino de Salvación migrant shelter in Tijuana.
Children pray during worship at the Camino de Salvación migrant shelter in Tijuana.
The Rev. Joel Hortiales (left), a United Methodist missionary, comforts Walter Armando Albayero, 73, as he describes the gang violence that caused his family to flee El Salvador. The journey took them two years, with stops in Guatemala and southern Mexico to earn the money they needed to continue. Eight members of the family, including two children born along the way, are staying at the Camino de Salvación migrant shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, while waiting to present their case for asylum to U.S. immigration authorities.
Volunteers from Methodist churches in Mexicali, Mexico, serve lunch and distribute hygiene kits to families staying at the Posada del Migrante shelter in Mexicali.
Bishop Felipe Ruiz Aguilar of the Methodist Church of Mexico greets families staying at the Posada del Migrante shelter in Mexicali.
Volunteer Maria Esther Dorame Villanueva (right) helps serve lunch to families staying at the Posada del Migrante shelter in Mexicali, Mexico. Villanueva is from El Divino Redentor Methodist Church in Mexicali.
Volunteer Patricia Gonzalez (left) from La Santísima Trinidad Methodist Church in Mexicali, Mexico, distributes hygiene kits from the United Methodist Committee on Relief to migrants staying at El Camino a un Nuevo Amanecer shelter in Mexicali. In addition to the hygiene kits, volunteers from Methodist churches in Mexicali also provided and served lunch.
United Methodist Missionary Joel Hortiales listens to Eugenia as she describes the gang violence which caused her to flee her home in Guatemala. She is staying at El Camino a un Nuevo Amanecer shelter in Mexicali, Mexico, while waiting for the chance to request asylum in the U.S. The woman behind them is also a migrant from Guatemala.
Immigration detainees play soccer in a fenced area at the Imperial Regional Detention Facility in Calexico, Calif. The detention center is operated by the Management and Training Corporation for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A bus carrying recently released immigration detainees turns onto Paulin Avenue in Calexico, Calif. Buses that turn right onto Paulin carry detainees who will be released into the U.S. while they wait for an immigration hearing. Buses that turn left carry detainees who will be deported.
Baldwin Israel Avendaño (right), pastor of Calexico (Calif.) United Methodist Church, holds a sign while waiting to meet recently released immigration detainees on a street corner near the bus station in Calexico. Avendaño regularly meets the buses coming from the nearby Imperial Regional Detention Facility to offer help contacting friends and family and to provide travel kits containing food, clothing and snacks for the migrants’ journeys.
Baldwin Israel Avendaño, pastor of Calexico (Calif.) United Methodist Church, describes the two possible routes for buses carrying recently released immigration detainees in Calexico. A right turn onto Paulin Avenue means the migrants will be released into the U.S. while they wait for an immigration hearing. A left turn means they will be deported.

Credits:

Photos by Mike DuBose, UM News.