Church Responds to Immigration Crisis

IMMIGRATION: Inland parishes, Catholic Charities wait for migrants

With flights suspended, it’s unclear whether Inland shelters and other help will be needed

• BY DAVID OLSON / STAFF WRITER  
•  http://www.pe.com/articles/migrants-697539-catholic-charities.html

Published: July 14, 2014 Updated: July 15, 2014 10:57 a.m.

DAVID BAUMAN , STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Catholic Charities and the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino are preparing to shelter and care for additional Central American migrants, but it’s unclear whether more will be arriving.
St. Joseph Catholic Church in Fontana welcomed 46 migrants Thursday, all of whom were gone by Friday. But the U.S. Border Patrol announced Thursday it was suspending flights that sent migrants arrested in Texas to Southern California for processing, so the shelters may no longer be necessary, at least for now.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement requested the help of the diocese and Catholic Charities and transferred the migrants from San Diego County to St. Joseph. On Monday, ICE declined to speculate on whether more migrants might be sheltered in the Inland Empire.
“We certainly are prepared to accept more,” said John Andrews, spokesman for the diocese, which includes Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
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Several parishes are ready to house migrants, he said.
One of the back-up sites, in case of an unexpectedly large influx of migrants, is St. Catherine of Alexandria Church in Riverside. Volunteers are waiting for the call to help, Deacon John DeGano said.
St. Catherine is one of a number of Inland parishes collecting food, toiletries, first-aid kits, diapers and other items for migrants.
The migrants who arrived Thursday in Fontana were given some of those donations, and a Catholic Charities caseworker made arrangements for family members across the country to meet them at their destinations, said Ken Sawa, CEO of Catholic Charities San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. The migrants were then accompanied to a Greyhound bus station before being sent to live with family.
For migrants who didn’t have the money for bus tickets, Catholic Charities covered the cost using private donations raised specifically to help the migrants, Sawa said.
All the migrants were women with children, he said.
Most of the migrants helped on Thursday were gone by the end of that day. Four families left on Friday, Andrews said
None of the families stayed in the Inland Empire. One was sent to San Francisco; the others traveled to states including New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Colorado, Andrews said.
Protesters picketed St. Joseph on Sunday, saying the Catholic Church should concentrate on helping U.S. citizens rather than foreign migrants. Some of those who protested Sunday have been involved in broader efforts to stop congressional proposals that would provide a path to citizenship for many people who have lived illegally in the United States for an extended period.
But Andrews said the assistance the church is providing should be separated from the political debate over immigration.
“We’re receiving these folks because it’s a crisis situation,” Andrews said. “They have very real human needs we need to attend to. We can get back to the public policy questions later.”
Contact the writer: 951-368-9462 or dolson@pe.com