𝗠𝗘𝗫𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟𝗦 𝗗𝗜𝗦𝗕𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗠𝗜𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗡𝗧 𝗖𝗔𝗠𝗣 𝗜𝗡 𝗠𝗔𝗧𝗔𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗢𝗦~~𝗠𝗜𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗡𝗧𝗦 𝗦𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗧𝗢 𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗢𝗩𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗗 𝗛𝗢𝗦𝗣𝗜𝗧𝗔𝗟 𝗜𝗡 𝗠𝗔𝗧𝗔𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗢𝗦, 𝗧𝗪𝗢 𝗦𝗛𝗘𝗟𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗜𝗡 𝗥𝗘𝗬𝗡𝗢𝗦𝗔

by Sandra Sanchez, Border Report

McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — The founder of an nonprofit that operates schools for young asylum-seekers south of the border says she saw a migrant family wandering, luggage in hands, looking for a migrant encampment that Mexican officials recently dismantled in Matamoros.

Felicia Rangel-Samponaro

Felicia Rangel-Samponaro, co-director of the Sidewalk School for Children Asylum Seekers, told Border Report that she approached the family and told them it was taken down earlier this month, and she said they had nowhere to go.

She says that’s been a common confusion among migrants who arrive in Matamoros — across the border from Brownsville, Texas — unaware of where to go for help as they wait for the opportunity to have an asylum interview with U.S. officials.

And she says she fears more will come to the border in the weeks leading up to the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump who has promised to close the Southwest border to asylum seekers wanting to cross into the United States.

“I assume the problem will continue to be if you come to Matamoros looking for an encampment, you’re not going to find it. So you’re going to think this isn’t the place, and then you’re going to walk away like, I believe what I saw this morning, because if you didn’t know there was a camp there today, Friday morning, then it looks like a park now,” Rangel-Samponaro said.

Her advice is for migrants to go to shelters operating in the Mexican border cities — like a government-operated facility in a renovated former hospital in Matamoros, 10 minutes from the Rio Grande. And two other shelters in Reynosa, Mexico.

Her organization holds classes daily and offer resources to children brought to the border at all three facilities in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, which she says is far safer than migrants trying to live on the streets.

“Encampments aren’t safe because you’re out of the open — just exposed to anyone walking up to you, and that’s always unsafe on in any country, especially Mexico. So we’re always encouraging people to go to the shelters where you have clean water, you can take a shower, there’s food provided. It’s safer,” she said.

 

She says the outdoor encampment that was taken down around Dec. 19 had only about 20 people living there. In 2019, when the first Trump administration implemented its Migrant Protection Protocols policy, commonly known as Remain in Mexico, which forced asylum-seekers to live south of the border, there were over 5,000 in that camp.

Currently there are about 500 living in the Matamoros shelter at the renovated hospital.

There are few hundred living in Casa Migrante Gudalupe in Reynosa, and at the Senda de Vida shelter also in Reynosa.

Earlier this week, Rangel-Samponaro’s organization held a Christmas party on Monday for several dozen asylum-seeking children at the Matamoros shelter. They held a dinner and party on Tuesday for children at a shelter in Reynosa, she said.

The needs of asylum-seekers vary, but she said sending monetary donations to a trusted nonprofit or NGO is the best way to help families living south of the border. That way, organizations can buy food, toiletries and whatever needs the families have in Mexico.

Many families are waiting upwards of eight months, she says, to get asylum appointments via the CBP One app, which is a requirement implemented this past year under the Biden administration.

Only 1,450 asylum interviews are granted daily at eight U.S. ports of entry along the Southwest border, including at the Gateway International Bridge, which connects to Matamoros.

It is unclear whether the Trump administration will continue the practice. The incoming administration has promised mass deportations at the start of its new term.

She says if they keep the CBP One app then she hopes they will add a map to it because she says many asylum seekers are confused as to the locations of the eight U.S. port of entry to apply for asylum interviews.

She says she has come across families in Reynosa with upcoming asylum appointments in Tijuana, Mexico, almost 2,500 miles away.

“Then we have to tell them ‘This is where you are, this is where you need to be.’ Then it’s like, ‘well, how do I get there?’ And it’s like, ‘OK you didn’t know this is where it was.?’ And the answer is always ‘no,’ because we’re asking them to know U.S. geography,” she said. “How are they supposed to know that?”

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.