BROWNSVILLE, Texas (Border Report) — Christmas has come early for some asylum-seeking migrants waiting south of the border in Matamoros, Mexico.
Van loads full of blankets, beans, rice, whole chickens and canned goods are being delivered this week by West Side Baptist Church, a small church of 50 in northeastern Texas that regularly ministers to asylum-seekers waiting in northern Mexico.
Pastor Jim Howard, 71, has been making the 600-mile trips to the South Texas border for 35 years. And he never misses a holiday.
“My steps are ordered by the Lord and I’m going to be here until he wants me somewhere else. This is what he has called West Side Baptist — the whole congregation to do.
“All of this comes from that whole congregation of West Side Baptist Church. Their hearts are down here even though they can’t come,” Howard told Border Report on Tuesday just before crossing the Gateway International Bridge to Matamoros.
Mexican customs officials, he said, have recently questioned their loads. And so they are making smaller deliveries multiple times per day.
He says he assures Mexican border agents that he isn’t selling the food in Mexico, that he is taking it “to help the people.”
On Monday, they delivered over 100 blankets, which were happily received as colder temperatures have moved into this normally tropical border region lately.
They plan on staying until all of the donations are given out. And said they’ll shop locally, if they need to, to add more supplies.
They brought a deep freezer full of whole meat products including chicken and turkeys and ham.
Howard says it brightens his heart to see the happiness a little food, or throw blanket brings to the migrants who are waiting with little to do for their U.S. Customs and Border Protection asylum hearings.
“Most of them try to stay in their tents. They try to keep their children warm and their kids are in the tents and as we hand out those blankets,” Howard said. “They would be so cold. They’re trying to stay warm. They walk around. They take care of the place. It’s neat, but really that’s all they have to do.”
About 1,000 migrants live in a renovated hospital complex in Matamoros, Mexico, waiting for asylum in the United States and relying on donors to help feed them and keep them warm. (Photos Courtesy West Side Baptist Church)
One woman, a teacher, has waited six months for her scheduled hearing, he said.
Over 1,000 people live in tents at the migrant facility in a renovated former hospital, about 10 minutes from the bridge.
They’re side by side and crammed together, and Howard said some have started moving back to the riverbanks on the Rio Grande.
“Since we come down here so often We’ve been able to see the people move from a lot of hope to come on across the border, right now to a lot of depression and desperation because there has been some halt in the number of people that are coming across the border, so right now they’re pretty discouraged about it,” he said.
Matamoros is in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, which the State Department warns Americans not to travel to due to crime and kidnappings.
There is heavy cartel activity in the city, which is controlled by the Gulf Cartel.
Howard said he even was asked by the cartel what his business is there.
But he says it won’t stop him from coming, and he has never had any problems in Mexico.
“We don’t worry at all. As a matter of fact we’ve had the cartel at the plaza, we’ve had the cartel come and talk to us and ask us what we were doing. And of course we just explained to them we’re trying to help the people,” he said.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.