Border Servants Corps helps asylum seekers trapped in Juarez with supplies, hope, love

Border Servant Corps (BSC) is really living up to its name.

The Las Cruces-based nonprofit, founded in 1997, is part of a local collaborative, the Hospitality Coalition, formed nearly two years ago when asylum seekers from Central and South America and elsewhere began coming to Las Cruces. BSC volunteers helped find temporary housing for the refugees, connected them with the care and services they needed and helped get them to final destinations throughout the United States.

The coalition’s work changed when the Trump administration barred asylum seekers from crossing the U.S./Mexico border after the onset of COVID-19. Tens of thousands were expelled from the U.S., and many began living in temporary shelters and even under bridges and in parks in Cuidad Juarez, Mexico, waiting for their visa hearings, said BSC Executive Director Kari Lenander.

Instead of providing temporary hospitality to asylum seekers, BSC and its coalition partners transitioned to supplying food, clothing, blankets, medical supplies, school supplies and other necessities across the international border to families in Juarez, Lenander said.

Coalition members also have supplied medicine, PPEs and payment for COVID-19 tests in Juarez, along with Internet service, books and other educational materials for children and families.

“We’ve been putting together humanitarian bags every month,” Lenander said. The bags include snacks and other necessities for “a ton of families that would love to be working at this point,” she said, but are either surviving without paying jobs or with a fraction of the pay they would normally be receiving if the parents were working.

The bags also contain personal, handwritten messages from someone in Las Cruces or another part of the U.S. or another country, she said. One card, written by an immigrant to the U.S. and delivered to an asylum seeker who had been returned to Mexico, said, “’Never give up hope. There are people who love and care for you even if they are not physically able to be with you.’”

The coalition also provided 1,300 holiday humanitarian baskets to asylum seekers in shelters and houses in Juarez, Lenander said.

With support from groups and individuals in Las Cruces and across the country – as well as organizations like Save the Children and UNICEF – every holiday basket included a book courtesy of Casa Camino Real Bookstore of Las Cruces, owned by award-winning author Denise Chavez. The baskets also included hats, gloves and age-appropriate gifts ranging from baby blankets and rattles to children’s toys and crayons to playing cards for adults.

“It’s been really incredible to be part of this network of people who are still doing so much within the safety precautions of the pandemic,” Lenander said.

Hospitality Coalition partners in Juarez include the staff that run the shelters, she said.

A combination of individual support, partnerships and grants, volunteers and sponsors has allowed BSC and its partners “to meet the need where the people were,” Lenander said.

And, while they can’t have direct contact, providing donations to support the delivery of food and supplies means “people can still meaningfully connect,” she said.

Lenander said a Save the Children staff member in El Paso was carrying coalition supplies across the border to refugees in Juarez earlier this year. Since November, the coalition partnership has included social workers and nuns who regularly cross into Mexico and now deliver the supplies.

“This is what people do, right?” Lenander said. “Things change all the time. Everyone learns how to be flexible. It’s a blessing to be a small part of that big community effort.”

One positive change that has resulted from the pandemic is that all the shelters located along the U.S.-Mexico border from San Diego to Brownsville, Texas, are working together, sharing best practices and helping each other fill gaps wherever they occur to “make sure the services we provide and consistent and sustainable,” Lenander said.

“it is changing the face of how we’re working together to care for these families in some ways,” she said. “The world is changing and so are we. Collaboration is the name of the game.”

“I’m really inspired and grateful for how Kari and her team have stepped up to help the 17 shelters and other encampments,” BSC board member Christine Eber said. “People in Las Cruces and Doña Ana County would be proud of what organizations and people in our border communities are doing to help people suffering from inhumane immigration policies.”

To donate and for more information, visit www.borderservantcorps.org and www.facebook.com/borderservant.

Contact Lenander at 575-522-7119, extension 16, and kari@borderservantcorps.org.