The “immigrants nun” in the US

Sor Norma Pimentel is known as “the nun of immigrants.” For more than ten years he has directed the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley Humanitarian Respite Center, A humanitarian aid center located in McAllen, Texas, on the border with Mexico. From there, it provides assistance to people who arrive in the United States looking for asylum.

The border authorities transfer to this center many families traveling with children under 6 years. They are one of the few groups that, after illegally crossing the border from Mexico, are not immediately deported.

The increase in the raids of the customs immigration and control service (ICE, for its acronym in English) to expel the undocumented have unleashed a climate of terror in the communities.

“The raids pass everywhere”

“People have a huge fear (…) know that nowhere are sure, they pick you anywhere and you cannot even go to the supermarket, because the raids pass everywhere,” he explains.

Last year they received a legal inspection request from the Texas Attorney General’s Office on immigrants, although It was dismissed by the judge.

Sor Pimentel ensures that this sense of generalized fear has also extended to neighbors Rio Grande Valley. Many think now: “If I help you the best something happens to me too,” he says in conversation with ACI Press shortly after participating in the “Conference ‘refugees and migrants in our common home” this Thursday with the Pope in the Vatican.

The initiative, within the jubilee of migrant and the missionary world of October 4 and 5, is the first global encounter promoted by the Vatican that brings together religious institutions, non -governmental organizations (NGOs) and experts dedicated to addressing the challenges of migratory flows.

To all of them, the Pontiff asked them to promote a culture of “reconciliation and hope “to face the” urgent challenges “.

“The Holy Father defends that the immigrant is a human being to recognize and treat with dignity. Then, it cannot be said that we are in favor of life if we do not defend the life of the human and immigrant being,” said Sor Pimentel.

Every little, dozens of exhausted people who reflect in their bodies the consequences of an infernal trip. Most walk hundreds of kilometers to the border between the United States and Mexico.

Therefore, this religious of the Missionaries of Jesus, who works side by side with the bishop of Brownsville, Mons. Daniel Flores, always receives them with a caress: “We are right on the border, there with immigrants, with migrant families, which really are part of our Church.”

“We are very connected on how to be present, how to speak and encourage the people to be good neighbors, to help each other, not to feel fear that the government does not allow us to live our religion, our faith, and be present to help the people when they need it,” he adds.

The most important thing is “that they do not feel abandoned and alone”

The most important thing is “that they do not feel abandoned and alone” and that they perceive that, despite the growing hostility, “they are something that matters in life.”

A total delivery born from the conviction that every person who suffers has the face of Christ. In any case, Sor Pimentel does not hide that he sometimes feels overwhelmed. “The resources do not reach us,” he says.

She is also convinced that putting face and sharing the horror stories that these people drag is the best antidote against social boredom towards immigrants: “When I see a little boy crying who approaches me and tells me, ‘Help me’, with her face full of tears, (I want) to be able to share that with other people. So people feel that pain, that crying of that creature or that mother and with fear of how to protect their children. ”

Therefore, he never loses the opportunity to denounce the pain of these people because “when you approach a human being who is suffering, your heart connects and changes.”