Annunciation House speaks on current asylum situation in El Paso, collaboration with federal government
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Despite years of court filings and legal demands, operations at Annunciation House continued. The organization maintains its daily hospitality sites in El Paso, sheltering families and children released from government custody.
Although overall border crossings have decreased, Annunciation House receives four to 15 people daily, Monday through Friday, according to executive director Ruben Garcia. He says arrivals include individuals released on bond from federal detention facilities in the region.
“These young adults have reached age 18 and transitioned out of Office of Refugee Resettlement facilities and are material witnesses assisting Homeland Security Investigations (HSI),” Garcia said.
The El Paso border region serves as a major hub for immigration detention, with capacity totaling over 7,000 beds across facilities such as the Otero County Processing Center, the El Paso Service Processing Center at Hawkins Boulevard and Montana Avenue, Camp East Montana and facilities in Sierra Blanca and Pecos.
Annunciation House’s system of coordination with federal immigration authorities originated in 2014 when large numbers of Central American families arrived in South Texas, according to Garcia.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) contacted the organization to arrange temporary shelter so individuals would not be released directly onto public streets,” Garcia says.
Garcia said that since then, Annunciation House has established clear parameters for the organization’s collaboration with federal agencies, maintaining strict operational independence.
“We do not do any detention,” Garcia said. “Anyone you send to us is free to walk out the front door. They’re free to go. And whatever relationship you want to maintain with the individuals, that’s between you and the individuals; we will not serve as a surrogate for you.”
Under the working arrangement, staff assist released individuals with contacting family members across the country to secure travel tickets.
Garcia says, during the fiscal year 2019, spanning from Oct. 1, 2018, to Sept. 30, 2019, ICE released 150,000 refugees to a regional network of partner churches coordinated by Annunciation House across El Paso and Dallas in Texas, Las Cruces and Deming in New Mexico, Colorado and Omaha, Nebraska.
Garcia framed the mission of Annunciation House around core principles common to global faith traditions regarding the treatment of those in need.
“Whether we are Christian, whether we’re a Muslim, whether we’re a Jew, whether we’re a Buddhist, at the heart of our belief structure is that we welcome the poor,” Garcia said. “We welcome the poor. That’s what it’s about.”
Annunciation House plans to maintain its daily shelter operations in El Paso while engaging in ongoing public discussions regarding human dignity and international refugee policy.
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