Day 3 or 4...a veces no se contar

Yesterday the three other new volunteers and I shadowed Amanda (Volunteer coordinator) on the PM guest servant shift. While on the guest servant shift, that one particular volunteer is totally in charge of running the house, answering the phone and door, etc. Everything. It was really good for Amanda that we were all shadowing and helping yesterday because it was a CRAZY shift.

Between 2pm when the shift began and 10pm when the shift was over SO much stuff happened...apparently it was an exceedingly unusual day...even at A House

1) ICE (migra/INS/feds/whatever you want to call them) brought this Polish guy in shackles to release him at A House
2) A new male guest from Mexico showed up with a very strange/questionable border crossing story
3) A family of NINE arrived at the house (2 adults and 7 minors ranging from 8mos. to 17 years)


Each of these stories requires explanation
1) Something I learned upon starting at A. House was that we actually work in cooperation with ICE. When ICE has detained someone and then releases them, ICE will often release them at A. House so that he/she can stay with us or get other resources.  This Polish guy, however, was adamant about leaving as soon as he heard the word "shelter" and saw that there were kids around.  During the intake interview he kept going on and on about how he thought he was coming to a "half-way house" and how he wouldn't stay here.  He repeated "I have no crisis." He said he had friends in El Paso and that he was planning to go to California, but he wouldn't use our phone to call them or even accept our offer to pay for a bus ticket to LA.  THe only thing he would take was a pair of pants so that he wasn't wearing the same ones from detention.  The whole episode was really strange. 

2) The new male guest who arrived claims to have literally walked past border control on the bridge between El Paso and Juarez without being stopped. He said that he put his bag on the security scanner, got in the line where they usually examine documents and literally just walked by while one of the guards was busy with someone else.  We all find this really hard to believe... I wonder if it's true, and if not, what his real story is .

3)We got a call from Las Americas (where I think Laura will be interning very soon!) about a family they had at their office.  The family had been moving around a lot, but the kids had been in school and the dad had been working.  They were in a complex legal battle in which they were applying for residency and very close to getting it.  At the last moment, the judge basically just decided to deny, so the family was fleeing deportation.  

Their situation is very complicated because one of the little boys who is now 3 yo. was born in the US (a US citizen) and has serious medical problems.  Ever since birth he has had to get his nutrition via feeding tube.  The Peptamen that serves as his nutrition costs over $900 each month, and currently his family is able to afford to feed him due to government programs.  If the family is deported to Mexico, they won't be able to access the federal programs to pay for his nutrition, and the little boy also won't be eligible for any government programs there might be in Mexico because he is a US Citizen.  After talking to one of the girls I found out that the mom and one of the children have diabetes, too.


As soon as we heard they were coming we got beds ready for them all, and once they arrived we played with all the kids, all of whom (except for the youngest who couldn't speak anything) spoke English.  I really hope that their representation, whether or not it switches to Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, can get this figured out.         


Things got a little quieter later in the day, but needless to say we were all pretty exhausted.  Tomorrow morning I have my first AM guest servant shift on my own! Kind of freaking out. Hopefully it will be a quiet Saturday...