Translated by Chris Brown
Matamoros, Tamaulipas: In the absence of greater government support to assist Mexican nationals deported from the United States, they are at risk of becoming homeless or criminals, said Father Francisco Gallardo López, administrator of the Migrant House and the House for the Homeless in this area.
“It is urgent for immigrants to be given a document with longer validity, so that they can be identified; the document should put forth in writing what their situation is in Mexico, a kind of identification that allows them to travel and take up residence without so much vulnerability”, he noted.He explained that the crisis facing deportees in transit led organizations like the diocese of Matamoros to open the San Diego House in the Ampliación Solidaridad neighborhood which operates under its own resources as well as citizen donations. It’s the only shelter of its kind in this frontier town.
“We realized there were many migrants drifting around the area from many states, not just Tamaulipas. Seeing the defenselessness they found themselves in, exposed to so many things, we started to work in their support”, he said.Gallardo López recounted that when U.S. authorities deport Mexican immigrants, they send the residents from Tamaulipas back through Tijuana and Baja California, and they send the residents from Baja California back through Tamaulipas [on opposite sides of the country from where they entered the U.S.], “to make it more difficult for them to get back home.”
As administrator of the shelters, Gallardo López has become familiar with the drama of the repatriated and their conversion into a still more vulnerable cohort: the homeless.
He commented that 28 permanent staff work in the House for the Homeless who were once deported immigrants and were not yet able to return to their families; they stayed here and started living off of charity until descending to the pitiful state in which we found them.
The parish priest explained that the repatriated become a floating population that dream of, in most cases, returning to the United States, and so they never put down roots or establish family or work ties in the area.
Spanish original