FSW’s partner Sosa constantly adapts to changing migrant conditions

By Elket Rodríguez

Overcrowded shelters and constant movement of migrants from other sections of the U.S.-Mexico border are testing the limits of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, reported Pastor Rosalío Sosa, a key member of Fellowship Southwest’s immigrant relief ministry.

Relief organizations, such as Sosa’s Red de Albergues para Migrantes (Migrant Shelter Network) also are feeling the strain, noted Sosa, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Tierra de Oro in El Paso.

“The situation is getting worse, and it is being politicized,” he said. His network serves 4,500 refugees in 18 immigrant shelters in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, primarily in Juarez, but as far as 100 miles west in the desert, in the remote village of Palomas.

“Every day, El Paso receives 170 migrants who entered through Brownsville, Laredo, Del Rio and McAllen,” Sosa said. Recent reports corroborate that information; hundreds of unaccompanied migrant children are being flown to El Paso by immigration officials seeking space to shelter them.

Simultaneously, many migrants continue to be expelled to Mexico under Title 42, a U.S. policy that authorizes rapid expulsion of migrants at the border due to COVID-19. “That’s why the shelters in Ciudad Juarez are overcrowded,” he explained. 

The situation is so dire that the Chihuahuan government decided to ignore its own social-distancing guidelines for avoiding the spread of COVID-19, Sosa said. "Either you leave people out on the street, or you place them in a shelter. Fortunately, there is a lot of unity between the communities of El Paso and Juarez, and we all help each other when we are in need.” 

Of Sosa’s 4,500 refugees sheltered in Sosa’s network, 39 migrants live in the Palomas shelter, and four women and children rescued from human traffickers live in a safehouse. The Palomas shelter—across the border from Columbus, N.M.—demands most of Sosa’s time and energy. 

“We are receiving 70 to 90 expelled migrants every day, among them women with children, and some are pregnant,” he said. “I transfer the most vulnerable migrants to a safe house to protect them from the cartels who lured them.”

Deep in the Chihuahuan desert, Palomas is one of the Western Hemisphere’s busiest drug and human-trafficking routes. Every day, border patrol expels through the Palomas port of entry dozens of migrants caught entering the United States through an area that extends 250 miles from El Paso west to Douglas, Ariz. 

Many of the migrants expelled in Palomas do not receive proper medical attention for their injuries, Sosa said, noting the village doesn’t have a hospital that can tend to them. “I have to travel to Juarez (100 miles east) for them to receive medical attention,” he said. “Every week, we serve seven to nine migrants who need urgent medical attention.”  

Sosa desperately needs a van to transport injured refugees from Palomas to Ciudad Juarez. If you have a trustworthy 15-passenger van you would like to donate to this ministry, or if you would like to contribute to a fund to purchase a van, contact Marv Knox at marv@fellowshipsouthwest.org. 

Also, if you would like to contribute to Fellowship Southwest’s immigrant relief ministry, which supports the work of Sosa and other pastors all along the U.S.-Mexico border, click here.

Elket Rodríguez is the immigrant and refugee advocacy and missions specialist for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Fellowship Southwest.