On the border, a Mother’s Day filled with heartache and sorrow

By Elket Rodríguez

Can you imagine spending Mother’s Day fleeing persecution and hiding in a crowded shelter? 

That’s how refugee mothers on the U.S.-Mexico border will spend this Mother’s Day. Many of them have found protection from Fellowship Southwest’s immigrant relief ministry partner El Buen Samaritano Migrante, led by Pastor Lorenzo Ortiz. It operates four refugee shelters—three of them in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, just across the border from Laredo, Texas, and arguably the most dangerous city in North America.

One of those mothers, María Alcázar,* and her two children were kidnapped and forced to leave the United States days after her partner, a gang member, was reported to the police for sexually abusing a minor.

“He was going to kill me if I didn’t come with him (to Mexico) or kill my child, kill me and then kill himself,” she said. "I was pregnant with my daughter at the time."

Her partner and his gang forcibly transported María and her two children to a hiding place in Honduras. Less than two weeks ago, members of a rival gang invaded their hiding place and told her to leave with her children.

“He's over there” in Honduras, Maria said of her partner. “He became a gang member. They were trying to kill him, so I don't know if he's alive. I don't know if he's following me, because he knows bad people in Mexico, too."

María came to the United States with her parents when she was 3 years old and grew up in the United States. Now, she is traveling with her son, also 3, who is a U.S. citizen and who needs medical attention, and her year-old daughter, who was born while she was kidnapped.

On this Mother’s Day, Maria is desperate to return to the United States to reunite with her two older children. "I want to go back to the U.S.," she said.

Carmela Morales also waits in an El Buen Samaritano shelter. She fled with her remaining family after cartels murdered four members of the family. They had organized to defend their community from violence around Veracruz, their home. 

“They killed my husband and three of my sons,” Morales said. "They killed them for selfish reasons."

Now, Pastor Ortiz protects the remaining Morales family—Carmela, six young men and women, and a baby—and the Alcázars. Ortiz is one of the few ministers allowed by local cartels to serve migrants in that dangerous city. Meanwhile, the migrant population there has swelled, because the U.S. government is deporting them south of the border under a Trump-era policy related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We are serving 400 migrants," said Ortiz, who opened another shelter to meet the increasing demand. “I would like to tell the Christians that Jesus is still hungry and thirsty. He is still being hurt and kidnapped. He is still terrified and in need.” 

If you would like to support El Buen Samaritano Migrante’s new shelter in Nuevo Laredo—as well as other ministries Fellowship Southwest sponsors along the border—click here.

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

*  Names have been changed to protect these mothers and their families.