As immigration policy changes, González cares for migrants left behind

By Elket Rodríguez

A symbol of one of the harshest immigration policies ever devised by the U.S. government has been dismantled and vacated.

The refugee tent camp on the banks of the Rio Grande in Matamoros, Mexico—just across the Gateway International Bridge from Brownsville, Texas—has closed in the past week. 

Jorge Zapata, associate coordinator of CBF Texas, distributes food in Matamoros in 2018, when the tent camp was first forming.

For more than two years, immigrants seeking asylum in the United States huddled in patched tents in the camp. The U.S. policy called Migrant Protection Protocols, better known as MPP or “Remain in Mexico,” penned them and more than 20,000 other refugees in camps and shelters across Northern Mexico.

Now, asylum seekers who used to live in in the camp are being allowed to enter the United States. But before the camp emptied, Pastor Eleuterio Gonzalez already started relocating hundreds of migrants to rooms, and apartments around the city.  

González, who serves thousands of immigrants with the assistance of his church, Valle de Beraca, relocated at least 250 immigrants who have not been released into the United States. “I am still mobilizing people and delivering food to families," he said.

This is not new for González. Last November, he relocated migrants living in shelter he operated because of COVID-19. He has easily identified migrants not registered in MPP, because many of them lived in that shelter. 

"I am saving people who aren’t registered in MPP and who are obviously going to be extorted to either stay in Mexico or to (illegally) cross over into the United States now that MPP is being rolled back," he explained. "There must be around 3,000 or 4,000 new migrants who are not enrolled in MPP, and who are currently hiding in the city.”

The Gateway International Bridge is one of three ports of entry where asylum seekers enrolled in MPP are being allowed to enter the United States. Most migrants are being expelled through a COVID-19 order, known as Title 42, that authorizes the rapid expulsion of migrants at the border. 

González and other pastors in Fellowship Southwest’s immigrant relief ministry continue to serve migrants in Northern Mexico, despite the shifting policies and the surge in migrants seeking to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. They continually are adapting and finding ways to serve those in need. 

If you would like to contribute to Fellowship Southwest’s immigrant relief ministry, which supports the work of Eleuterio González 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.