Another 44 asylum seekers are expected to arrive in Denver late Tuesday or early Wednesday morning from New Mexico, the second time nonprofits coordinated the transport to Denver.
El Paso-based nonprofit Annunciation House paid $5,000 to bus the migrants to Denver-area churches and nonprofits that agreed to host them temporarily while volunteers connect them to their host families in other cities and states, Annunciation House director Ruben Garcia said. Annunciation House worked with Denver-area nonprofits to coordinate the effort last month after the nonprofit shelters reached capacity. The migrants typically only stay for 48 hours or less in the host locations before they head to their sponsors and await immigration hearings.
The New Mexico governor’s office paid about $4,000 to transport the asylum seekers by bus to Denver in May but said it was the only time it planned to foot the bill. A spokeswoman for the governor’s office confirmed on Tuesday that the nonprofits coordinated the transportation.
Garcia would not confirm which Denver-area churches have agreed to house the asylum seekers, saying he would leave it up to Denver’s faith communities to share the news.
Multiple requests for comment to the American Friends Service Committee and Casa de Paz, which helped coordinate the effort with area churches in May, were not returned on Tuesday afternoon.
Officials from both agencies said previously that the effort in May was successful and they were working with area faith communities and nonprofits to see if Denver could host more asylum seekers in the future. They had so many volunteers, they had to turn people away.
Mile High Ministries works with churches and nonprofits to help people in poverty, and the agency is planning to be the fiscal sponsor for the movement. Officials plan to hire a half-time coordinator to work with the nonprofits to host asylum seekers.
If it can raise enough money and the need is there, Denver could potentially host a new busload of asylum seekers each week, Mile High Ministries Executive Director Jeff Johnsen said. So many churches have offered up space that no one church would have to host every week, he said.
“There’s so much compassion and goodwill, it’s exciting to see,” he said.
Johnsen declined to give the host locations of the asylum seekers on Tuesday’s bus, citing a need for privacy, but said some of the churches that hosted asylum seekers in May were again hosting and new churches have also joined the mix.
Although Mile High Ministries does not yet have the money to fund the new coordinator role, Johnsen said area churches have pledged thousands of dollars to fund the new position and he hopes to have a new person hired by the end of next week. The position will be temporary — it will exist as long as asylum seekers need temporary places to stay after arriving at the U.S./Mexico border.
It’s hard to predict how long the need will remain, especially with such a volatile environment, said Garcia, Annunciation House’s director.
“The reason even a first bus was sent was because the number of refugees was pretty high,” he said.
About three weeks ago, 1,000 people were being released from the border by immigration agents daily, and rather than being transported to shelters as they were two months ago, they were being released in the streets in areas where access to bus stations and airports was limited or non-existent, Garcia said. The numbers have gone down recently to an average of about 550-600 a day, but the areas where asylum seekers are being released don’t have the capacity to support them, he said.
The bus heading to Denver is coming from Deming, New Mexico — about 11 hours away — which has a population of about 14,000. While releasing 100 people in Denver may not be a big deal for the city, Garcia said, in a small city such as Deming, it has a large effect.
The first bus that came to Denver was from Las Cruces, which is larger than Deming, but still had limited public transportation options to get asylum seekers to their final destinations.
Annunciation House also sent a bus of asylum seekers to Dallas for the first time on Saturday, Garcia said. The agency regularly transports people to Albuquerque, New Mexico, but the shelters were reaching capacity.
The Denver-area coordinator will work with nonprofits and shelters such as Annunciation House as well as Denver-area faith communities and city organizations that are interested in helping host asylum seekers, Johnsen said. That person will work with volunteers who want to help make calls and travel plans for asylum seekers who are connecting to friends and family as well as those who are providing in-kind and monetary donations.
Despite the varying political views on immigration, including among some of the churches that are hosting asylum seekers, Johnsen said the effort to host asylum seekers is about something different.
“What we’re talking about here is a group of people, mostly families, who have been through an enormous struggle,” he said. “Many have been walking for weeks or even months, and it’s been a long time since they’ve slept indoors or had a good meal or a shower. It’s just about being compassionate towards people who are really struggling.”
The issue, Garcia said, is how human beings are being treated, not about the larger immigration discussion. The communities stepping up are “the best of who we are,” he said.
“That is the part that I hope not only does not die but flourishes in an environment that has turned so demeaning and degrading of refugees,” he said. “That’s not who we are. That’s not the way we treat people.”
