CALEXICO — When Calexico resident Adriana Marquez first heard of the protests taking place in Murrieta against the arrival of illegal immigrants into the city, she said she felt shocked.
But when she learned that, because of the protests, the buses carrying the immigrants — many of them women and children — had to be turned around and rerouted to San Diego and El Centro, she knew she had to act.
Quickly forming a group called People Without Borders and creating a Facebook event, Marquez and others her gathered Sunday at Calexico's Rockwood Plaza in hopes of collecting basic necessities to help alleviate the stressful situation the immigrants were facing.
"It really wasn't anything political," she said. "It was more about how we could help. The demand was there and we heard that the people were in need."
Calling the response to Sunday's collection "overwhelming," Marquez explained that donations came in all the way from Yuma, leading to "truckloads" worth of goods, ready to be distributed
However, legalities are forcing Marquez's group, and others like it, to sit on all the items received.
"(M)embers of the public have expressed interest in donating to help unaccompanied children that recently have entered the United States from Central America," noted a statement from U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement regarding public donations. "The federal agencies supporting these facilities are unable to accept donations or volunteers to assist the unaccompanied children program."
Frustrated with the situation, Marquez explained that she spent all day Tuesday calling agencies, trying to figure out what could be done to get the donations — which were still arriving at drives organized in Yuma and Riverside — to those that are in need.
"It's weird how we are willing to help, but no one is letting us," she said.
Like People Without Borders, San Diego-based humanitarian organization Border Angels has been working to collect any and all items deemed necessary for the immigrants' well-being, from diapers and clothing to toilet paper and various hygienic products.
"It's important because we're losing the perception of reality," said Hugo Castro, a Border Angels representative. "This is a nation forged by migrants. It's grown with cultural diversity and through a workforce of migrants."
Though most of their collecting and distribution has taken place in San Diego, Castro explained that he was using his parents' house in Calexico as a local drop-off point, but the amount of donations received there has required him to find new locations for locals wishing to help.
And while the group is still trying to find a way to deliver directly to the detainees in the holding centers, they have taken to distributing as the immigrants are released.
"What happened in Murrieta was really the worst part of the American spirit," said Enrique Morones, Border Angels founder. "That's not who we are as a country. We have to show the best of the American spirit."
In an attempt to better understand the situation, state Assemblyman V. Manuel Pérez toured the El Centro Immigration Processing Center on Tuesday, before holding a press conference at Calexico Neighborhood House to discuss the matter and present Neighborhood House with supplies collected in Coachella to help the organization's efforts to assist immigrants as they are released.
"This country is founded and based on the principles of freedom, the principles of justice and the principles of equality," Pérez said. "We need to demonstrate to the world that the United States is a union based on the principles of compassion and justice."
Though he too had hoped for the opportunity to deliver supplies directly to those in need, Perez explained that it was important was important to work with nonprofit organizations such as Neighborhood House, which have been providing housing and monetary assistance for immigrants to make the journey to their family members in the States.
"We need to make sure we look at this as a community effort," he said.
"Women and children are our highest priority," said Richard Ortega, Neighborhood House director. "For us it was automatic. We reached out and asked, 'How can we help?'"
And even as the effort to provide assistance to the hundreds of immigrants awaiting an uncertain future has proven more difficult than expected, community members remain determined to help in anyway possible.
"They have come from a long way," said Josephine Zital, of Calexico. "Many of them came from a terrible place. And there are people that don't understand what they are going through."
Zital, who was hoping to get in touch with any organization willing to take donations, expressed her own reasons for wanting to help.
"Imagine being in a detention center," she said. "Imagine something happened here and we had to go through a situation like this and had to go somewhere new. It's just the humanitarian thing to do, whether they stay here or go back."
Staff Writer Heric Rubio can be reached at 760-337-3442 or hrubio@ivpressonline.com
orginal post click here:
ADRIANA MARQUEZ NEEDS YOUR HELP TO GET THING DONE IN CALEXICO; TO GET THE MESSAGE ACROSS SHE'S RELING ON GRASSROOT DONORS LIKE YOU WHO ARE WILLING TO SEE A REAL CHANGE IN THEIR BELOVED CALEXICO.