Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) left 50 immigrant women and children, most of them asylum-seekers from Central America, stranded at a downtown San Antonio bus station in the middle of Hurricane Harvey’s destruction.
This happened after service was cancelled due to the flooding. Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who represents San Antonio, called immigration enforcement officials the day before to tell them not to drop families off. But they did anyway, leaving them without any money or means of communication, in the middle of a hurricane.
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson issued a statement claiming that immigrants transferred to the bus station had tickets to their destinations, and that ICE remained in contact with authorities to ensure the buses were operating. ICE declined to give the time the families’ buses were scheduled to deport or when they dropped the immigrants off at the bus station.
Thankfully, a local church took the frightened families in after the city called to ask if they would be willing to house the immigrants until bus services started up again. “This is all really unacceptable,” Rep. Doggett said. “We need greatly improved communication and more attention to genuine humanitarian concerns.”
“They’ve just gotten out of family detention centers and passed their credible fear interview so they were on their way to their families,” said Sister Denise LaRock, a member of the Interfaith Welcome Coalition, which helped rescue the stranded immigrants.
The Interfaith Welcome Coalition started making the necessary arrangements after finding out about the fate of those 50 asylum seekers. After putting in calls to nonprofit, it was with the help of Assistant City Manager, María Villagómez, that the local church agreed to take in the frightened families. The city also sent cots, blankets, water, and food so that the church could accommodate the extra people.
Barbie Hurtado, a community organizer with RAICES, a non-profit that provides legal aid to immigrant families, said: “They were really tired and didn’t know what was going on at first, but they’re grateful to have a roof over their heads, clothes, and food. Most of them were praying the hurricane passes so they can get to their families.”
ICE routinely drops off families who pass their credible fear interviews at bus stations with tickets to relocate near families or sponsors, while their immigration cases move through the courts.
As Harvey hit Texas last week, ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released a statement saying they “seek to provide for the safety and security of those in our custody and to protect them from bodily harm in the event of a hurricane or a major destructive storm.”