Day 7: Most Wanted

When I first saw this from afar on the outsiide of the door to the shelter, I thought it looked like the wanted posters in the post office. Maybe cartel or gang members, maybe some kind of trouble makers.

And it is like the wanted posters, except not wanted by the police but by their families. We were told with deep sorrow and regret, that these are not even a handful of the missing.

These are only 5 of the hundreds and thousands of people who have fled their homes seeking safety and a new life - and who have 'simply' disappeared, or were made to disappear, along this treacherous route to security.

Day 7: Migrant Shelter Piedras Negras

We visited a 'small' shelter for migrants inside Piedras Negras.

Today, there were 'only' 104 refugees coming from Cuba, El Salvador, Venezuela, Honduras, and Guatemala.

This shelter is run by catholic nuns. There was a legal room, doctors without borders temporary canopy, a large kitchen, a cafeteria, two dormitories for womyn and children, one for men, and a large cement plaza where most of the people there slept on the hard floor of the plaza with maybe a blanket or two for padding.

Up until December, the nuns took care of 1000 migrants a day. They said the number has diminished drastically daily. Most of the people staying there either have or are applying to have their CBP One appointments.

We learn that on average, it takes 7 - that's SEVEN - months to get an appointment.

I wish everyone could meet these people, so exhausted, sick, injured, and see how deyermined and how hard this journey has been - yet so trusting, believing all they are suffering will be worth it once they can enter the u.s.

How could anyone with any ounce of compassion deny entry into our wealthy country, deny a life maybe a tiny bit better than the one they are fleeing, deny a person so willing to work harder than probable 99% of u.s. people in order to be here?

These incredible, heart-wrenching, beautiful murals were recently painted on the walls of the shelter by migrants, both deported and those waiting for asylum.

The journey, walking, by train with the military and/or border patrol hovering in the helicopter overhead, terrifying and scattering refugees, often getting them separated from their families and/group and the guide.

The artist name & date

This mural is also on the outside wall of the shelter with flags of the countries migrants have fled from

This mural is inside the shelter on a wall - all murals were painted by refugees either hoping to enter the u.s.ofa. or those that have been deported.