Trapped by False Promises
Migrants seeking safety and opportunity often encounter exploitation hidden behind false promises. Through the work of Maryknoll Lay Missioner Heidi Cerneka, survivors are finding protection, dignity, and hope.
Migrants seeking safety and opportunity often encounter exploitation hidden behind false promises. Through the work of Maryknoll Lay Missioner Heidi Cerneka, survivors are finding protection, dignity, and hope.
Coralis Salvador, shares her recent experience while on assignment in Lebanon at the Arrupe Migrant Center in Beirut.
Maryknoll Lay Missioner Heidi Cerneka, an immigration lawyer at the border, joined Jesuits and other volunteers on a sobering mission.
Amid a shifting border landscape, Maryknoll lay missioner Coralis Salvador reports on court accompaniment, shelter realities, and the groups who joined the Encuentro Project this year—anchored by a renewed sense of call and calm discernment.
From desert trails to courtroom steps, missioner Coralis Salvador joins interfaith and community efforts in the Southwest to honor lives lost, accompany asylum seekers, and uphold dignity at the U.S.-Mexico border. Her summer of solidarity—marked by prayer, advocacy, and hands-on support—reveals the courage of migrants and the compassion of the communities that welcome them.
In a time of profound personal transition, missioner Rick Dixon reflects on loss, vocation, and the thin veil between this life and the next. As he leaves his ministry in Mexicali, Mexico, and returns to El Salvador, Rick shares the deeply moving story of his late niece, Kirsty Angel Mountain—her struggles with mental illness, her spiritual insight, and the lasting imprint she leaves on his heart and mission.
Across borders and continents, vulnerable migrants are coerced into forced labor, sexual exploitation, and criminal activity. Maryknoll lay missioner Heidi Cerneka shares stories of courage, survival, and the urgent call to defend human dignity. On World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, bear witness—and take action.
Amid shelter closures and rising challenges for migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border, Maryknoll lay missioner Coralis Salvador and her community in El Paso lean on faith and solidarity. Through healing workshops, peaceful advocacy, and border immersion programs, they are nurturing hope and truth in a time of uncertainty and fear.
A project of National Catholic Reporter that covers the the mission and ministry of Catholic women religious around the world reported on the newly formed Maryknoll Monarch Initiative, based in El Paso, Texas, an education and training program with a focus on Care for the Earth, Human Migration, and Nonviolence among other priorities.
Along the U.S.–Mexico border in California’s Imperial Valley, missioner Rick Dixon describes how the human cost of immigration policy is devastatingly clear. Here, steel barriers and irrigation canals claim the lives of those simply trying to survive. Just miles away, in an unmarked field behind a small-town cemetery, the bodies of the unnamed lie buried behind NO TRESPASSING signs. Here, grief meets witness.
Forced into the shadows and denied the right to work, asylum seekers are simply trying to survive—and they are entitled to dignity. In the gospel story of the bold SyroPhoenician woman, missioner Sr. Deirdre Griffin is reminded of the call to challenge exclusion and rethink what it means to truly welcome.