MISSIONER NEWSLETTER – Summer 2025

Coralis Salvador, U.S.-Mexico Border

The El Paso border community gathers in faith and hope, supporting one another through shared service, prayer, and the ongoing struggle for migrant rights.

GREETINGS FROM EL PASO! These past months have been challenging for us, the migrant shelter volunteers and community. The closure of many shelters and the loss of migrants seeking asylum due the closure of the southern border for them. There is sadness in our hearts because the object of what we love to do was robbed from us. We were grieving the loss.

Providentially, the Marist Brothers sent us Don Bisson, psychologist and spiritual director, and Christine Gallagher, a therapist who specializes in grief and loss, who gave a workshop on trauma, healing, and spiritual growth. It was a four-day morning workshop during Holy Week. They helped us recognize the trauma we experienced due to our loss, its effects, and how to process it.

After the workshop, we resolved to do self-care, encourage dialogue, collaborate, and work to find ways to protect and be pro-active in maintaining the principles of welfare of migrants, i.e. human dignity, family, and community safety built on collaboration and trust.

Community members join the El Paso Diocese peace march earlier this year, standing in solidarity with migrants and advocating for justice, dignity, and welcome at the border.

We participated in a peaceful march and have been active in emailing our political representatives to advocate for migrants rights. We are hopeful that there is something positive happening all over the world: boycotts are taking place, several federal courts are doing what is right, and we, as children of God, are working against hate and bigotry and fighting for social justice and to preserve our democracy.

As El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz said, “El Paso is a proud and beautiful border community that stands as a testament to how welcoming others fosters a safe, prosperous, and vibrant environment for all.” He also said, “Community is an exchange of gifts, where we gift our lives to one another for the benefit of one another; we grow together and we bear one another’s burdens.”

In Juarez, the numbers of migrants arriving has also gone down because the Mexico-Guatemala border agents are turning asylum seekers away or repatriating them. But we remain focused on our support to the needs of shelters there, which are housing migrants who were stranded in Mexico and cannot return to their home country. Many of them are families with children.

Interest remains high at Encuentro Project, which offers a faith-based, multi-faceted immersion program in the El Paso-Ciudad Juárez border region. Since January, Encuentro has hosted ten groups of participants who seek to understand the complex realities of migration. While several high schools and college/universities have cancelled or postponed their trip because parents’ believed the negative narratives about the border, the many who have participated this year have learned the truth and are moved to act by serving and advocating to change these narratives.

Here are some of their comments:

“We had speakers who worked for legal issues, psychosocial issues, historical issues, climate issues, international issues. I feel like I have learned so much yet there is so much more I need to learn! A lot of misconceptions were addressed through real studies and statistics through presentations which really compelled me. Because not only was this PROVEN, and STUDIED, it is not known! Even though there are these facts, people still choose to believe in a system that benefits them. I feel compelled to share the statistics and facts with others.”

 

“I would like to educate others as I know misinformation is being spread and it will be very important to educate others. I would also like to volunteer and continue to help. I am going to volunteer my time and seek an internship in helping immigrants apply for citizenship. I plan to use my faith to help regarding migration. And I plan to teach my friends and family everything.”

Until my next update and in memory of Pope Francis, I share his Easter message:

“Easter spurs us to action, to run like Mary Magdalene and the disciples; it invites us to have eyes that can ‘see beyond,’ to perceive Jesus, the one who lives, as the God who reveals himself and makes himself present even today, who speaks to us, goes before us, surprises us. Like Mary Magdalene, every day we can experience losing the Lord, but every day we can also run to look for him again with the certainty that he will allow himself to be found and will fill us with the light of His resurrection.”

I celebrate our new Pope Leo XIV.  He embodies hope and love. Thank you for walking with us in our mission journey.

With love and blessings,
Coralis

Please consider supporting my mission work at the U.S.-Mexico border with a donation through the link below.

I invite you to walk with me as a “COMPANION IN MISSION.” Companions in Mission are friends and generous donors who give financial gifts on a regular (usually monthly) basis. For more information, visit Become a Companion in Mission. Thank you so much for your generosity!