In this photo taken on Friday, May 5, 2023, Venezuelan migrant Genesis Rodriguez applies make up after waking up at the campsite outside Sacred Heart Church in downtown El Paso, Texas. As confusion explodes in El Paso, one of the busiest illegal crossings points for migrants seeking to flee poverty and political strife, faith leaders continue to provide shelter, legal advice and prayer.
“One knows that that this is but one part, that we’re halfway on our way,” said Tatiana Gamez, a Colombian mother who was released by immigration authorities to a small shelter run by the Catholic parish of St. Francis Xavier, just across from one of El Paso’s three international bridges. Gamez and more than half a dozen family members, including a pregnant niece and the niece’s 2-year-old daughter, decided to flee Colombia after being threatened over a piece of land they owned there.
Hearing that some migrants had slept out there for days under the constant threat of being kidnapped for ransom by Mexican cartels, and fearing a wave of rapid deportations starting Friday, they decided to slip through the hole and spent six days in detention before being released to the shelter.