Casa alitas migrant shelter
Volunteering With Asylum Seekers In Tucson, AZ
by Malia Becker
Introduction
In the summer of 2019, I interned at the Casa Alitas Migrant Shelter following a semester of study away in Tucson, AZ with the Earlham College Border Studies Program learning about immigration and the U.S./Mexico border region.
Casa Alitas is a non-profit organization run by Catholic Community Services and based in Tucson, Arizona that aids asylum seekers after they are released from ICE and Border Patrol custody. Casa Alitas provides these families with temporary housing and assistance in arranging travel plans--usually by Greyhound bus--to their U.S. sponsor where they will reside while fighting their asylum case.
Final Destinations for Asylum Seekers
Destinations for 7,512 migrants who passed through Casa Alitas Oct. 16 2018 - April 22, 2019
Source: Jordan, M. (2019, May 26). 1,600 Miles, 85 Hours: A Migrant Family Takes a Greyhound Across America. The New York Times.
Most asylum seekers arriving at Casa Alitas are parents, children, and pregnant women from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Brazil. Most have traveled from their homes, through Mexico, to reach Arizona, a journey of several days to weeks. In Arizona, Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) provide asylum seekers with documentation and orders to report to an immigration hearing.
Once all the processing is complete, ICE or Border Patrol drops the families off at the Casa Alitas shelter. The number of families arriving each day varies from day-to-day, week-to-week, and month-to-month as policies change, seasons shift, and other unknown factors influence the flow. While I was interning with Casa Alitas, we expected between 50 and 100 asylum seekers to arrive each day; however, Casa Alitas has received as many as 240 travelers in a single day.
Today, in April 2020, Casa Alitas is empty and has not received any families in over two weeks due to residual effects of strict Migrant Protection Protocol measures (also known as the Remain in Mexico policy), "safe third country" policies, and, most recently, port of entry restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
My internship
When I first began my internship, I floated around and did odd jobs to learn more about the different departments within Casa Alitas. There is a clothing room where each guest can pick out two new outfits; a kitchen providing three meals a day; an intake room where newly arrived guests are processed; a transportation room where volunteers assist families with making phone calls to their sponsors to purchase their bus tickets; and a travel bag room where volunteers put together sandwiches, snacks, blankets, and other necessities for the families' long Greyhound bus journeys.
After that first week of moving around, I mostly helped in the transportation room. It's a job that includes a lot of direct interaction with the guests and a great deal of speaking Spanish (in-person and over the phone). I worked with families on travel plans, spoke with sponsors about buying bus and plane tickets, and coordinated volunteers to drive families to the Greyhound bus station and airport. In my first few weeks, I worked with my supervisor and another intern to create and implement a new organizational spreadsheet system in the transportation room. I also created and led a formalized training for all the volunteers working in the transportation room to familiarize them with the new system.
Casa Alitas Move
I learned a lot about the successes and faults of working for a nonprofit while interning with Casa Alitas. One major limitation nonprofits face is how they are financed whether through grants or donations. Unfortunately, I witnessed firsthand how much this can impact a nonprofit’s ability to carry out its work.
Starting in October 2018, Casa Alitas resided in a large monastery. The building was on loan from a local developer who allowed Casa Alitas to run a shelter within its walls before his plans for the construction of new apartment buildings started in earnest. His development plans began in early August 2019, so Casa Alitas had a hard deadline of leaving the monastery by July 31st. The director of Casa Alitas (and the Catholic Community Services board of directors) spent months looking for a new space, and at the beginning of July they announced that Casa Alitas would be moving to an empty wing of the still-operating Pima County Juvenile Detention Center.
The news that this shelter, described by a recent guest as an "oasis in the desert," would be moving to a detention facility was jarring, especially considering the calming effect the monastery building typically had on arriving asylum seekers. I had numerous conversations with my supervisors, and regardless of their excited plans for murals, couches, and potted plants, I just could not get on board with the idea. In the end, Casa Alitas moved to a detention facility. No colorful paint job can hide that fact. The old location had high ceilings, wide hallways, bedrooms with windows, and an outdoor garden where children rode bikes and played soccer under their parents' supervision. In the new location, the "outdoor" spaces are walled in and the windows that do exist are high up, almost out of eyesight.
The move was assisted by county officials who were able to offer the center for only $100 a year. I think this, more than anything else, is what attracted Casa Alitas to this proposal. When it comes to hard decisions, money and the ability to continue operating will frequently be a deciding factor for nonprofit organizations.
Malia Becker
My name is Malia Becker, and I am a senior at Macalester College studying Geography and Community and Global Health. While at Mac, I worked at our Health and Wellness Center as part of the Health Promotion student staff, developing new programs to promote safe sex, health, and well-being on campus. I grew up in Corvallis, OR, and after graduation I hope to return to the west coast to pursue a career that combines my interests in public health, immigrant rights, and geography.