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.

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.

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.