Restoring human dignity at the US southern border

After seeing the conditions in which children were held at a detention center on the US-Mexico border, Sister Norma Pimentel established a humanitarian respite center in Texas where people can get clean clothing, a warm shower and a hot meal. In this powerful talk, Sister Pimentel discusses her lifelong work restoring human dignity at the border -- and calls on us all to put aside prejudice and lead with compassion.

I'm here to honor the sacredness of life

that I see at the border in south Texas.

In 2014,

I visited a detention facility

where hundreds of little children,

immigrant children,

were detained for several weeks

in conditions that were
very heartbreaking.

They were dirty and muddy

and crying.

Their faces were full of tears.

I had the opportunity to go in
and be with them.

And they were all around me.

They were little ones,

some of them not older
than five years old.

And they were saying to me,

(Spanish) "Sácame de aquí."

"Get me out of here."

(Spanish) "Por favor, ayúdame."

"Please, help me."

It was so difficult to be there with them.

I started to cry with them,

and I told them,

"Let us pray."

(Spanish) "Vamos a rezar."

And they repeated after me,

(Spanish) "Diosito, ayúdanos."

"God, please, help us."

As we prayed, I could see
the Border Patrol officers

looking through a glass window.

They were at the verge of tears.

As they heard the children
praying and witness.

I had a little boy
get close to me, closer,

because they were all over,

we could barely fit in that little cell.

And this little boy tells me,

(Spanish) "Ayúdame.

Quiero irme con mi mamá."

"Please, help me.

I want to be with my mother.

She is here, I was separated from her."

I said to him,

"Mijo, if your mom is here,

I'm certain you will be reunited."

When I walked out of the cell,

an officer got close to me and said to me,

"Sister, thank you.

You have helped us realize

that they are human beings."

You know, sometimes,
no matter what job we have,

we must never forget to recognize

the humanity in others.

Otherwise, we will lose our own humanity.

Let me tell you a bit
about what I see and what I do

in the southern border
of the United States

where I live and where I work.

Hundreds of families
enter the United States

by crossing the Rio Grande river.

And once they are in the United States,

many of them are given permission

to continue their process of immigration

at another point in the United States.

What has amazed me for all these years

has been the amazing humanitarian response

of the community there in south Texas.

Thousands of volunteers

have given of their time so generously.

For me, they're all amazing people.

And the whole community,

city government,

from local business leaders

to civic organizations,

all faith communities,

in the Border Patrol and ICE.

We have all come together
in an effort to help

150,000 or more immigrants
since that first day that we got started.

Back in those first days

when we were first involved
in helping the immigrants,

we were at our respite center,

and an officer from the city walks in

and tells me,

"Sister, what are you doing here?"

I turned and looked
to see what was happening

at the respite center.

I was amazed at what I was seeing.

There were hundreds of volunteers

helping so many families there
that needed help.

Giving them ways to get cleaned up

and to get clean clothing, food,

hygiene items.

Just love and compassion
was seen everywhere.

So I turned back and I responded
to him and I said,

"Restoring human dignity.

That's what we're doing."

I don't think he expected
that answer from me,

because he took a step back

and then approached me again and said,

"Sister, if I had a magic wand,

what would that magic wand do for you?"

"Showers?"

Sure enough, that evening
we had a mobile unit of eight showers.

Amazing.

And after that,

we had 100 percent support
of the city government.

We were there,

wanting to make sure that we were helping

and be successful with our response

to so many families that we were seeing

every single day.

I think that we must help others see

what we see.

I think it's important

that we can share that with others.

You probably heard this idea before --

that we must always see
God's children as equal.

But in order to do that,

I think it's important
to be able to see them

as people.

To be able to have a personal encounter,

when we can feel what they feel,

when we can understand
what they're hurting.

To really meet up with them.

It is then that we are present to them

and we can make their humanity

a part of our own humanity.

And we'd recognize

that we are all part
of the same human family.

During those days,

I had a lady approach me and tell me,

"Sister, I am 100 percent
against what you do,

helping these illegal aliens."

And I said to her,

"Let me tell you what I do and why."

So I shared with her and introduced her
to the families and the children,

shared the stories that they are living.

When I finished talking with her,

she turns and looks at me and says,

"Sister, I am 100 percent
in favor of what you do."

(Laughter and applause)

That evening, her husband calls me,

he tells me,

"Sister, I don't know
what you did to my wife.

But this evening
she came home and she said,

'If Sister Norma ever calls you,

you make sure you do what she tells you.'

So I'm just reporting to let you know
I'm here to help in any way."

Well, you know ...

I'm thinking that --

was it a personal encounter that she had?

I think it's a nice idea, a nice message,

but I don't think it's the whole story.

In that encounter, we must put aside
our prejudice that we have toward others,

that separate us
and don't allow us to see them,

our walls that we put up in our own heart

that keep us separated from others.

When we are able to do that,

we're able to reach out to them.

You know, I think what
doesn't make it possible is fear --

that we're afraid.

And because we're afraid --

more than likely it's because
we've seen in the media

all this negative rhetoric
that we hear about immigrants,

they are demonized,
like they're not human,

that we can discard them

and we can get rid of them,

and not even feel bad
that we're doing that.

Immigrant families are not criminals.

Immigrant families are like our families,

like our neighbors.

They're good people

who are entering our country
and coming to the United States

only simply because they're fleeing
away from violence

and they want to be safe.

Unfortunately, what we see at the border

is terrible.

People are hurting and suffering.

Thousands of them are.

And mostly I feel

it's because of those walls
that we put up,

that we have in our hearts,

that makes us not care.

So we have policies

that are returning people back to Mexico,

so they can wait.

And they wait there for months.

In conditions that are horrible,

where people are suffering and hurting.

Abuses.

And not even the means to be OK.

I think that it is true

that we must keep our country safe,

that we must make sure
who enters our country,

that criminals should be put away.

But it is also true

that we must not lose
our humanity in doing this.

That we must have policies and procedures

that do not contribute
to the human suffering

that people are already suffering.

And that we can find solutions
that are respectful to all human life.

We can do this,

if we can allow the best
in us to come out.

Because what I see at the border

are families, men, who will take a child

and will try to comfort
that child that is crying

because that child is crying
for their own dad.

And these men are crying with that child.

I see men and women
who drop to their knees,

praying.

As they pray in thanksgiving.

I see children who have been separated
from their parents for months.

And when they're reunited,

they're afraid to separate
themselves from them,

because they're afraid
they will lose their mom again.

Once a child looked up to me
after she was reunited

and she said to me,

(Spanish) "Hoy no voy a llorar."

"Today I'm not going to cry."

And I said, (Spanish) "Por qué, mi hija?"

She said, "Because I have been crying
for the past whole month,

because I didn't know where my mother was.

But tonight, I'm going to be with her."

The day I visited the detention
facility back in 2014,

there was a little boy
who approached me and asked me

for me to help him find his mom.

Well, that evening, when I was
at the humanitarian respite center,

the little boy walked in with his mother.

And as soon as he spotted me,

he runs toward me, I go down to greet him,

and he just throws himself to hug me.

It was so beautiful,

that was truly
a beautiful human encounter.

I think it's humanity at its best.

It is what we all are called to do.

Think about it.

We just need to allow ourselves
to get close enough to see,

and we will care.

Thank you.

(Applause)