Honduran delegation visits McAllen, TX to discuss immigrant influx

A delegation from Honduras — including a mayor, a governor and a representative from the country’s embassy in Washington — began a three-day visit to McAllen, TX with a stop at the consulate Wednesday morning.

Speakers thanked the Valley community for the care and resources they gave — at Sacred Heart and other places — in response to the surge of immigrants from Central America over the summer.

“We are here to thank for the treatment McAllen gave to the immigrants that came from Honduras, and also to look for a sisterhood with the city of McAllen and the city of Gracias,” said Javier Enamorado, that city’s mayor, in Spanish.

City Manager Roy Rodriguez said he told the delegation, during an afternoon meeting, the city was just doing its job.

The delegation also offered praise to Esperanza Chandler, a Mission woman who volunteered at Sacred Heart and then travelled to Gracias, Honduras, with the Austin-based humanitarian nonprofit Medical, Eye, and Dental International Care Organization, or MEDICO.

There, she met with First Lady Ana Garcia de Hernandez, and they worked on a plan to build a center to help Honduran children and families who might otherwise look to migrate to the United States.

“We want the Hondurans to dream about Honduras,” Enamorado said.

Chandler plans to move to Gracias for the next year to work with other nongovernmental organizations to help the center get off the ground, she said. The center will provide education, temporary shelter, help with job placement and other support for children and their families who’ve recently returned to the country after being deported from the U.S., as well as those who might be likely to try the journey in the near future.

McAllen made national headlines for weeks this summer as tens of thousands of immigrants from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador — many of them children — flooded the city and the surrounding area and turned themselves in to authorities. The influx overwhelmed the federal immigration system locally, causing what President Barack Obama and others deemed a “humanitarian crisis.” Sacred Heart became a center and a symbol of the volunteer effort to aid that crisis.

Sister Norma Pimentel, the executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley and the public face of the efforts at Sacred Heart, praised the visit from Honduran officials.

“I think it’s hopeful,” Pimentel said. “It’s very good that they’re interested in working with us and supporting the efforts to make sure that the families find solutions in their countries.”

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