Only migrants who test negative for the coronavirus are admitted to the Catholic Charities shelter, she said, while those who test positive are quarantined in hotels or other sites identified by local government officials. Sister Pimentel said in her declaration that all migrants are tested when they are released at agreed-upon locations by federal agents. “Indeed, it is Catholic Charities’ God-given task to give - to give water, to give food, to give shelter from the sun, to give medical treatment, and, at a fundamental level, to give respect for migrants’ common human dignity,” the brief said.Ībbott’s order preventing transportation of migrants does the opposite of his intent to limit the spread of the coronavirus, the brief continued, because mothers and children would be released in border communities “without the COVID testing and transportation to quarantine locations that Catholic Charities provides.” “Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley seeks merely to ‘give a cup of water in Jesus’ name,’ and to provide other services to migrants who arrive at Catholic Charities’ Humanitarian Respite Center, often just after experiencing harrowing trauma,” it continued. “…it is Catholic Charities’ God-given task to give - to give water, to give food, to give shelter from the sun, to give medical treatment, and, at a fundamental level, to give respect for migrants’ common human dignity…” Click to tweet “Migrants released into this country by Border Patrol have real human needs that ought to be met precisely because they are human beings,” it said. The Becket brief said that Abbott’s “ill-conceived” order would lead to widespread suffering among migrants. Sister Pimentel said July 29 that while it’s true that one of the families that her agency was helping “decided to go out of the (hotel) room and go buy a hamburger,” it was an isolated incident and did not mean that all migrants do so. 13 court hearing.Ībbott issued the executive order July 28 after authorities reportedly discovered a migrant family, being aided by the local Catholic Charities agency, at a fast-food restaurant without masks even thought they were supposed to be in quarantine at a hotel after testing positive for COVID-19. The move halted enforcement at least until the Aug. Judge Kathleen Cardone temporarily blocked Abbott’s order Aug. Greg Abbott seeking to block enforcement of his executive order that prohibits the transportation of migrants by anyone other than local or federal authorities. District Court for the Western District of Texas was to hear arguments in a case filed by the U.S. 12 filing came a day before a judge in the U.S. Sister Pimentel oversees the Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, Texas, which provides basic essential services to migrants who have been processed and released by U.S. The declaration by Sister Pimentel, a member of the Missionaries of Jesus, was included with an amicus, or friend of the court, brief filed by Becket, a religious liberty law firm, on behalf of the agency. Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley in the Brownsville Diocese, said in a declaration to the court that the agency is responding to Catholic Church teaching of upholding the dignity of the human person in serving the migrants, largely mothers and children. A Catholic Charities official in southern Texas who oversees outreach to hundreds of migrant families entering the United States daily has asked a federal court to allow the agency to continue its mission of serving vulnerable people.
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