The following statement was submitted by Roya Salehi, Chairwoman, Grannies Respond/Abuelas Responden.
It’s been less than a year since the Trump administration began separating families looking for asylum at our southern borders. I remember too well the first images I saw on TV last summer of terrified children and parents being pulled apart, and the sounds of babies wailing. It was these images and sounds that propelled me, and a group of other horrified citizens, to quickly form a caravan to drive from our homes in the Northeast to the border town of McAllen, Texas, where we witnessed, firsthand, the inhumanity of Trump’s policies.
We called ourselves Grannies Respond/Abuelas Responden, and what we saw on our journey changed us forever.
In McAllen, we learned that asylum seekers who are allowed to stay in the country need help on their journeys, often by bus, to the homes of families and sponsors across the country. Many of these folks are sent off with nothing more than a bus ticket and the clothes they are wearing. They don’t have money, they don’t have supplies, and many don’t speak English.
What we learned made us angry and upset, and we vowed to channel our rage toward helping those who need it most. So we began to organize again, and developed the Grannies Respond Overground Railroad Project: Our volunteers go to bus stations every day in cities across the country to greet asylum seekers and to provide them with the basic necessities they need to get them to their next stops. What started in just one bus station, in one city, has grown to include more than eight cities, and we are expanding to others.
To further our work, we recently formed a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, with the mission to provide compassionate and respectful support to immigrants seeking safety and security in the United States.
In addition to the Overground Railroad, we send volunteers to the border to support efforts there, and we help with resettlement work, to assist asylum seekers as they establish roots in their new homes.
We hope you will join us; we can use all the help we can get.
We called ourselves Grannies Respond/Abuelas Responden, and what we saw on our journey changed us forever.
In McAllen, we learned that asylum seekers who are allowed to stay in the country need help on their journeys, often by bus, to the homes of families and sponsors across the country. Many of these folks are sent off with nothing more than a bus ticket and the clothes they are wearing. They don’t have money, they don’t have supplies, and many don’t speak English.
What we learned made us angry and upset, and we vowed to channel our rage toward helping those who need it most. So we began to organize again, and developed the Grannies Respond Overground Railroad Project: Our volunteers go to bus stations every day in cities across the country to greet asylum seekers and to provide them with the basic necessities they need to get them to their next stops. What started in just one bus station, in one city, has grown to include more than eight cities, and we are expanding to others.
To further our work, we recently formed a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, with the mission to provide compassionate and respectful support to immigrants seeking safety and security in the United States.
In addition to the Overground Railroad, we send volunteers to the border to support efforts there, and we help with resettlement work, to assist asylum seekers as they establish roots in their new homes.
We hope you will join us; we can use all the help we can get.
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