Illuminated by candlelight, the two 9-year-old parishioners dressed as Mary and Joseph led a posada procession that started at Our Lady of Guadalupe parish in Logan Heights.
The Christmas tradition commemorates the journey seeking lodging for baby Jesus to be born. But in a twist on the long-performed ritual, this Mary and Joseph asked for refuge not from the parish itself, but from a group of fellow migrants — those who had recently-arrived to the U.S. and have been staying at the church’s temporary shelter.
“It’s a special posada because we are really trying to connect with people who still seek shelter,” Fr. Scott Santarosa, pastor at Our Lady of Guadalupe parish, said of Wednesday’s reenactment.
Months ago, a local human rights advocate advised Santarosa to be prepared, as migrant arrivals in San Diego County began to dramatically increase. Some migrants were likely to seek refuge in churches once they were processed by Border Patrol and released onto the streets of San Diego.
The forewarning gave him hope, he said, “that people still seek refuge in a church, the church is still associated with a safe place to go (where) they will take care of me and receive me,” he said.
And so they did. Migrants began to arrive at the front door of the church asking for shelter, Santarosa recalled. At first there was no space to receive them, but given the increasing need, he knew they had to do something.
The church set up a hall nearby normally used for parish meetings, and from October to date, it has served as a temporary shelter for up to 35 migrant men at a time, who have been processed by Border Patrol but have no family or sponsor in the United States. In some cases, migrants start out with sponsors who later change their minds or do not return calls, leaving migrants with nowhere to go once they cross into the U.S.
“We can’t receive everybody, but we’re doing our best,” Santarosa said.
As of Wednesday, county officials said roughly 60,000 migrants had arrived in the county. Vulnerable groups, such as women and children, normally receive priority in other shelters, leaving a void for men, especially those traveling alone.
The vast majority of the migrants only stay in the region for a few days while they make travel arrangements to their final destinations.
But Our Lady of Guadalupe wanted to focus its efforts on those who choose to stay in San Diego. “Our mission is to help them with their mission, and their mission is to try to get on their feet here,” Santarosa said.
The shelter only opens at night. Every morning, migrants get up early, clean up, eat breakfast and go out to look for a more permanent place to stay.
That has been Marlon Chourio’s routine since he arrived in San Diego a week ago. Chourio, a Venezuelan asylum seeker, got into the U.S. through the San Ysidro PedWest Port of Entry after waiting four months in Mexico City for his appointment through the CBP One system. The smartphone app is the only way migrants are able to secure appointments to request an asylum screening at ports of entry. Unable to use the app or to snare the limited appointments, many migrants are choosing instead to cross the border without authorization.
Chourio, 39, said he fled Venezuela’s dictatorship. He first migrated with his family to Colombia, where he lived for eight years. But six months ago he embarked on a seven-country trek to get to the U.S. border.
When he was released in San Diego he had nowhere to go, and a friend told him about the church’s shelter. Since then, Chourio, who was a welder in Venezuela, has been looking for a job.
Chourio, who was one of the migrants who participated in the posada, said he was grateful to both the parish and the community.
Santarosa said that the shelter has been sustained by the “generosity of parishioners and other people who have heard the word.” Parishioners, many of them immigrants, have also donated other supplies, including mattresses.
Other Catholic churches such as Our Lady of Guadalupe in Chula Vista have also opened a shelter for up to 20 migrants per night in response to such need. Catholic Charities also runs a temporary shelter for up to 550 people, a spokesperson with the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego said.
San Diego County has allocated a total of $6 million to assist migrants, many of them asylum seekers, who have already been processed by Border Patrol and released into the region. Local non-profit organizations and religious groups have also stepped up to provide aid.
The parallels of Mary and Joseph as migrants seeking refuge to today’s migrants make posada celebrations especially poignant each year in the San Diego-Tijuana region. Local groups also hold an annual event that takes place on both sides of the border, called Posadas Sin Fronteras, or Posadas Without Borders.
Parishioners explained that this year’s Logan Heights posada was about walking with “our migrant brothers and sisters,” while also remembering that “we are migrants, too.”
“Don’t despair and keep giving it your all,” said volunteer Maria Huerta to migrants. “You are going to reach your destination, and here you are passing through a community that is very generous.”