News | Live Stream | Video Library
Contact Us | Employment | Donate
June 30, 2026, Nogales, Arizona – For Elizabeth Guerrero, this past year has been one of learning. This May, she was one of seven women who learned more about the experience of immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.
As a Candidate with the Adrian Dominican Sisters, Elizabeth is completing her first year of formation. During this time, she has learned about the history of the Adrian Dominican Sisters and the Charism of the Dominican Order, improved her Spanish skills, ministered as a literacy tutor and a team member with Holy Family Parish’s food pantry, and come to know many of the Adrian Dominican Sisters.
The experience at the border was with Catholic Sisters Walking with Migrants, a program offered through the Kino Border Initiative (KBI) in Nogales, Arizona. Elizabeth was among seven women who participated in a week-long program in which, through various experiences, encounters, talks, and group discussions, they learned and experienced the plight of immigrants at the border.
Early during the program, Elizabeth noticed a contrast between the experiences of different people. In downtown Nogales on the Arizona side, people were enjoying a pre-Cinco de Mayo celebration. “In the U.S., it’s celebrated and kind of commercialized – a parade of queens and princesses, some food booths, [and a choir] singing traditional ballads in Spanish. “We walked two blocks down and there we saw the border. We saw the wall, 20 feet tall with wire around it and another barrier so you can’t even get close to the border. It was a strange juxtaposition to see the pre-Cinco de Mayo festival and, just around the corner, a horrible scar between the two cities.”
Throughout the program, Elizabeth continued to see the differences in experiences – particularly the plight of migrants struggling to find a new life in the United States. The group spent one of the first mornings on a hike in the desert that simulated the kind of walking that migrants had through the desert of the United States until they passed the check points patrolled by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“We walked through various parts of the desert – dried out river beds, through thorny brush and overhang of branches, and up to the top of hills that were rocky and had no cover whatsoever,” Elizabeth recalled. The journey could take five to seven days, and migrants frequently travel by night, often climbing a mountain without the help of a light to gauge where they are.
Many migrants don’t survive the trek through the desert, and their bodies – and often the items they left behind – are discovered by KBI staff members or others on search and rescue trips. Staff members call the authorities and, if they find any identification, KBI keeps it in their records in case a family member calls about them.
Elizabeth particularly resonated with a story she heard from a young husband who lost his wife in the desert. They were traveling with a group when his wife became dehydrated and could not go on, but the group had to continue. The husband was picked up by Border Patrol and he had to beg them to let him go back to his wife. By the time they finally allowed it, his wife was dead.
“That was a powerful experience of knowing that if I had been crossing, I would have been left behind long ago,” Elizabeth said. Because of recent knee surgery, she had trouble keeping up with the group. “The group slowed down for me or rested,” she said. “That was a powerful experience of knowing that if I had been crossing [as a migrant], I would have been left behind a long time ago.”
Participants also had several opportunities to prepare and serve meals to migrants staying up to 20 days at the Kino Center in Nogales, Mexico, a shelter for migrants. The center offers “holistic, wrap-around services,” including an attorney who can work with them on their case and another who helps them navigate the U.S. and Mexican immigration systems, as well as a teacher who can work with the children, Elizabeth said.
“What we learned from Kino is before this current administration [in the United States], the facilities were full and the Kino Center was serving 300 people every day,” Elizabeth said. “Now maybe 20 people are coming. The flow is going South now because people are trying to self-deport …. Even if you’re trying to leave the country, they could arrest you and put you in detention.”
Participants also heard from Judge Eric Markovich who hears about 50 cases in the morning in his Special Proceedings Courtroom in Federal District Court in Tucson, Arizona. Many have been in detention centers, and the judge often sentences them to time already served.
Elizabeth learned that the migrants are given 20 days to decide if they will pay a fine to stay in the United States or if they will accept a bus ticket to return to the country they came from. She noted that some people have decided to stay in Mexico, possibly until a new U.S. administration takes office.
Elizabeth, a third-generation U.S. citizen of Mexican descent, said the stories she heard during the experience reminded her of people she ministered with – people who were trying to rebuild their lives in the United States but were deported. The stories she heard “led to a realization for me,” she said. “The stories she heard “made me reflect on how much I take for granted because I was born in the United States … I started to see family members in the faces I was looking at.”
Caption for above feature photo: Serving lunch to the migrants at the Kino Center in Nogales, Mexico, are, from left, Elizabeth Guerrero, a Candidate with the Adrian Dominican Sisters; Sister Theresa “Terri” Ann Schell, OP, a Dominican Sister of Peace; and Gregoria Bueno-Rodriguez, a sister who is transferring to the Dominican Sisters of Peace.
January 18, 2023, El Paso, Texas – From late November to mid-December – during the time that many people consider to be the “holiday season” – three Adrian Dominican Sisters were among other Catholic Sisters and lay volunteers who served in ministry to asylum seekers crossing into the U.S. at the Texas-Mexico border.
The Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Catherine of Siena Mission Chapter, encompassing Sisters and Associates predominantly outside of Adrian, Michigan, invited Sisters to serve for at least a week at the border. Three Sisters served at St. Ignatius Parish in El Paso, Texas, which had set up its parish hall and school – now closed – as a clearing house for immigrants seeking asylum in the United States. The immigrants are bused to the center by Border Patrol personnel.
Sister Mary Soher, OP, explained that St. Ignatius began receiving refugees about eight months ago, originally only on Mondays – until the number of refugees coming to El Paso increased in June and July. “They went from once a week to three times a week,” she said. The parish’s philosophy is to turn no one away.
Typically, the parish accepts immigrants coming from detention on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays; offers them clothing, food, and whatever else they might need; helps them to make travel arrangements – usually by plane or bus – to the home of their sponsors; and provides transportation to the airport or bus station.
“The object of St. Ignatius and the immigrants they [welcome] is to turn them over as quickly as possible and get them to their destination” where they can stay until their court date for seeking asylum, explained Sister Janet Stankowski, OP. While the court date is originally set in El Paso, where they were received, most asylum seekers can arrange to go to a court that’s near where they will be staying.
Sister Janet served at St. Ignatius during Thanksgiving week – a unique experience because of the holiday. “We had a huge load of people – 180 on Monday and 150 on Tuesday – and by Wednesday of Thanksgiving week, maybe there were 25 to 30 who weren’t able to move on,” she said. Many stayed for two or three days waiting for transportation.
Sister Janet recalled giving the remaining immigrants a special experience of U.S. Thanksgiving: Mass in Spanish and then a walk to nearby Sacred Heart Church in downtown El Paso, which offered Thanksgiving meals to about 750 people who are homeless and immigrants. She spent Friday working with an immigrant family to wash 10 loads of sheets and towels and transporting people to the airport or bus stations.
Sister Nancy Jurecki, OP, served at St. Ignatius December 4-10, 2022, finding it to be a “really positive experience.” She was particularly surprised by the many places that the immigrants came from: Central America, South America, Turkey, and Russia.
“The center itself is like a day center and a couple of buses come in, and it’s a matter of feeding the people and connecting them to wherever it is that they’re going,” Sister Nancy explained. “The dignity that they give people is heart-warming. It’s a welcome center in the truest sense of the word.”
She spent the mornings of the immigrants’ arrival in food preparation, offering them a hot meal, and afternoons transporting them to the airport or bus station. On days when the immigrants don’t arrive, she said, volunteers sorted donations of clothing.
Sister Nancy noted the fast pace of volunteer work at St. Ignatius. “You don’t get to know a lot of people on a really personal level because it’s so fast, but there are opportunities.” Volunteers who know Spanish have multiple opportunities to get to know the people, however. “They can listen to the stories and understand them.”
Sister Mary, who served December 11-20, 2022, was especially surprised at the state of the immigrants who arrived at St. Ignatius. They would get off the bus wearing shoes with no shoelaces, sweatpants, and T-shirts. “That was every person, regardless of their age,” she explained. “You knew automatically that they were refugees if that’s all the clothing they had.”
St. Ignatius offered them clothing – including heavier shirts and jackets to people going to colder states and sweaters for those staying in warmer climates, Sister Mary explained. Immigrants who had money were encouraged to go to one of the hotels working with St. Ignatius, where they could take a shower.
Sister Mary noted a particular challenge for immigrants seeking transportation during the Christmas season: the cost. “The price of tickets kept going up, up, up,” she said. “Somebody wanted a plane to New Jersey. One ticket was $500.” She added that planes and buses were both full during the Christmas season. But, she added, the immigrants “made it this far and the amazing thing was people’s ability to get where they were going.”
All three Sisters were impressed and inspired by the parishioners of St. Ignatius and the other volunteers – and moved by the plight of the immigrants and their strength, courage, and resiliency.
“What I learned is that people came with nothing,” Sister Janet said. “They got off those buses with a little Ziploc bag with their passport, money, and paperwork – that’s it.” Still, she said, they did bring their families and their faith, as well as a “determination that they could survive and maybe even thrive.”
Sister Mary saw predominantly young immigrants – often young families with small children. She was amazed at the ability of the parents to come to the United States with their young children and navigate the system. “I didn’t ask a lot of questions,” she said. “You just want to make them feel welcome and safe for whatever they want to go to next.”
Sister Janet added: “I admired tremendously the priest at St. Ignatius, who lived the Gospel, lived the words of Pope Francis. He exemplified what Pope Francis said about welcoming the immigrants. He was welcoming the stranger and trying to integrate them into new life. He set the pace, but the volunteers who worked tirelessly, they put me to shame.”
St. Ignatius is located in the poorest diocese of the whole state of Texas, Sister Nancy said, adding that parishioners have taken on the projects themselves. “It costs about $5,000 a month to feed the people.” But, she added, the program is also supported by Bishop Mark J. Seitz. “He said we need to open people’s eyes to the fact that this is not a criminal activity,” she said. “This is very legal and it’s the kind thing to do – it’s really Gospel driven.”
Sister Nancy encouraged others who have the opportunity to get involved in this ministry. But, she added, “there’s no way to prepare for it. It’s just a matter of an open mind and an open heart. It’s clearly a broadening experience. You’re not the same [afterwards].”
Feature photo: Immigrants leave a Border Patrol bus and line up for services at St. Ignatius Church in El Paso, Texas.